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Among the Agĩkũyũ, there was a very important ceremony known as Ituĩka in which the reins of government were handed over to the next generation. The period from one Ituĩka to another was usually 35 years. This was calculated through a special plant in Gĩkũyũ country known a Thunguya – ‘Mimulopsis alpina’ [Gachathi 1989: 145], which is one of the Gĩkũyũ’s special calendars apart from the moon, seasons, stars n.k. This plant blooms/flowers every seven years after which it dies and new ones grow that will then bloom/flower after another seven years. The Gĩkũyũ “decade” was thus seven years. An Ituĩka was supposed to be held after five “decades”, referred to as Thunguya ithano. This adds up to 35 years.
“Tweedie records mass-flowering of M. alpina on Mt Elgon in 1947, 1955 and 1963 with scattered individuals flowering in the intervening years. Similar mass-flowering has been recorded from the Aberdares and Rift Valley forests but seems to occur in different cycles on different mountains.” https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:52434-1
This same time was used to calculate people’s years, with the seven years marking stages in a person’s life
The last Ituĩka ceremony, where the riika of Maina handed over power to the Mwangi generation, took place in 1898-9. The next one was supposed to be held around 1929 but was thwarted by the british imperialist occupiers causing Gĩkũyũ institutions to crumble. The ruling generations, the riika system can be traced back to the year 1500 or thereabouts.*The dates in the video below are still subject to debate
