8 The Lu Tribe (2/2)

When a tribe head was elected, he would pass the stool to his son when he was too old to rule. The son would then pass the stool to grandson who would rule until he was exactly two hundred and sixty seasons old and he was expected to cancel his reign by himself.

The stool would then be vacant when the third generation head countermanded his reign. This cancellation could only be done at the palace at the presence of chiefs and the division heads, five moons before the day he intended to descend from the stool. The chiefs and the division heads then decided where the tribe head would come from. The division the outgoing tribe head came from could not give a candidate.

Three divisions were selectedto give at most eight candidates for the tribal stool race. The candidates were chosen by chiefs in the selected divisions. The candidates would then be approved by the clan members before they prepared for a competition with other candidates.

Chiefs were not qualified to vie for the position of the tribe head. The selected candidates were then sent to battle camps where they went through a lot of trainings. In the training they learned their responsibilities as the tribe heads. The training could go for around two moons.

After the training, the candidates went to live in the palace, where they directly interacted with the tribe head while their agents from each clan were selected by the chiefs for two weeks. In the last day of the second week, an election was done.

During the election,the various agents in all the clans were given stools and gourds. Each voter came with an 'ombulu' (a red and black pea-like seed) and casted it in a gourd held by the agent of interested candidate. Only initiated and married men were allowed to vote.

Warriors did not vote and were at the chief's compound, where the elections were held to ensure no one broke the rules.

The elections were expected to end at noon and the agents would go to their division headquarters where they handed over the gourds with 'ombulu' to selected division tribal head agents. These division agents had larger gourds.

The agents from the clans poured the contents of their gourds to their respective agents. The chiefs, division heads and the division agents then spent the night at the division headquarters and at the first cock crow, they would leave on horses to Kisum, the tribe headquarters.

At the headquarters, the process at the divisional level was repeated., and the candidate who had the highest number of 'ombulu' was announced the winner by the tribe head. The division heads, the chiefs and the various agents could then go back to their homes.

This whole process could take between a month and a half to two. On the first day of the third month, the outgoing head would hand over officially the stool to the incoming head at the royal palace at the presence of division heads, chiefs and all the clan elders.

Chief Ong'am was not any better than his first wife Anyango. He was even mad when he did not find his son home. He ordered his warriors and the village men to look for his son but they all came back empty handed after several days of searching.

The Chief and Anyango his first wife, for a long time missed food, sometimes went mad and sometimes had sleepless nights until time expunged the existence of their son out of their minds.