Signal to transfer power

Signal to transfer power

For the Kikuyu people of central Kenya, the most populous ethnic group in the country, the fig tree known as "mugumo" has traditionally been a shrine, a place of worship and sacrifices.

The Kikuyu do not allow a fig tree to be cut down - they believe such an act could spell disaster.

When a fig tree withers or falls to the ground naturally, the Kikuyu see it as a bad omen or a signal to transfer power from one traditional age set or generation to the next. Each generation rules for about 30 years.

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President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is himself Kikuyu, may have been the bearer of some bad news for Kenyans in his political life, but I'm not sure he fancied carrying the cultural and spiritual burden of a dead mugumo tree.

While environmentalists campaigned to stop the destruction of the tree, Kikuyu traditionalists watched with bated breath and stood with the tree and against the destruction of their culture.

This is not the first time that a stubborn government has been stopped in its tracks by nature as it attempted to erode the environment.

In the late 1980s the then ruling party - the Kenya African National Union - came up with a grand plan to build a massive skyscraper as its headquarters in the middle of Nairobi's famous Uhuru Park.

Protesters mounted a campaign to save the fig tree

At 60 storeys, the Times Media Complex with offices, shopping malls and parking for hundreds of cars, was going to be the tallest building in the East Africa region.

Environmentalists led by the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Prof Wangari Maathai launched a campaign to fight the building and save the park.

In the end, Daniel arap Moi, who was then president, grudgingly listened to the voice of Uhuru Park and its trees.

Without fanfare, the skyscraper was scrapped and today many residents of Nairobi still have a serene green space for family outings and picnics.