Rehabilitation of Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga shrine is one of the investments the County Government of Murang’a is targeting to implement as the County eyes for more revenue through tourism.
The shrine located in Gaturi Ward and believed to be the origin of the Agikuyu community, have remained neglected and in deplorable state.
Some years back, the shrine used to host many traditional activities, including sacrifices, prayers and crowning elders, but currently the structures are wearing out.
Local residents claim that without many activities taking place in the shrine, they have lacked chances to sell their farm produce since visitors used to promote them, when they toured the shrine.
“Some years back, especially in the 1980s and 90s the shrine used to be a beehive of activities with elders from the region holding prayers and other cultural rituals here, however, today things are different,” Observed one of the local residents, Mary Wanjiku.
She continued, “When the tourists and also locals used to visit the shrine for various activities, we used to get markets for our farm produce.”
Wanjiku supported the idea to rehabilitate the shrine, saying this will attract both local and international tourists.
Her words were echoed by Peter Kamau, who observed that proper management of the shrine would have helped in preservation of the cultural practices in the community.
He, however, noted that the future generations may have no cultural centre to learn from if no action is taken to preserve the shrine.
“Young generation, especially students, used to come here to learn about the origin of the Agikuyu community and their practices, but that is long gone,” he remarked.
Kamau added that the shrine was very popular with some foreigners used to visit for prayers and others to learn about the Kikuyu culture.
Back in the late 1980s, the defunct Murang’a Municipal Council, embarked to put a multimillion-shilling building at the shrine to host a hotel, a museum and a theater; the construction was halted after elders said the move would make the shrine unclean.
As the County Government holds the 1st Murang’a Investment Conference, the Shrine is listed as one of the opportunities for investment that can help promote local and international tourism and help boost the economic growth in the area.
The County Executive Committee Member for Culture and Tourism, Manoah Gachucha, has underscored the move to rehabilitate the shrine, saying it will give the centre a new look thus making it a tourist site.
Gachucha said there is a proposal to invite investors who can help set-up a cultural center that will also serve as a learning center for the future generations.
“Just like we have the Muslims going to Mecca and Christians going to Israel, we want the same for the shrine”
He said currently the shrine looks abandoned, there is no maintenance and some of the structures are almost collapsing.
However, a section of elders is opposing the proposal to rehabilitate the shrine, saying they were not consulted when the County Government was making such a decision.
Led by the chairman Kiama Kia Ma, Mwangi Njuguna, said they won’t give-up their shrine which they use for worship and offering sacrifices to any investor.
Instead, Njuguna said the County should make this, strictly a cultural learning center and museum, for keeping the traditional artifacts.
“There was no public participation on the matter and as the elders were not consulted, we came to learn about the proposal through the media,” said Njuguna.
“We don’t want any development that will defile this shrine because it’s a holy place and it should be protected,” he added.
In a rejoinder, Gachucha noted that there is no intent to defile the shrine, but the idea is to have the shrine rehabilitated and upgraded for the benefit of all Murang’a residents and the Agikuyu community.
He stated that the County Government will link-up investors with the elders for the two parties to agree on how the shrine can be renovated and make it more beneficial.
“There will be no development that will be undertaken until the elders who are the custodians of the shrine agree with the developer,” he assured.
By Bernard Munyao
