By Our Correspondent
In a bid to keep the Agìkùyù community traditions alive, a foundation with its root in Mukurwe-ini, Nyeri County hosted a unique ceremony.
Gatoho Foundation has for the last several weeks been preparing for the first ever Women Cultural festival.
The culmination was last Friday when women converged at Kimondo Community and Empowerment Centre for the big day.
On the menu were Fashion Show, Cultural Exhibition, Music and Dance, Traditional Foods and Women Talent Show.
Women exhibited their prowess in different areas to the amazement of hundreds of people who had attended the fete.
Nyeri County Women Representative Rahab Mukami who attended the colourful ceremony thanked the organisers saying such event would help keep the Agìkùyù traditions alive.
She called for the replication of the same in other sub counties in her Nyeri County.
Through her initiative, the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) Nyeri office donated Sh250,000.
While presenting the cheque, the Women Representative noted that her office has regularly supported the group inorder to empower them.
“Today, they are reminding us about our traditions. How to cook our traditional foods. I will empower them since women are the pillars of our families,” she said.
She further disclosed that she is also collaborating with other organizations in in healthy matters like Breast cancer and cervical screening and other Non-Communicable Diseases to ensure they are healthy.
She congratulated the founder of Gatoho Foundation, MC Gatoho Wa Gatoh for the initiative and urged other youths to follow suit.
She noted that this is a good way of maintaining and promoting Agìkùyù culture.
On his Gatoho noted that his organisation wanted to ensure that the best community Cultural activities are kept alive amid the ever influencing western culture.
“Our organisation want to be in the forefront of conserving our culture. One of the best way of doing this is organizing such event. Today, those who attended have learnt a lot and we are very happy,” the youthful Gatoho lamented.
He noted that it was a golden opportunity for Kikuyus to learn about traditional food like yams, sweet potatoes, etc, weaving traditional ciondos and also learn how Kikuyus lived traditionally.
Xinhua Media