http://www.kentimes.com/29apri05/mag...magazine1.html
At 125,Mzee Chepkilot remains a classic survivor
His big childhood dream was to own a bicycle and wireless radio
By James Kutai
IT is warm and a humid afternoon. Hundreds of locals are gathered at a Secondary school chatting animatedly while huddled in small groupings. They are discussing a community water project. Suddenly a deep silence descends on the crowd as an elderly man is wheeled onto the podium accompanied by his 78 year old son.
The grand old man believed to be over 125 years old, revered and respected in this desolate part of the world, has been invited to give his views and counsel on the Tenges Community Water Project, within Baringo District.
In this Tugen sub-tribe of the larger Kalenjin community where elders are not only as figures of authority and repositories of communitys traditional knowledge and values, the crowd nods in agreement as Mzee Elijah Cheptoo Chepkilot proceeds to speak.
Though he does it with great difficulty, the elder is coherent and authoritative as ever on community development issues. He has for over 80 years held a sway in such projects and still retains the exalted position of pioneering the establishment of a trading centre, a market and local African Inland Church Mission (AIC).
Those who have known Mzee Elijah for several decades credit him as an old man who despite his extremely advanced age and rapidly failing health, still possesses a rare personality that captivates and endears him to all and sundry. He is reputed to enjoy glamour and cherish intellect and in his own words, has worked and dined with kings but has not lost touch with his impeccable courtesy.
His fame bolstered by the belief that he is among the oldest people in Africa, has spread like bush fire in the entire Baringo and Koibatek Districts He is as a staunch Christian, an enterprising businessman and a disciplinarian committed to community development issues.
Prominent politicians, professionals and locals enjoying their sunset years and who could be safely age mates of Mzee Elijahs grand children, credit him as a classic survivor, who has lived his life to the fullest, and who in his youthful days was virtually unassailable in the world of Christianity and business.
In his lengthy address couched in witty proverbs and spiced with anecdotes and idioms of the Tugen Community, Mzee Elijah tickles the gathering when he declares that many people secretly reel with shock and amazement that he is still alive and going strong. He further sends the audience in raucous laughter when he offers that his big childhood dream was to own a bicycle and a wireless radio set.
The great grand father born around 1879 was instrumental in establishment of the now vibrant Tenges Trading Centre and Tenges Open Air Market, from an obscure out fit thus playing a pivotal role in transforming the villages economy fifty years ago, during his tenure as a Senior District Clerk in the Colonial Civil Service. Currently Mzee Elijah pockets a misery monthly pension of Sh 500 for the services he rendered in his hey days to the country.
Indeed the history of Tenges African Inland Church Mission over a half a century ago is intertwined with Mzee Elijahs past efforts, who alongside other community members played a pivotal role in its formation.
Six of his eight children aged between 80 and 61 years have retired from active public service and retreated either to private lives or farming. All of his children save for his three married daughters stay with the octogenarian on his expansive 800 acre farm that hosts dairy farming, poultry keeping, maize growing, small scale horticulture and bee keeping.
Though not a fan of politics, Mzee Elijah does not squander an opportunity in speaking out against the prevailing political climate in the country.
He says Kenyas independence should be safeguarded at all cost.
People should stop bickering and inciting youths into acts of violence and lawlessness. Supposing we were to be recolonized today, how many Kenyans including those maverick politicians will have courage to retreat into forests to fight for independence? How many of those bickering Cabinet Ministers and members of Parliament would be willing to boldly stick their necks out and even sacrifice their lives for the sake of their beloved country-Kenya.
Mzee Elijah Continues: Politicians are no longer patriotic. They have no interest of common Kenyans and the country at heart; they are selfish and interested only in self aggrandizement. Kenyan politicians are over obsessed with acquiring wealth and power and will do anything to get it.
The African Inland Church elder says that rampant corruption, shameless grabbing of public land, ugly physical and verbal confrontations among politicians are clear indicators that they are not keen on serving the electorate.
Look around, all you see are suffering masses ravaged by poverty, disease and illiteracy in a country that has enjoyed independence for more than four decades. That was not the aspirations of Kenyas founding fathers Jomo Kenyatta, Tom Mboya, Daniel arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki, Wycliffe Works Waswa, Achieng Oneko and Paul Ngei among others he laments.
Back at his modest home, Mzee Elijah is in an upbeat mood after a successful community water project meeting. Getting an opportunity to interview him could prove a daunting task, as the home is a buzz with activities and scores of church elders, the congregation and villagers who frequent the homestead for consultation with the octogenarian.
