The name is absent

the oathing process is all embedded into the larger constructs of African morality,
values, and order.³⁵

Interestingly, despite the nuances and differences, all of the authors and
interview accounts commonly show the power and destructive nature of the
kithitu^3e and the impact it can have on the guilty, the family of the guilty and on
those that make accidental contact with the object. In all reports, the guilty are
expected to die often within a month to a year, while the innocent are rewarded
with continued life. However, one of the best means for understanding the pre-
colonial Kenya oath is to see how it was applied to the very urgent and deadly
Mau Mau situation in Kenya for this was a moment in Kenyan history that
required Africans to tap into their pre-colonial oathing rites to create a modified
oath to secure and invoke African power.

A Sophisticated and Elaborate Oath: The Mau Mau Oath 1952-1960

On May 5, 1960, Government Commissioner Frank D. Corfield provided
his detailed Mau Mau report to the British Colonial Administration called,
Historical Survey of the Origins and Growth of the Mau Mau, with the objective of
understanding how the Mau Mau movement was able to rapidly develop without
colonial government knowledge.³⁷ This document attempts to cover the activities
that led to and assisted in the development of Mau Mau. Naturally, this treatment
includes his analysis of the Mau Mau oath. Corfield describes the Mau Mau oath
as, “an oath which, by combing magical forms with unheard of bestialities, has

³⁵ Ueda, “Kithitu amoung the Kamba”.

³⁶ Also called the kithito or kipitu

³⁷ Corfield, Historical Survey, 1.

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