On Sunday, 7th April 1996, about 25 years ago, Charles Musyoki Kikumbi and his Kimangu Band crew exited Mombasa Road at a small town called Kinyambu and joined a muddy murram road that would eventually take them to Luka Katumo’s home in Maikuu, Kavingo area. He had been invited to grace the housewarming party and during the build-up to the event, the locals could not keep calm as they waited patiently to ‘see’, greet, ‘touch’ and speak to the Benga maestro who was courting a local beautiful girl from Machinery.

 

What Kijana and his team didn’t know is that, a heavy downpour the previous night (saturday 6 april) had wretched havoc on the murram road deeming it temporarily impassable between the Misava gutter slope and Lucas place. The crew would spend some agonizing six hours trying to get their vehicle from the muddy road and the sporadic rain showers that Sunday afternoon worsened the situation. By the afternoon, every member of the crew looked like an angry mud monster. The crew's van was stuck in the mud on the dilapidated road. They were trying to move it, but the mud was deep. Each time they tried to drive, the wheels spun, and mud flew everywhere. Kijana was getting more and more frustrated.

 

When they were finally unstuck from the mud by a farm tractor, it was getting late. But what followed was an electrifying performance by the team. However, most locals from the neighboring villages of Kithasyu, Metava, Ituumo, Kasasule, Ithaayoni, Kikunduku, Kyaani and Utithi could not make it to the event as the Ituumo, Thange and Kamunyuni river streams were flooded.

 

In Kimangu volume 15 released two months later, Kijana immortalized the tribulations through two tracks. SHIDA YA KINYAMBU and MATESO KAVINGO