This paper generates qualitative information on how the Mau Mau war transformed the Agikuyu female circumcision and its implications on women's roles, value and gender relations among the Agikuyu in Kiambu. The Agikuyu people of Kiambu believed that, in the traditional set up, female circumcision defined gender roles and women's power to negotiate space with men. During the Mau Mau war, the practice experienced a considerable changes but it persisted with minimal training and ceremonies. The paper uses a descriptive research design which gives a narrative description of the state of affairs as it exists. The source of information is mainly Oral interviews, Archival information, and cross-checked information from written documents. The transformation that took place in the Agikuyu female circumcision rite during the Mau Mau war is analysed within the concept of gender which gives the study a comprehensive relational platform through which gender roles and relations are interrogated. The study concludes that the persistence of the practice during the Mau Mau war was due to deeply rooted cultural identification, and the need for the Agikuyu women and men to negotiate social space and relations. It is evident in this study that during the Mau Mau war the Agikuyu men and women feared to be victimized and to be rejected by the society and therefore they practiced female circumcision for social-cultural approval and affirmation. Also the practice assisted men to preserve their superior values and dominance role during the period of political uprising.

The introduction colonial capitalist economic policies and practices such as land alienation, forced labour and commercial crop production acted as a major catalyst of change on the existing African indigenous subsistence production especially the Agikuyu Women’s Indigenous Knowledge System (AWIKS). This research paper focused on examining the effects of European colonialism on the AWIKS on food crop production from 1902-1918. The study employed descriptive research design and historical trend analysis and it was done in three sub-counties of Kiambu West, namely, Limuru, Lari and Kikuyu. Purposive and snowballing technique was used to get the respondents who were the bearers of the most relevant information. The main source of information was the corroboration of oral interviews, archival records analysis and secondary data. Oral interviews data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) and reported using basic simple descriptive statistics. The Women and Development (WAD) theory helped to examine the nature in which the Agikuyu women were integrated in colonial capitalist economy, which explains their marginalization, subordination, oppression and dependency on men. The study found out that during the establishment of colonial rule the Agikuyu people were moved from their indigenous land and were pushed to poor, marginal and unproductive reserve areas where they did not have enough experience and accumulated indigenous knowledge system of the new agro-ecosystem. In addition, most of the drought tolerant food crops were neglected and others destroyed a move that may have led to underutilization of AWIKS on food crop production. This implied that the food supply was compromised and the society became more vulnerable to drought and famine. Therefore, in order to enhance food supply in the households some of the AWIKS on food crop production may be integrated into the modern western agricultural production practices.