The History Nganyi community
This story was Narrated byMzee David Owino Ebukoloand was written by Antonine Sayo
Published on January 23, 2021
N
ganyi was an elder. The energy of rain making came to Nganyi through one woman who used to suffer. The lady was a widow and childless, she had walked several homestead seeking for refuge but many didn’t welcome her. The lady thereafter decided to look for her sister who had been married to Bunyore, in her search for her sister, the widow met Nganyi. Nganyi welcomed her as a widow who had suffered.
She was called Imbako married in Itunguu. Nganyi build a cottage for her and also gave her a house girl to serve her. The widow stayed for a long time until it reached a point she was about to die, she called Nganyi and took a stroll with him through the forest. Nganyi carried a matchet with him and while in the forest, the widow instructed him to cut some flowers from three different tree types.
The widow smashed the flowers and then asked Nganyi to put water in the pot and add the smashed flowers. She told Nganyi to use a pipe to blow inside the pot containing water and smashed flowers. Bubbles came out up to the brim of the pot, the widow thereafter asked Nganyi to look up in the air, when he looked up, Nganyi saw drizzle which had formed as a result as the blowing in the pot. The widow told him this is the gift I give to you from generation to generation. From there on Nganyi went to Nabongo Mumia who by then was the ruler of Wanga community and started to perform the role of rain making all over the community.


During dry season, Nganyi could visit villages to make rain and as a result people really harvested food crops of all types. That’s how Nganyi rainmaker came to existence. This energy is effective during dry season and when there is no rain whereby, they perform their cultural rites and later on the rains falls. Abasieke, one of the Nganyi lineage, during the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta days travelled to Nairobi to cause the rain during the dry season. Abasieke have one unity and work in togetherness. They believe that when they speak, God listens to them. The herbs that were shown to them is to bring rain which facilitates provision of food. They relate their rain making techniques to Elija’s story in the bible.
The general and main point of Nganyi community rain makers is to fight against all climate change issues. They educate the community members of how the climate will be during the season after their traditional prediction. They have Nganyi Kenya Community Media Network-RANET radio station called Anyole Fm, where they use to pass information to the community and to the nation at large. They do compare their indigenous knowledge to scientific knowledge before they come up with a conclusion about weather. They observe the trees in the shrine, birds kept in the shrine and insects which serve as a key role in issuing of their forecasts. They also predict using changes in temperature and behaviour of animals such as dog’s barks in a particular way and birds make particular sound. Also observe the way the plant sheds their leaves. The shrine acts as their observatory centre since they do also observe at night.