Due to what he terms as his rare determination and Gods grace, the elder says that he has been able to achieve a steady life but not devoid of challenges but enough to keep his family intact. He is a grand father to 80 and a great great grandfather to over 300
His eldest son, a retired teacher now aged 78 years, John Too Chepkilot, has in the old mans words been his greatest inspiration for they teamed up and worked resolutely to ensure that other children in the now prominent family got formal education in an era where education was an anathema to cultural advancement and viewed as an affront to societal development.
He says that due to superior airs of the Mzungu, which he personally disapproved, many African children dropped out of school and joined the rapidly growing Freedom Movements across the country.
The African Inland Church elder graphically recounts his life history and brags that his razor sharp memory has never been a disappointment to him. He says that in his later life, he ventured into business to show an example to the community and because he wanted something of my own, a venture he could manage on his own.
He recalls that his birth place was at Kapkelelwa Location within the vast Sacho Division, around 1879, to Mzee Chepkilot Kimoi and Mama Kabon Kandie. He was the youngest of two sisters both now deceased.
Currently a widower, Mzee Chepkilot lost his spouse Mama Martha Tungo Chepkilot in June 2000, when she was aged 105 years. They had been married for seventy two years, in a union that was blessed with their eldest daughter Rose Ruth Kaprok now aged 79 and a farmer in Kericho, the 78 year old retired teacher John Too, a retired education officer and a former headmaster of Tenges Primary School Stephen Too now aged 69, a retired teacher Rebbecca Kurui currently 66 and a retired District Land Surveyor Peter Too aged 58 years.
His other children include the retired Matron of Baringo High School Sarah Cheburet aged 64, a serving Primary School Teacher Annah Chepkirwok and an Army Major Ishmael Kirui.
At the turn of the past century, Mzee Elijah says he was initiated into the Nyongi , an age he describes as too old and too late for being initiated into manhood.
He lists his contemporaries as the late Kipchilat Kigen, the Late Chief Daudi Kibbet, former Assistant Chief the late Kidogo Chemjor and Nehemiah Kipyego. As young men, he says they all had giant aspirations of joining the Colonial Army, a dream that was never to be.
I am extremely lucky having traversed three centuries. I have out lived all my compatriots in the Nyongi age set and scores of others in the age sets that we preceded such as Chumo, Kaplelach, and Kimnyinge.
I still preach and sing in the church and it is a tradition in this homestead that all work must be put aside at 3 pm every day for a thirty minute prayer session to celebrate Gods grace and my lengthy life.
Though his eye sight is failing, Mzee Elijah has an acute sense of hearing. He has the ability to discern the identity of his visitor, family members and villagers from their respective voices.
After my initiation, I married my first wife Kobilo Cheptarus in a traditional ceremony in 1903. She hailed from Kabartonjo and we stayed as a married coupe for 8 years. Since she was barren, clan elders entered into negotiations and its was mutually agreed that we part ways a situation that once again rendered me a bachelor he reminisces with a chuckle.
The elder shifted from Kapkelelwa and moved to Eldama Ravine in 1911 before joining the famous Barnet African Inland Church Mission a year later where he learned the art of reading and writing under tutelage of white missionaries, through whose recommendation he landed a job at the then nascent East African Protectorate Railways Corporation, as a cleaner and later a fireman, an employment stint that also took him to Central Kenya.
I remember with a shudder when African were naked! I saw it during my stay in Kiambu and Fort-Hall (Presently Muranga) how degrading and humiliating they had to face the Mzungu. Everywhere there was segregation as were places where Africans could not show their faces.
And yet he says Africans were and are still fine people, friendly and warm unlike the whitemen who he says are selfish. He says that whites were single minded and were only interested in Africans as long as one was useful to them and that he says is how they managed to colonize the whole world.
The octogenarian is a refined linguistic. Once we had settled he asked our photo-journalist his name. The Journalist replied that his name was Mureithi Njuno. Mzee Elijah proceeded to speak with him in Kikuyu language to the surprise of villagers gathered at the homestead.
For a couple of minutes, the two spoke in flawless Gikuyu as those around marveled at the old mans mastery of a distant dialect. The duo engaged in an animated conversation which we were to learn was centered on traditional Kikuyu customs that revolve around a marriage ceremony.
The Elder says that throughout his stint at the Railways Corporation, he failed to find any semblance of satisfaction in his work and strongly held the belief that his calling was in the world of religion, a move that saw him tender his resignation in April 1926.
