DEATH ANNOUNCEMENT
GERALD NJAGI MURIITHI
“Chief”
22 August 1948 – 10 November 2026
Retired chief who settled land disputes under a mugumo tree and kept the peace
With deep sorrow and humble acceptance of God's will we announce the passing of Chief (Rtd) GERALD NJAGI MURIITHI, former Chief of Kyeni Location, on 10th November 2026 at Embu Level 5 Hospital. Husband to Beatrice Wawira; father to Jackson, Mary and Peter; father-in-law to Esther and John; grandfather to eleven; brother to Mzee Njeru and many. Family and friends meet daily at Kyeni, Embu, at 5.00 pm. Cortege leaves Embu Funeral Home on Saturday 28th November at 8.00 am for Requiem Mass at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Kyeni, then burial at the family farm. M-Pesa Paybill 604418, Account CHIEF. Rest in peace, Chief.
Under the great mugumo tree at Kyeni, there is a flat stone worn smooth by a quarter-century of elders' sandals. It is where Chief Gerald Njagi Muriithi held his barazas, and where he is said to have settled more than four hundred land disputes without a single case reaching the courts. Villagers still call it the Chief's Court, though he always insisted it was only a place to sit.
He was born in Kyeni in 1948, the second of eight children of a coffee farmer. He walked to Kyeni Primary, then boarded at Kangaru School in Embu, and after a short stint as a clerk in the provincial administration he was appointed assistant chief in 1976. He became Chief of Kyeni Location in 1982 and held the post until his retirement in 2008, serving under four district commissioners and every kind of weather.
What people remember is that he listened first. He would pour tea for both parties, ask each to speak without interruption, and then say a proverb so apt that the argument often dissolved on the spot. He mobilised the community to build three bridges, a dispensary and two nursery schools, and during the 1992 drought he organised the distribution of relief maize so fairly that no household complained.
In retirement he farmed coffee and macadamia, read the Daily Nation from the first page to the last, and served as a catechist at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Kyeni. He loved Gor Mahia in a household of AFC Leopards fans and lost every argument with his grandchildren.
He died at Embu Level 5 Hospital on 10 November 2026 after a short illness. He leaves his wife Beatrice, four children and eleven grandchildren.
“A dispute heard properly is half settled.”