Abstract:
A comparative examination of the public rainmaking rituals in Kitui District
and the secret rainmaking rituals in Bunyore location of Kakamega District, both in Kenya,
reveals that public rituals are more susceptible to rapid social change than those of secret.
Secondly. although rainmaking rituals are a response to scarcity or unreliability that are rain-
fall. such rituals can be found even in the areas of adequate rainfall either because the people
once lived in an area of rainfall scarcity or the rainmakers are strangers who came from such
areas. Thirdly, the efficacy of rainmaking rituals is based on faith, and due to the involvement
of the supernatural, they have socio-psychological implications on the participants.
