Gathukimundu is a place in Mukurwe-ini District formally in Central Province but now in Nyeri County, Kenya.
The name is a concatenation of two kikuyu words gathuki-means the part of a tree that remains when it is cut mundu-means 'human being'. The two words together now mean a tree remain which resembled a human being.This came from the colonial days whereby the tree remain used to scare the colonialists and in fact in most occasions attacking it thinking it were maumau fighters. This has since then been the name of the village, catholic church and a primary school around that place.
The climate of Central Province is generally cooler than that of the rest of Kenya, due to the region's higher altitude. Rainfall is fairly reliable, falling in two seasons, one from early March to May (the long rains) and a second during October and November (the short rains).
The province is inhabited by the Kikuyu speaking community who are part of the Kenya Eastern Bantu.
During Kenya's colonization by the British, much of the province was regarded as part of the 'White Highlands', for the exclusive use of the settler community. Therefore, it saw political activity from the local communities who felt that they had an ancestral right to the land. This tension culminated in the 1950s with the Mau Mau rebellion; it saw the region placed under a state of emergency and the arrest of many prominent political leaders.