The Kikuyu Justice System
The Kikuyu are a Bantu ethnic group native to East Africa Central Kenya. In the Kikuyu community in Kenya, justice is deeply related to the socioeconomic structure of life in the Kikuyu community. Restorative justice underlies this system in entirety, and is effectively dictated by the sociopolitical structure inherent in this system. The justice mechanism in the Kikuyu community is vital to maintain, and restore when necessary, equilibrium in society. The objective is to address conflict and in the process, recognize, address, and respond to potentially destabilizing elements in the community.
Justice in the Kikuyu community is maintained by Kikuyu elders, who also work as social, political, and judicial officers. The objectives of the justice system are drawn from the Kikuyu value system. As agriculturalists, the Kikuyu consider land as divine, and their entire system of government is built around the idea of land ownership. Land is communally owned by the extended family, called “mbari,” which are closely knit as a result of blood ties, collective farming, and communal land ownership. Individuals rely on the community for the attainment of economic objectives.
Within this, the justice system not only reflects the core values of the mbari, but also relies on the key actors involved in the sociopolitical and economic fabric of society. Each mbari has a council of elders called the kiama kia mbari, which is mandated with the duty to oversee social issues and serve as a judicial body. It comprises male heads of extended families, and adjudicates cases in which the victim and offender are from the same mbari. This set up is fundamental to the worldview of the Kikuyu, where the individual exists within the community and needs the community to survive. If the victim and offender are from different mbaris, the case goes to courts other than the mbari court to deal with the matter – where elders across extended families come together to create the mwaki, a political unit that addresses issues concerning individuals across mbaris.
The entire justice system aligned with the social framework, extending from the governance mechanism in place. As individuals were considered to have strong ties with society, it was expected that they live in line with shared community values and align with the expectations of the community for shared living. This is important as the individual need the community as much as the community needs the individual. The justice system is also underpinned by the shared belief within the people of their origin – where they believed they were all descendants of their tribal founders, Gikuyu and Mumbi, who had nine daughters, whose names represent the clans within the Kikuyu community.
References
Kenyatta, J. (1979) Facing Mount Kenya. Heinemann Education Books Ltd.
Kinyanjui, S. (2009). Restorative Justice in Traditional Pre-Colonial'Criminal Justice Systems' in Kenya. Tribal Law Journal, 10(1), 1.
Lambert, H.E. (1956). Kikuyu Social And Political Institutions 2.
Leakey, L.S.B. (1977). The Southern Kikuyu Before 1903. Jean Ensminger & G.S.B. Beecher Eds.
Muriuki, G. (1974) A History Of The Kikuyu, 1500-1900 75.
