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A large percussive rattle instrument tied on the ankle. It is used by the kikuyu community of Kenya.

Gîîthooguo is fabricated from a metal tin measuring approximately 19.05cm diameter and a smaller version is called kîbege pronounced “kifege”. To prepare the metal tin and tune it, you need to burn it using fire to get rid of the paint.

It is still observed that recycled tins from cooking oil, cocoa drinking chocolate tins are widely used for the smaller version kîbege. People often refer to kîbege as kîgamba.

 

In the earlier days, precolonial gîîthooguo was made from dried hide, possibly from cows, it is then softened and molded to the size and shape desired by the player. To soften and make it easier to work on the skin a rock/stone used for scratching the feet when showering could be used for hitting it. After it dried pebbles are collected from rivers and placed inside to produce the sound. With this kind of material the sound produced has more lows which might be favoured.

 

Initially the community is thought to have put rocks inside. Colonisation brought glass bottles of alcohol and soda/soft drinks bottles which the instrument makers are thought to break the glass into pieces and replace the rocks with the glass pieces. It was argued that the sound was much more pleasing, possibly softer than the rocks. There has been a continuous discovery of materials used for fabricating both gîîthooguo and kîbege instruments from rocks, broken glasses, small nails to now small recycled bicycle bearings. Some makers also experimented using dried seeds from birds of paradise plants to produce desired rattle sound. 

 

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