He remembers events of that particular day vividly, when he handed in his resignation a white top manager of the corporation and an Asian Supervisor were chocked with rage and disapproval. They openly grumbled about stupid and retrogressive Africans who after the Colony had invested millions in their training opted to quit. They nevertheless accepted his resignation and paid him terminal benefits of a measly Sh 350, quite a substantial amount in those days.
Later the same year, after a brief hiatus in farming, Mzee Elijah was back at Eldama Ravine African Inland Church Mission, where he was grounded in the art of evangelism, then a white mans domain, before being a full time site manager at the mission.
It was a difficult balancing act to harmonize religion with traditional African practices that we endemic at the time. Sometimes it was a daunting task to win converts among the highly conservative traditionalists that viewed Christianity with suspicion and as a diabolic tool of imperialism.
The Octogenarian explains that he met his second wife during his evangelical missions and the marriage was later solemnized in a Christian Manner by the late Reverend Barnet. Just before the outbreak of the second World War, Mzee Elijah was an established businessman having relocated with his young family to Tenges Division, was the first to set up a shop at Ochii Trading Center and a Manually Operated Posho Mill at Tenges Trading Center.
During the same period the colonial administration once again on recommendation of the white missionaries at the African Inland Church hired him as Chief Clerk in charge of Sacho Division and entrusted him with collection of taxes from the African Native Councils in the region, within the expansive Baringo District. He also oversaw payment of taxes in five locations namely = Kiptagich, Timboiwo, Kaptilion, Kapkelelwa and Chepkeror.
I used to collect these taxes with Tribal Police (Currently administration Police officers). The dues would be forwarded to Kiptagich before I personally ferried the money to Chief Daudi Kibbet of Sacho Division. I would later at every end month forward the taxes to Kabarnet. We were very dedicated and honest to duty unlike young men who nowadays shrewdly and corruptly steal resources entrusted to them by the public. It is a strange phenomenon.
A few years into the countrys independence, Mzee Elijah Chepkilot retired from public service and retreated to his small village to concentrate on matters of Christianity, a commitment he still undertakes with relish many years later.
To his credit, the Elder was actively involved in establishment of community water projects, Tenges Primary School, Tenges Boys High School and numerous local projects. He still hopes that God will give him another decade to enable him watch his great grand children graduate out of school
Like his 125 year old father, Mzee Elijah Cheptoo Chepkilot, the 78 year old retired teacher John Too Chepkilot has had a successful career in which he had the fortune of teaching prominent political operatives like the long serving Baringo Kanu Branch Executive Officer Hosea Kiplagat and the Kenya Times Media Trust Chief Executive Wilson K.A. Kibbett.
In an interview with Kenya Times at the familys modest home in Tenges Division of Baringo District, the retired teacher is the Second born in a family of eight children, indicated that the two were polite and reserved pupils who among others spread out in the business, political and corporate world formed part of his large number of prominent Kenyans he taught in local schools with the Division.
He credits the African Inland Church Mission headed by the late Reverend Barnet as having trained him in formal education, before inducting him as a primary school teacher for a period of thirteen months.
Mwalimu as Too is fondly referred to was initiated in the Sawe age set in 1949, at an age he says was quite advanced. Never mind his stint as a teacher was short lived spanning from 1955 to 1958 after which he joined the then white managed Jean School in Lower Kabete in 1959 to train in Farming and Management business.
On completion of my training in 1960, I relocated to Tenges Division and started a hides and skins business. With assistance of my father who had already established himself, we built a permanent structure for the business, before I diversified into quarry stone mining business in 1972".
The retired teacher says that due to established business and religious contacts that his 125 year old father had nurtured, the quarry business easily picked up, as he had the rare privilege at the time to clinch government tenders to supply building materials to its projects in the region and neighboring districts. He names his other students as a prominent farmer in Uasin Gishu Arap Bett Chepsiror and a retired surveyor Peter Too.
In the recent past, he has also been awarded contracts by local schools and hospitals to supply foodstuffs from his expansive farm.
Majority of my former students are themselves retired teachers, and they have always respected the fact that I taught them. He briefly dabbled in local politics when he was elected as Kanu Chairman Chepkiror Location, but still retains active leadership position within the African Inland Church Mission in Tenges where like his octogenarian father is an elder.
Among the projects he has helped initiate include the Kapkong Water Project and Tenges Boys Boarding High school. He currently manages a string of restaurants within the trading center besides concentrating on his quarry business.
3 centuries of Kenya -
04-29-2005, 12:06 PM
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