Exploring an ancient fortress in Migori

Landing at sunrise on the shores of Lake Victoria, we are looking forward to touring Thimlich Ohinga, a 14th century fortress in Migori County. It’s an hour’s drive through rural homesteads and flat plains that belie the extraordinary ancient fortress hidden in their midst.

As we drive through what was once a dense forest, Mitei from the National Museums of Kenya points out the walls of Thimlich Ohinga, a Dholuo phrase which translates into frightening dense forest (thimlich) and fortress (ohinga).

A simple sign points to the fortress that is gazetted and under the custodianship of the National Museums of Kenya and the Kenya Wildlife Service. A cluster of grass-thatched mud huts in a Luo homestead stand on an open plain and a few steps away, the awesome structure of the fortress walls still stands.

“These are the kind of homesteads that were inside the walls,” says Charles Otieno Polo, the local guide. The eldest wife’s hut is the biggest and built right across the gate and next to it is her husband’s hut followed by the huts of co-wives.

Standing at the entrance of the ancient fortress brings to light the magnitude of the dry-stone architecture and the civilisation of the people, that is the only one of its kind in the country.

Under the bright hot sun and blue sky, we marvel at Thimlich Ohinga with its granite rocks of different shapes and sizes stacked carefully to make a formidable external wall that nobody could break through. The wall is three metres thick and 4.2 metres high.

“This was the main gate,” Polo continues, pointing to the slab that is the lintel holding the frame – a single slab of more than 10 feet spanning the width of the entrance. There are more every few inches apart to support the wall.

It’s a little dark walking through the entrance and we have to crouch – a clever tactic, for an enemy that’s forced to crouch is already weak. In a few seconds we’re inside the ancient fortress that boasts a diameter of 140 feet. It’s suitably a large kingdom.

“Those are two emergency entrances,” the guide points to similar openings in the wall. 

Standing by the entrance on the inner side, Polo reels out more amazing facts about the fortress. “The walls were built using no mortar – they are all loose stones. There was no foundation dug either.”

By the main entrance he asks us to look at the wall closely – it’s not straight; it is built in a zig-zag manner purposely designed to withstand tremors. And by the entrance, the walls on either side are thicker and inclined.

“These were the watchtowers,” continues the guide climbing up to show how the sentries announced the distance of the approaching army. As the sentry walked down the incline, the enemy became more visible, indicating the distance.

Along the wall he points to buttresses – 22 in total – that added to the strength of the wall.

We wander inside the fortressed state and Polo points to more beams on entrances of the homesteads with engravings which showed the ownership of the homestead, equivalent to house numbers or name boards today. 

It was a well-thought-out state with long rows of rock benches for the citizens to sit and relax. More walls of granite show the kraals for the cattle, only this time the walls were less thick and higher – simply so that the owners could keep an eye on their cattle.

Farther inside, we reach a spot with a bao game, sharpening rock and grinding rock. In this space, the older men played the game, the women ground the grain, while the youngsters sharpened their weapons. And not far from there we see where the blacksmiths plied their trade and where the king held court on higher ground.

It is all a ghost kingdom now; the citizens vanished mysteriously and theories about what could have happened abound. One theory is that the original residents were of Bantu origin, possibly the ancestors of the Luhya and Gusii. They lived here until the Luo began spreading their might. It is thought that the inhabitants migrated to Tanzania in the 16th century, abandoning this great stone state that is compared to the Great Zimbabwe Empire. The people who built this fortress with so much precision never built another of such magnitude.

TOUR THE WEST SIDE

Thimlich Ohinga is 58 kilometres (an hour’s drive) from Homa Bay via Rodi Kopany. It is 181 kilometres south of Kisumu. Combine a visit to this old fortress by touring the Macalder Mines, Ruma National Park, Rusinga and Mfangano Island and the lighthouse at Lake Victoria Safari Village.