Abstract:
St. Andrew's Church, Nairobi has identified a need to provide guidance to
teenagers and is in the process of designing a mentoring program. The literature
available on mentoring has been written mostly in the West. African traditions similar
to mentoring have remained largely unexplored. The purpose of this study was to
explore the role of the mutiiri in Kikuyu traditional society, with a view to discovering
mentoring principles that would be transferable to a modern urban context,
specifically, St. Andrews Church.
The seven participants interviewed in the study were drawn from bordering
locations in Thika and Gatundu. The data collected from the interviews were analyzed
using qualitative methods of open, axial, and selective coding. The theory that
emerged from the data was that the atiiri were both educators and nurses. They shared
their educational role with the parents and the peers of their charges. Their
effectiveness as educators depended on their charges' willingness to commit and
adhere to the value system of traditional Kikuyu society. Initiates receptive to external
influences such as Christianity and Western education were less committed.
After the integration of literature it was recommended that the mentoring
program at St. Andrew's Church should be community based and community-wide. It
should be associated with important events in the lives of the mentorees and should
encourage team work among mentors, parents and the community. The selection of
mentors should take into consideration the character of the mentors, the possibility of
role conflict, and the willingness of the mentorees, which would affect the
effectiveness of the program.
