WOMEN are not allowed to be Kikuyu elders and Murang’a women’s representative Sabina Chege has been warned against trying.

Chege is due to be installed today as an elder by the council’s national chairman Wachira Kiago in a traditional ceremony in Kenol town.

Not all elders agree and they held a press conference on Wednesday in Murang’a to condemn what they called a grave violation of custom.

The elders said if she goes ahead with the ceremony, she risks angering ancestral spirits that may strike back and cause her misery.

“We have seen people defy our traditions and perform ceremonies that are not allowed – and the tragedies that befall them,” Samuel Ng’ethe, Murang’a branch secretary said.

He said Chege should heed their advice and immediately cancel the ceremony.

“She is our daughter and we voted for her, which is why we cannot sit back and watch her make a mistake,” Ng’ethe said.

The elders said even the first female chief in colonial Kenya, Wangu wa Makeri who served in Wangu location, was not declared an elder.

Ng’ethe said though people disregard traditions, they retain great power and should be respected.

The elders also denounced the proposed installation of Joachim Gitonga as the branch chairman at the same event today.

They said they already installed Stanley Kinyanjui as the chair.

Gitonga is not qualified to be a chairman because he is a former clergyman in the Catholic Church, Ng’ethe said.