Kabete=a small mbete (ring). So the story goes that a certain white girl lost her engagement ring around the area. To appease her, the boyfriend rounded up all the locals kutafuta… with whips. After the ring was found, the Kikuyus were like haiya no kabete gaka gatuma tuhurwo
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Sotik in Bomet county. When settlers were passing through, the forest was “so thick”
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Hehehe really?
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Na Kakuma je?
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Mbita
One of the missionary who brought the gospel to the Lake town was called Peter. Locals couldn’t pronounce his name properly
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Ikolomani=gold mine
Kisumu- Kisuma. The white men could noy pronounce it properly hence Kisumu…
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Nairobi- Nairobi enkare(kitu kama hiyo not sure though. Maasai for place of cool waters) sambarry can correct on Nairobi part
Mbooni~ Leila, a rich Swahili woman trader was stranded there and noticed that there were alot of men there as the famine had drove the women away. after partaking more than her fair share of men, she christened the place Mbooni after enjoying the constant dryfry, which is used up to date. She later passed by mitamboni which the akamba corrupted from the original name, nitombeni
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Hehehehe
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JUJA-WILLIAM MACMILLAN he who of the Macmillan library fame is said to have bought two jinxed idols (za uchawi) in West Africa and had been instructed to preserve them well so as not to perish at sea. One was ‘JU’ and the other one ‘JA’. Macmillan later settled on the road to Thika and bought some 19,000 acres of land, at a time when no one was allowed to own more than 5,000 acres. Macmillan privately attributed this to the dark powers of ‘JU’ and ‘JA’ idols and as a result he named the farm ‘JU-JA’ farm.
Because of the numerous superstitions that surrounded the farm, the locals feared entering the land that they believed was jinxed. as a result, Macmillan’s wife took the two idols from the house and buried them in NDARUGU valley near Thika town. In the meantime, the name JUJA started getting prominence in the colonial era and interestingly refused to give way to its former name 'WERU WA NDARUGU" meaning ‘The NDARUGU PLAINS’ NB In a twist of fate after Macmillan lost the idols (to the wife who buried them), he surely died at sea and buried on Mt. Ol Donyo Sabuk.
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What killed him at sea?
Watu wa Karatina
Keep em coming lakini hio ya mbooni niko na question mark
Kiambu, when the locals first saw the white man walipiga “Mbu” sana because they thought the white man was a ghost because of the pale skin, hence the name Kia-Mbu.
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Hehehe hapo umetutoshanisha live live.
Mariakani derived its name from the Kambas who were trades men and used to carry bows and arrows,the small container that carries arrows in kikamba is called ‘Thiaka’ (riaka in Mijikenda) so when travelling to Mombasa the kambas would leave there thiakas somewhere & coz they were so many so they called the place ‘MATHIAKANI’ so the coasterians called it MARIAKANI.
More info here: https://kenyanhistory.wordpress.com/2013/11/16/hilarious-origins-of-names-of-towns-and-locations-in-kenya/
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True kuna kamzee kalikuwa almost 105 years old who told us a brief history of Kiambu.
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mahi mahiu …is masai for Ne’meimayu–meaning:pasipo pitika
Nanyuki-maasai nanyokie(place of red soil)
nakuru–maasai:-nakurro
lang’ata-maasai:-elang’ata (bridge/ crossing point(river)
embakasi–maasai:-impakasi
buru buru –em’bol bol (small pond)
ngong-Enkong’u enkare(source of the river)
lari–Olare (swamp)
Nyahururu-naiurruurr(kwenye mgurumo)
magadi–emakat (soda ash)
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