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2. Mutira Anglican Mission (1912-2012)
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Mutira Anglican Mission (1912-2012) CHAPTER TWO Mutira Anglican Mission (1912-2012) Introduction T he opening up of Mutira Anglican Missionary Centre in 19111912 did not come in isolation. As a matter of fact, the neighbouringCentreshadalreadybeenoperationalinasearlyas 1900. That is, Kabete in 1900, Weithaga in 1904, Kahuhia in 1906, Tumu Tumu 1906 (later taken over by Presbyterians). and Mutira was set to start after Tumu Tumu in 1907-1908. When the Weithaga missionariesunderRev.A.W.McGregorplannedtoopenanout-station and hence build a church at Kithuguya near Sagana in 1907, they met Chief Njega wa Gioko of the Ndia sub-group of the Kikuyu Nation. After careful and lengthy discussions, Njega accepted to allow the establishment of a mission centre within his chiefdom; and in turn, he advised them to go and establish their mission station at Mutira, in the landoftheAgacikuclanofIthimbwifamily,asheconsideredKithuguya area warm and suitable place for grazing.1 Subsequently, he sent McGregor’s team to his assistant Chief, Ndegwa wa Kimere, to allow themsettleatthehillofMutira,whichhecalledgacumbiriraorNjumbi. Njega by then wanted to expose the missionaries to the dangers of the wild animals such as Hyenas since Mutira was at the slopes of Mt. Kenya (then called Kirinyaga). In the year 1908, an European missionary named McGregor came to Mutira (Njumbi) from Mbiri District (later Fort Hall and currently called Murang’a) accompanied _______________________________ 1 Joseph Karimi, Njega Gioko The Ndia Pride (Karatina: Gakaara Press, 1986), 31. Mutira Mission by some fellow Europeans and twoAfricans, namely: Paul Kigondu, and Thomas Meero. Upon their arrival, they met lots of resistance fromthelocalIthimbwiclanofAgacikuclan,whodidnotwanttheir15 ecres of land to be taken away by the ‘foreigners’ in pursuit of building school (12 ecres) and church (3 ecres). Following this resistance, the missionaries, under Rev McGregor, left for Kabare and Kigari-Embu and by 1910 established the respective stations. It was only at the end of 1911 that the deal was settled after land wasfinallyboughtby Rev. McGregor from one, Karunditu wa Gitura, at a cost of 30 Rupees (approximately KES 60/= then but today in 2012, about KES 600, 000 OR $7, 500). The deal was witnessed by his half brother Gacubi. McGregor then placed a placard on a Muthariti tree to indicate that the land had already been bought. Interestingly, not much is known about Karunditu wa Gitura for he died soon after. After the 1908 encounter in Mutira, where resistance threatened to permanently stop the missionary work, McGregor proceeded to Kabare and Kigari and bought land for the Mission centre in 1910. As a result, a church was built (Anglican) there by 1912withthesupervisionofRevMcGregor.McGregorwhohadstarted his mission work in the Taveta area in early 1892 is the one who had also began an Anglican Centre at Kabete on October 13th , 1900. Rev. McGregor: St Paul of Central Kenya? Certainly, Rev McGregor can be referred to as the “St Paul of Central and Eastern Kenya,” a church planter who would always plant a church and instal pastors and then move to another place so as to open another. That is the methodology that St Paul applied when starting the churches of Corinth, Galatia, Phillippia, Asia Minor among other places. Likewise, McGregor started churches in Kabete 1900, Weithaga 1904, Kahuhia 1906, Tumu Tumu 1906 and moved to Kithuguya-Sagana in 1907 in the hope of opening another missionary station; reached Mutira in 1908 and started purchase of land discussions under lots of difficulties. He then moved to Kabare with his team which included anAfrican missionary,Thomas Meero, popularly called as ‘Thomasi Bundi’, and established Kabare and 20 [3.238.228.237] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 16:38 GMT) Mutira Anglican Mission (1912-2012) Kigari missions in 1910.As an itinerant preacher, linguist, theologian and an anthropologist, and a skilful negotiator, McGregor visited several parts of Kikuyuland and also made trips among the Maasai. Accordingly, he was received in a very friendly manner though the Kikuyu appeared different from Wataita and Wataveta. He noted that while Wataveta showed great respect for the Europeans, the Kikuyu did not. In particular, the Kikuyu never addressed anyone as Mr… in front of the Person’s name. To this end, McGregor noted that “a Kikuyu thinks that he evidently stands as high in the social scale as a white man (sic).”2 The main reason for this ‘deep’respect for the European is probably because of the fact that the Taita and Taveta people encountered the White missionaries quite earlier. McGregor also noted that in Taveta and other places, “it is very difficult to get...