My bad I was on pg 2 thinking that that is the start of the entire post, I actually meant to address the Original poster who is nesta to change the title of this whole thread to "Kenyans please come (here)" so that other communities can also join in

Three authorities:

1. Professor Godfrey Muriuki - please read his published thesis on the Agikuyu

2. My Grandmother Wambui (may her soul rest in peace). Every time she used a Gikuyu proverb she would acknowledge the fact that all Gikuyu wisdom came from Kirinyaga (Embu and Mbere) by prefacing the saying as follows: "as the man wise man from Ndia (Kirinyaga) said...."

3. Professor Kabeeca Mwaniki and Professor Muriuki - say that the Gikuyu arrived in Nyeri, Muranga and Kabete in at least three streams: a) from Ithanga (via the Tana river up from the coast) b) from the north (Ethiopia via Meru and Mbeere) and c) from the east as a branch of the Maragoli, Kisii and partly the Purko Maasai/Samburu.

It is on record that:

a) more than a third of Gikuyu clan (mihiriga) names are Kamba

b)all Gikuyu sub-clan (mbari) names are derived from the Ndia

c) Consonant drift mandates that, over time, languages drift towards the easiest pronounceable sounds. Thus 'Kirinyaga; becomes ,'Kenyaa' (Kenya) proving that the Kamba language preceded Gikuyu

Finaly the origin story of the Agikuyu people with its strange affinity to Egyptian and Jewish mythology is clearly suspect.

It sounds like a narrative created in reverse, perhaps to justify Gikuyu land grabbing from the original Athi, Dorobo/Ogiek who occupied the Nyeri valley before they were chased out.

A caveat here: I am not trying to diss my people here. God knows others have done much worse.

Just telling it as it is.

Thimeoni: you are the one who needs to read the post again, very slowly. It is full of errors. For instance, the 'b'as in baba is not equivalent to 'f'- fafa. Never ever.

I do not claim to be a linguist or anthropologist. However I think our specialists could be wrong.

If the theory of consonant drift holds water then Kamba is older than Gikuyu

Outlier words like: 'Magegoo' even generation names like Mwangi, Maina, Njeri, Muchiri etc that have no equivalent in similar Bantu languages could be explained easily via derivation.

For instance Muchiri (Onchiri, Bushiri etc) is derived from the Egyptian god - Osiris (the great judge/advocate) and the meanings have remained closely similar. Wacici is from Isis, Wa-riua from Ra, Ngai from (Sumerian) Enki etc.

Maina and Mwangi, as I recently read on Wazua, could be likened/derived from Pharaoh Ikhnaton's rein. Njeeri/Waceera means 'one who roves' and commemorates the nomadic behavior of the original Gikuyu people.

Similarly ,many verbs are estranged from Bantu language.

Bantu origin has been brought to us through the names of things: ngombe, mbuzi, nyumba, watu (Bantu) etc.

while i do not agree with wakanyugi on the Gikuyu language being derived from Kikamba, I have noted in the past some words appearing in folk songs are absent from kawaida Gikuyu. The Kirinyaga people have those 'archaic' words to date. E.g. Njara. The Agikuyu use guoko to mean hand while the Kirinyaga Kikuyu use njara. Then the song in weddings goes 'mwana ndanyitagwo na NJARA ya umotho anyitagwo na ya urio..'. Other words are naii meaning bad or evil. It is not used among the non-Ndia people except when referring to criminals as mwiki naii or eki naii