We used to watch with wonder as our Gikuyu college mates conglomerated at the notice board to have a hearty laugh at the announcements made by other communities.
It happens, in some Kenyan Campuses (Am not sure whether its the same in all the others), there were these tribal meetings.
Students from certain ethnic communities would meet to discuss their welfare, college politics and size up the freshers. So, it happened, from the little Kimeru and Gikuyu I understood, Kikamba wasn’t that hard to understand (In most cases, I would replace Gs with Ks, Rs with Ls and sometimes, they would have a totally different name for something. Like Kiti would be kivila, Kuhura would be Kukuna).
By the way, if we consider the parameters used to classify the Luhya as one community or the Kalenjin as one community, then the GEMA are very much one Community too.
For instance(A maragoli saying uMutwi guunumaa (My head aches) would translate to (My Ass**le aches) for a Bukusu.
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The highlight here is, When the Akamba used to meet, it would be under a tree shade behind the lecture theatre. So the announcement would be “Wuumbano wa akamba wothe itina wa lecture theatre” and the Gikuyus would be poking their kao pals, Lecture theatre iri na itina ?, or tuthii tuumbane itina kuuria.
Excerpts from the bible of Gikuyu and Kikamba
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[SIZE=3]Notice : Am not fluent in the languages illustrated, so any mistakes made, not intentional.
Warning 1 : Don’t get too excited. There is no hidden message here, @GayLord.[/SIZE]