Map of the Mwingi region.
Mwingi is the northern region of Kitui County, Lower Eastern Kenya. The region consists of 8 Sub-Counties namely; Mwingi Central Sub-County, Mwingi East Sub-County, Tseikuru Sub-County, Muumoni Sub-County, Kyuso Sub-County and Migwani Sub-County. The local people are mainly the Kamba and Tharaka
Mwingi Town.
Its head quarter is Mwingi town. The town is located along Nairobi to Garisa highway, 200Km east of Nairobi and 74Km north of Kitui town, the county headquarters. It is the second largest town in Kitui County. The town was established in 1933 by locals. The first buildings ever built in the town are still standing at downtown Mwingi, though with some renovations. The shops were built with unburned bricks. The only hotel which was made of grass, I wonder how they used to cook in a grass house, is no more.
By 1936, a Muslim settler, Farah arrived. He acquired a piece of land at the current uptown Mwingi, exactly where the Largest Mosque in Mwingi stands. He built a shop and planted two trees which are still standing today. A Date Palm tree, Mtende in swahili and a Bombax tree, Msufi in Swahili.
Bombax and Date Palm trees planted by Farah in 1936.
Over the late 1930’s, Yemen Arabs joined him and set up businesses in the town. They acquired land and built maize and wheat flour factories, merchant wharehuouses, gas stations and set up hardwares too. Today there is a significant number of Arabs in the town, born and raised here.
In 1950’s, Europeans also set foot in Mwingi. They mainly used to camp in Mwingi at Makutano/Nduumo area enroute to North Eastern Kenya during the 1950’s war. Most were soldiers.
European missionaries settled in Mwingi Town. They Built a settlement behind the Mwingi Kautha rock. It is on this rock that they built a small rain water harvesting dam. The harvested water would was piped to concrete reservoir tanks at their settlement and Hospital.
This was built by the missionaries in the 1950’s.
The missionaries established the Mwingi General Hospital beside the settlement. The hospital was later handed over to the government of Kenya. It is currently managed by the County Government of Kitui and has since been elevated and renamed Mwingi Level IV Hospital.
Years after the Missionaries left, their settlement was turned into a medical school, Kenya Medical Training College-Mwingi branch.
The European missionaries built a dam between rocks at Ngomeni village. The Dam still serves the people of the village to date. These are the men who brought Christianity to Mwingi.
Sections of the Dam constructed on the Ngomeni Rock by Europeans.
Those days the locals used to worship at shrines and offer sacrifices to aimu, their gods. The most popular god was Mwendi. They used to gather to sing and dance overnight (Kilumi) worshipping aimu, the aimu would possess some of the dancers or the drum (mukanda) beaters who would sudenly start a series of incantations unknown to the people. The people believed that it was the aimu who would bring rain, a bumber harvest and protect the community.
In the late 1980’s, a certain family in Mwingi east used to be visited by a baboon once every year. The baboon would walk into the compound at sunset, wouldn’t cause mayhem, and just walk through the compound and climp a tree in the compound and sleep there. Early the following morning it would leave till same time the following year. They belived it was their god and the Father of the family would slaughter a cow as a sacrifice. They believed failure to do so would occasion death of one of the family members as sacrifice to the gods. It was a tradition they had inherited from their fore fathers.
Today this is no longer practiced in Mwingi, the area is largely a Christian community with hundreds of churches and some Muslims. There are Chinese too.
Mwingi is home to Elephants, Buffalos, Hippos and other interesting wild animals. These are found at Mwingi National Game Reserve, Kora National Park and neighboring Meru National Park.
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