Thika, Thika Thika, i hate this town

Karma_mama said:
We decided together. We are the Bill and Melinda of this village.
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Yeah yeah yeah...we know.
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Meria said:
niaje mdau, Thika is to bury
Long before white settlers broke ground in Kenya, the area today known as Thika Town was a stage for many internicine battles between the Maasai on the one hand, and the Kikuyu and Kambas on the other.
The Thika and Chania rivers formed a natural boundary amongst these three tribes, the Kikuyu to the north, the Kambas to the east and the Maasai to the south. The Maasai outnumbered the other two tribes and were ferocious warriors; unbeatable in the plains and lower ground.
However, their war tactics were ineffective in forest and mountainous areas. Each time the Maasai raided their adversaries for livestock and women they would win easily, walking away with their spoils as the Kikuyu and Kamba retreated to the forest and surrounding hills.
The only saviour would be an outbreak of disease or famine which would reduce the Maasai population significantly and consequently their strength, but then as soon as their numbers recovered, they would be back for more of the same.
In any event, it must be remembered that the Maasai were nomadic pastoralists while the Kikuyu and Kamba were crop farmers, hence the different behaviour patterns. Many of the Kikuyu who died during the skirmishes were buried in a mass grave which can be identified by a mound near the confluence of the two rivers.
It is widely thought that this was the origin of the name “Guthika” which means “to bury” and shortened to Thika, giving the town its name.
During the late 1880s, there were serious outbreaks of rinderpest and smallpox which affected cattle and people respectively. The Maasai appear to have come off worse in this episode as their livestock and people were decimated leaving the area south of the Chania free for occupation by the Kikuyu, who themselves were escaping epidemics believing they were the work of evil spirits.
Given this scenario, it is no wonder that the white settlers believed that this land was unoccupied when they ventured north of Nairobi in the 1890s.
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Interesting, I take some historical facts with a pinch of salt.
I question the pronunciation thika as in bury is pronounced with a short I and kiuks pronounce thika the town with a a long e as in Theeka, how do you explain that?
Then there is the curious name River Thika which suggests that the name existed before the "war"/
 
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