If you doubt the importance and power of a man establishing one home, preferably in the area he was born and brought up, that becomes his Shrine, then you should look at H.E. Mzee Mwai Kibaki’s final journey ….
We all know that Mzee was more of a city man than a villager, preferring the city most of his life …. Mzee was more of a Muthaiga man than a Othaya one ….
Yet, after it all, Mzee’s remains were interred, not at Muthaiga where he is a respected and celebrated resident, or at the 400M Mweiga, Nyeri retirement home GoK gifted him, or at one of the several expansive ranches he owned …..Maybe Mzee might even have had other homes we don’t know, for example, perhaps a holiday one at the Coast ….
Mzee was laid to rest at his Karima, Othaya home, which is by all standards his ancestral locality; where he was born and brought up …. The Othaya home is Mzee’s Shrine by all means …. He built it many years ago ….
In a nutshell, as you can see, the Shrine concept never loses taste … Like it or not, after you have hopped all over the world, you will eventually go back to the basics; where you began ….
And Kibaki is not alone … It happens every time …. Africa’s most celebrated Statesman Nelson Mandela, after all the globe~trotting, was eventually buried at Qunu, a Xhosa rural village in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, where the Icon of Freedom was born and brought up ….
So dear brothers, as you toast to a 21 years Whiskey with mayeng’ at Loft, Quiver, Greenspot or Whiskey River, weka pesa kidogo kando and purpose to do a Shrine …. You must not necessarily have to inherit the land … You can buy yours ….
I know there is that popular argument among my peers who pretend to be so exposed you will be forgiven to imagine they invented exposure, that you don’t need to set the up a Shrine because you will only sleep in that place very few times in a year ….
Well …. Don’t listen to that hogwash …. Before anyone makes that argument to you, first ask them whether their so called exposure is even 1/8 of what Kibaki or Mandela had ….
By Alvan KINYUA #RandomChronicles
