Murutu people
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The Murutu people were a community that, according to the oral literature of the Meru people of Kenya, inhabited regions of the Swahili coast and the Kenyan hinterland at various times in history.[1]
Contact with Cushitic communities
Meru tradition states that they met Cushitic speaking communities while on their migratory journey. The descriptions of these communities have been matched with present identity realities and contemporary understanding of regional history to show that they bear elements of historicity.
Yaaku
In the narratives of various Meru informants, contact with a Cushitic community occurred even before they got to Mount Kenya. This community is referred to in various regions as Ukara, Ukara and Muoko, Ikara or Agira and Mwoko. In Mwimbi, they are referred to as Ukara while in Tigania they are known as Muoko. The totality of traditions indicate that these communities belonged to one or more sections of the Oromo-speaking peoples i.e. Borana (previously identified as Galla), Oromo etc. Traditions of the Mukogodo identify this community as Yaaku.
Traditions in each region describe the 'Ukara' et al. as having "buried their dead in a sitting position, covering each grave with stones". This was confirmed by an early colonial administrator who uncovered several alleged 'Muoko' graves, pointed out to him by Meru elders, which substantiated the practice of burial in a sitting position. A Methodist missionary would later note the similarity between the 'Muoko' burials and those still practiced by the Tana River Galla.[3]
Mukogodo
Meru folklore indicates that the Galla were linked to groups of forest hunters. This community is variously referred to as Mukoko, Mukuru, Mukuguru, Aruguru and in one region Mu-Uthiu. In Mwimbi, the forest hunters were called Mukoko or Mukuru and were linked to livestock-owning Ukara while Tiganians describe Mukuguru (or Aruguru) as allied to the Muoko herders of their region. Tradition states that this community subsisted through hunting and trade with their neighbors. Existing evidence suggests that these names are variants of Mukogodo, a contemporary Ogiek people, whose original language was part of the Cushitic cluster.[3]