Whats in a name? and why is it so important?
Names are more than just a bunch of letters grouped together to sound pleasant to the ear. They are part of every culture and they have enormous importance both to the people who receive names and to the societies that given them.
Here are ten Kenyan towns and locations which earned their names in rather hilarious ways.
1. Dagoretti Corner
The place was originally known as “The Great Corner” and the Africans could not pronounce it correctly and the corrupted version became Dagoretti Corner which was directly from The Great Corner which has stuck to this day.
2. Msongari
The name was Muthangari and an area in Lavington, Nairobi still maintains that name.
Muthangari a Kikuyu name was a bit too t tough for the settlers and so they pronounced it as “Msongari”.
3. Rumuruti
Rumuruti is a town in Laikipia County about 40km north of Nyahururu.
How did it get its’ name? The town was on the route from Nyahururu to Mararal which was commonly used by white settlers.
They referred to the trail between the two settlements as a “Remote route”, this name was however too hard for the locals to pronounce and they corrupted it and called the place Rumuruti, as we know it today.
Rumuruti was the site of a huge meteor shower in 1934 and some of them are on sale on e-bay.
4. Thogoto
The Church of Scotland Mission was the first mission to settle in the now little town near Kikuyu in Kiambu County. The local Kikuyu Community could not pronounce the name Scotland easily and they would pronounce it as “Thigoto” and thus the name Thogoto was born.
The town has maintained the name Thogoto up to date and PCEA Church of the Torch one of the oldest mission churches still stands.
5. Kabarnet
Kabarnet is a town found in the Northern Rift Valley region of Kenya, close to Lake Baringo.
It’s believed that the town is named after a French man known as Barnet who settled in the area and made it his home.
The local Tugen people then started to refer to the place as Ka- Barnet, the word “Ka” means “the homestead of” and therefore the name Ka-Barnet means the place/home of Barnet.
6. Kirigiti
There was a popular cricket field in Kiambu and it was popular with settlers who would frequent the place from surrounding farms.
The local Kikuyu community could not pronounce the name Cricket and they pronounced it as Kirigiti. Today the stadium is referred to as Kirigiti which is just a version of Cricket but with a Kikuyu corruption to it.
7. Matayos
Matayos is a small township of about two thousand inhabitants along the B1 road (Kisumu-Busia Highway), sixteen kilometres from the Busia border point, and about two kilometres east of the Sio River bridge.
According to the residents of Busia, a European by the name Mathew moved to the area during the colonial times and the local Luhya people found it hard to pronounce Mathew so they had to be creative.
They instead referred to him as “Mathayo” which is the Kiswahili version of Mathew, however, in Luhya dialect the name was pronounced as “Matayo”.
8. Roysambu
Roysambu is a suburb along the Thika superhighway in Nairobi City County. The place was known as “Royal Suburbs” during the colonial times. However the Africans in Nairobi pronounced it as Roy-Sabu and thus it got the name “Roysambu”.
9. Kariakor
During the First World War a contingent of Africans were recruited by the British army to carry their luggage.
The Carrier Corps, as they were known, carried everything the soldiers needed to survive during the East African Campaign of the First World War.
Also read: 4 CLASSICAL KENYAN SONGS OF ALL TIME
Their base in Nairobi was around the present day Kariakor area and so the Africans used to go there pick their luggage before boarding the Lunatic express to go to war.
The locals simply called the place Carrier corps but the name was too hard for their tongues to pronounce so instead they pronounced it as “Kariako” and the name stuck up today.
To commemorate their brave deeds during World War 1 and 11, Carrier Corps statue found along Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi was erected in Nairobi in
10. Tenwek
Tenwek is a shopping centre located in Bomet County and location of one of the oldest hospitals in the region which was built in 1936. The name Tenwek is believed to have come about because it took ten weeks to travel from the Mombasa to the area by foot.
This article has sourced some historical data from kenyanhistory page.
Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:
Email: news@pulselive.co.ke
