The Kingdom of Nabongo:
You cannot talk about Abawanga without recognising the role of Nabongo Mumia (pictured right) who ruled the Wanga Kingdom at a time when Africa was getting into colonial contact with Europeans and Arabs. Mumia, from whose name the administrative town of Mumias is derived, ruled the Kingdom for 67 years from 1882 to 1949 in one of the longest and epochal reigns in African history.

When the British arrived in Western Kenya in 1884, they found the Wanga Kingdom of the Abaluhya as the only organized state with a hereditary ruler (Nabongo) and a centralized monarch (kingship) in the whole of what later came to be known as Kenya. The ruling Nabongo at the time was Mumia (son of Shiundu) from which the name of the current Mumias town was derived. Mumia died in 1949 and was succeeded by his son Nabongo Shitawa. The current Nabongo is Peter Mumia II. More>>>