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| Ngugi Gecaga (left), Gerald Mwaniki (centre) and James Mbugua during the launch of the book titled ‘Legacy of Love’ (inset) on August 12, 2018. [Kennedy Gachuhi, Standard] |
Years after cousins called off their marriage at the eleventh hour, a family in Bahati, Nakuru County, has decided to keep track of its genealogy to avoid such incidents. First, the family agreed to be meeting once every year. Second, they will keep a written record of the current and future generations. The book that was launched on August 12, 2018, traces the family history of Nathan Ngugi and Engenethi’s descendants. In 1968, cousins from the larger Ngugi family had to call off their marriage plans during dowry payment when they discovered they were related. Ngugi Gecaga, the family spokesperson, said it has been a five-year journey of documenting the family heritage, starting from their grandparents Ngugi and Engenethi, who were born in the late 1890s. The two died in 1980s. Legacy of Love Avoid becoming a victim of Fake News. Subscribe to the Standard Group SMS service by texting ‘NEWS’ to 22840. In the book titled Legacy of Love, the extended family of Ngugi and Engenethi outlines the incident which they describe as an ‘alarming situation’. “The children of two first cousins had met and fallen in love without knowing they were related. The two families met when the dowry negotiations were to begin and the discovery sent everyone into shock,” reads part of the book. “In the first chapter, we captured the life of our grandparents and the basis of the annual family meetings. The subsequent chapters outline the family lineage of their nine children. A recent survey indicates we are approximately 450 members,” said Mr Gecaga. In such a big family, Gecaga said, it is easy for young members to find themselves in a situation similar to what happened in 1968. Gecaga said the two lovebirds found it hard to part ways. They had to be counselled by elders, for several years, before they could agree to move on. “It was hard for them to accept the situation. Elders had a tough time addressing the issue but they had to in a bid to avoid misfortunes befalling them,” said Gecaga. After lengthy dialogue, the couple broke up and agreed to relate to each other as family. The two were both lucky to find spouses whom they are happily married to. Gecaga’s brother Gerald Mwaniki said the meetings have been instrumental in ensuring the situation does not recur, citing the current trend of rural-urban migration as a contributor to such cases. “Currently the young generation is taking off to cities once they are of age. They meet there and before they realise, they have started a family of their own. This gathering has been key in ensuring history does not repeat itself,” said Mwaniki. While appealing to Kenyan families to embrace a tradition of regular meetings beyond the basic family unit, Mwaniki regretted that most families only meet in times of crisis such as death, thereby denying their children an opportunity to meet and strengthen family ties. The committee which was tasked with coming up with the book described it as “a desperate but timely effort to stem loss of the family’s history”. First chapter The first chapter of the 98-page book also captures the origin of the Agikuyu community parents – Gikuyu and Mumbi – who were created and placed at the foot of Mount Kenya. “This was an ambitious proposal as Nathan’s father had two wives whose descendants were many. However, as more generations came up, the now enormous family had to split up and conduct their own meetings,” reads the first chapter. In the subsequent nine chapters, each dedicated to the three sons and six daughters, the book gives an expression that somehow brings back to life those in the bloodline, by piecing together their life experiences. To stitch together such details, the committee faced the challenge of jogging memories of the elderly members to draw out nuggets of information. According to Ruth Wangui, a psychological counselor, advising blood relatives to end a relationship they got into without knowing is a tall order. Ms Wangui says such cases are rampant in modern society where people do not organise regular family gatherings.
