- Ask about Kituluni hill in Machakos District and people
are likely to take you aside and talk in hushed tones about strange goings-on,
witchcraft and sightings of ghosts dressed in white.
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- You will be told about happenings that stand Isaac Newton's
Law of Gravity on its head, such as water flowing uphill.
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- Some 300 kilometres away from this spot, in Nakuru, equally
unlikely stories are told about a mystery cave in the Menengai Crater.
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- Few places in Kenya, indeed in the world, are without
their own stranger-than-fiction stories that defy logical explanation.
Outsiders might dismiss them out of hand, but local people hold on to them
with a firm conviction.
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- Kituluni, 12 kilometres east of Machakos town, has long
been the subject of speculation, and visitors have travelled for miles
to witness the strange goings-on at the extraordinary hill.
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- It is perhaps the only place in the world where a car
that is switched off can roll uphill, unaided.
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- On the way to Kituluni, one passes through Mutituni and
Kivutini. A tarmac road leads toward the strange spot. It is a dangerous
drive with tortuous twists and turns.
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- Halfway round the hill, regardless of the speed at which
the car might be moving, it is always jerked forward and suddenly moves
faster without any discernible change on the speedometer.
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- Kituluni hill covers an area of about a square kilometre,
and if you want to prove that the hill is indeed as strange as it is said
to be, you can carry out a few experiments.
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- If you switch off the car and park it at the side of
the road with nobody inside, it immediately begins to move up the hill
at a speed of approximately 5kph.
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- It has been known to do this for a distance of up to
a kilometre, and just to prove that this is no fluke, it has been done
over and over again with the same results.
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- Although the Kituluni spot lies on a very steep part
of the hill, experiments carried out with water produce the same results.
Water can be seen flowing up the hill, instead of down.
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- For about 20 metres, the water flows in this manner until
it changes course and flows to the side, but even then it never at any
one point flows downhill.
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- The same pattern is repeated when an empty bottle is
placed on the spot and even though it only rolls for a few metres, it moves
all the same.
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- The villagers claim to have an explanation for this strange
phenomenon.
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- It is said that many years ago the local people used
to make sacrifices to their ancestors on the hill. In those days the area
was known collectively as Kivutini.
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- The sacrifices were meant to appease the ancestors and
seek favours from them, such as bringing rain or casting out evil spirits.
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- There was an altar where special rituals were performed,
and was thus regarded as a holy place.
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- Things changed when the road passing through the area
from Machakos town towards Kaloleni was constructed and people were forced
to conduct their ceremonies further down the hill.
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- Although the road has been around for quite a few years,
no one seems to remember when the strange happenings currently being witnessed
started.
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- Villagers say they have even seen strange people dressed
in white who vanish as mysteriously as they appear.
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- Even though experts still hold a sceptical view on the
area, no serious study has been conducted to explain the strange phenomenon.
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- Tourist attraction
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- At the Menengai Crater in Nakuru, curious tourists are
drawn to a controversial cave by stories of strange happenings that have
convinced many that it is a haunted place.
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- A number of strange things are said to happen in the
crater, such as people disappearing without trace.
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- Others have lost directions for hours, or even days,
only to be found by their relatives wandering around in a trance.
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- Those who live nearby call a hill near the crater "kirima
kia ngoma (Satanís hill)". People claim to have seen the 'devil'
riding a motorcycle there.
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- Last year, James Gichumuni (now deceased) allegedly spent
two days in the crater. The old man, who had gone to the crater to graze
his animals, failed to find his way out despite being well versed with
the area.
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- In another incident, a boy was found staring at a bird
after going missing for seven days.
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- When asked where he was and what he was doing, he remarked,
"I have been watching a beautiful vision for a few minutes."
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- Back in 1987, a schoolgirl disappeared without trace
in the crater. Efforts by police to search for her using helicopters bore
no results.
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- The latest mystery about the crater is a 'flying umbrella'
that appears whenever it rains. But no one has ever bothered to find out
where the umbrella goes after the rains.
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- Although a good number of Christians go to the crater
to fast and pray, it also attracts a fair number of suicides. Two Catholic
priests are among dozens of people who have leapt to their deaths into
the 845-metre crater.
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- The latest incident was in November, last year, when
a priest plunged his vehicle into the crater.
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- The local people believe that the crater is haunted by
evil spirits that capture human beings and animals and hide them in the
netherworld.
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- It is believed that in the late 1950s and early 1960s,
demons or ghosts used to farm on a fertile piece of land on the floor of
the crater.
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- An elderly resident, Esther Wanjiru, says the 'demons'
used to plough the land with tractors, plant wheat and harvest all within
an hour.
