Important & interesting tips: beware!!

Kikuyu elders Njoka and another operating from Nakuru (i did not get his name) earlier today, on inooro TV’s Kimuri program, started sharing useful information on the procedures of the Agikuyu customary marriage which is fundamentally marked by dowry payment.

They also touched on other interesting issues in the Agikuyu customs and the challenges that, allegedly, result from non adherence to the cultural norms and practices.
According to the elders, the essence of herading the dowry process is the presentation or payment of two live goats (Mwati–a female & Harika–a male).The live animals, the elders insisted, cannot be paid in cash.

As the inaugural step, the man’s team, (that is intent on starting a dowry process) normally presents gifts (often cash & food items and related gifts from supermarkets during the very first official visit) to the girl’s parents: ‘kuhanda ithigi’ in Gigikuyu language (planting some symbolic plant shrubs in English).
… Yet, those who plant the ‘ithigi’ will only be recognized as serious when they present the two aforementioned live animals.

In case the dowry process aborts thereafter at this initial stage, the man’s team can not claim back the earlier presented gifts: which are described as ‘kiurira ndaa in Gigikuyu or ‘something that disappears and evaporates in the stomach’ roughly translated in English suggesting that the gifts were consumed and are therefore are no longer available or important.
Normally, dowry processes aborts due to various reasons thereafter including disagreement between the man and woman who had intended to marry.

And where the serious dowry stage marked by presentation of the live animals has unfortunately aborted, the dowry has to be ‘killed’ or ‘broken’ in other elaborate ceremonies that may also include returning of the two main animals earlier presented and given.
The ‘killing’ of the dowry annuls the process marking it as null and void with no cultural or moral repurcussions thereafter.

The elders also emphasized the the need for people (both parents and their children) to show respect and humility to each other and to also respect the due processes in cultural rites and practices.

For instance, they provided a real case of a doctor who literally medically ‘circumcised’ his two sons (the elder and his follower) instead of presenting them to another doctor for the procedure.
Consequently, the two sons now in their 30s and heading to 40s have minimal interest in women and are yet to get married.
The elders’ cultural interpretation was that the doctor had erred by getting exposed to his sons’ nudity.
Since his first son spiritually represents his real father and the second son his father – in-law, he had indeed seen the nudity of the two parents and this could explain why his two sons lost interest in marriage.🤔😌..

And though skeptics and naysayers may pour cold water on the elders insights and interpretation, their argument somehow depicts a very convincing argument or thought terrain.
According to them the case is redeemable seeing that ‘error is to human beings’ & that no man is perfect. Though they did not elaborate, they affirmed that the error can be corrected through some other elaborate cultural practices that can cancel what had happened earlier.