Our History
GEMA was founded in 1971 as a Limited Company with the main purpose of buying and redistributing land to the people of Gikuyu, Embu and Meru, who had experienced dispossession of their land during the colonial oppressive regime that had forcefully taken their prime land and put them into forced labour.
The three communities, by virtue of their vicinity around Mt Kenya and their similarities in culture and proximity, and having strived together for independence, and having common challenges of poverty, hunger, diseases, illiteracy and external aggression sought to coalesce together and chart their own destiny.
The organization continued to operate and settled thousands of its members until early 80’s when the then President, banned the Association, viewing it t have had strong political influence. To survive the onslaught that ensued, GEMA transmuted and changed name to Agriculture Holdings Limited.
Later during the 2007/2008 post-election violence that targeted the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru against the rest of Kenya, the three communities found it necessary to support each other against the violence and profiling that led to the loss of more than 1,000 people and displacement of over 500,000, majorly in the Rift Valley, Nairobi and Coast regions. This was not the first time for such violence to take place. It had happened in 1991/2 and 1997 election years but in smaller scale.
In the context of modernization, immigration within and without the country and the tendency to champion individual and communal realization of dreams, the community found it necessary to form legal entities that would promote their aspirations.
Over the years, the Akamba community, who are closely related to the Agikuyu, Aembu and Ameru have been desiring to join GEMA. Several attempts were made starting with the clamor for independence and post-independence, but in 2024 the process of integration was successfully completed and the Akamba integrated to form the larger GEMA (Gikuyu, Embu, Meru and Akamba) Cultural Association (GCA).
GCA is governed through a Delegates Conference that meets annually. It has a Supreme Council comprising a Patron where all the key leaders of the various Institutions converge, and a National Executive Council that superintends the Association’s operations through the GCA Executive Committee (Excom) and a Secretariat that runs the daily activities and programmes.
At the grassroots, GCA is mobilized along various thematic groupings comprised of; Community Elders, Religious leaders, Women and Youth Leagues and other organized groupings in the community. They are galvanized at GCA branch level, the lowest unit being a Constituency as defined in the Kenya Constitution.