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- "You sat there watching and before you knew it,
all these activities had taken place and the land would go back to its
former state, a grassland with no activities or life," she claims.
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- Despite the eerie stories about the crater, pilgrims
from as far as Kisumu, Kakamega and even Mombasa come to pray and fast
at the site for days.
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- Some even stay in the cave at the south of the crater
for months. They say that they feel very close to God when praying in the
crater.
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- The cave, large enough to house hundreds of people, commands
a superb view of the crater.
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- Imposing hill
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- Travelling east from the Nairobi on the Nairobi-Kangundo
highway, the expansive Ukambani plains roll out before the eyes.
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- As one approaches Kangundo town, a rocky outcrop comes
into view. This is the famous Koma Rock, considered a shrine by many.
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- The hill has been considered a sacred place since time
immemorial.
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- Kamba elders used to journey to the rock to offer sacrifices
to their gods at a designated shrine known locally as Ithembo. Ithembo
in Kamba means a holy place.
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- There, they would also pray for rain and for protection
from plagues.
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- According to Paul Malinda, 80, the old folk believed
that a strange and powerful force resided there.
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- A fig tree still stands on the spot where the sacrifices
were offered.
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- Mzee Malinda says that stories were told of how visions
of old men would appear at the shrine in the evenings and then disappear
after a while.
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- He says that in 1970, road engineers constructing the
Kangundo-Nairobi highway wanted to move the shrine so that the road could
pass through the hill. This sparked a furious protest from Kamba elders.
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- They agreed to have the shrine moved to another part
of the hill, however, after a bag of sugar and two goats were offered to
them as sacrifices.
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- "Despite the sacrifices, the blasting of rocks was
very difficult - with machinery constantly breaking down," says Malinda.
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- He claims the engineers abandoned the route after realising
that there was an unknown power preventing the rock from being blasted.
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- Today, the abandoned murram road is still visible from
the top of the hill as it meanders through the Koma rock plains towards
the city. Mzee Mwithi Musau, who is believed to have been born in 1900,
says he was among those who used to offer sacrifices at the shrine, accompanying
famous Kamba rainmakers and prophets.
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- Musau believes that it was a supernatural power that
stopped the blasting of rocks.
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- Today, the shrine has been taken over by the Catholic
Church, which has turned it into a site for pilgrimages.
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- These days, it is often the scene of processions, singing
of hymns, recital of prayers and fasting.
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- Fr Thomas Vaddesary, who is in charge of the shrine,
says the church chose it as a place where faithful could spend time in
prayer.
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- "Koma rock is a place where traditional believers
used to offer sacrifices in the past but now it has been turned into the
shrine of our Lady," says Fr Thomas.
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- At the top of the shrine is an imposing 70-foot sculpture
of Jesus Christ in the arms of his mother Mary after the body was lowered
from the cross.
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- Given its background and current religious activities,
the Koma rock hill shrine is still a place of mystery for many.
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- Across the country in Nyando District, stories of ghosts
and haunted places abound, especially in Kore and Kobura.
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- Kobura location borders the partly stalled Ahero Rice
Irrigation Scheme on the Kisumu-Nairobi highway.
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- A four-kilometre stretch on the Ahero-Lela road is widely
believed to be haunted by ghosts.
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- On this stretch, many grisly road accidents have been
witnessed between Korowe trading centre and Lela Secondary School.
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- A resident of the area, Mark Ojwang' Nyabange, says the
accident jinx was caused by the deaths of an old woman and a child who
were run over by a vehicle many years ago.
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- The residents believe the large number of accidents are
caused by the dead woman's ghost, which keeps coming back to confuse motorists.
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- Villagers who go to assist accident victims claim to
have been told by the drivers that they had seen a ghostly old lady cross
the highway driving a herd of cattle just before the accident.
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- Elsewhere, about two kilometres from the Nairobi highway
towards Kore village, a ghost is said to haunt a bridge. It is claimed
that many residents of the area, including a young man known as Joseph
Omondi, have fallen victim to the ghost at the bridge.
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- Omondi recalls one night sometime back when he set out
at night from his home near K'otieno Odongo village to visit his relatives
in Kore.
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- An architecture student at a Nairobi-based college, Omondi
says when he approached the bridge he met an old woman clad in a buibui
who requested for assistance.
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- "She pleaded for help to cross the bridge and I
obliged, but by the time I crossed the bridge she had vanished," he
said.
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- Villagers say the ghost often greets people in Dholuo:
"Amosi swaya! Amosi swaya! (Warm greetings! Warm greetings!)."
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