Koitalel Arap Samoei: What led to his death and why the British government has not produced his head 70 years later

Koitalel Arap Samoei was a Kenyan freedom fighter and the Orkoiyot (supreme spiritual leader) of the Nandi community of the Great Rift Valley. According to a joint article by Shujaa Stories and the National Museum of Kenya, "Koitalel Arap Samoei was born to Kimnyole Arap Turukat at Samitu in Aldai in 1860".

It is said that Koitalel succeeded his father as the supreme spiritual leader and the political chief when he was 25 years old. One of Koitalel's prophecies was that of the coming of the Whiteman and a railway line. In a metaphor, he warned the people of Nandi that a long black snake that spits fire would pass through their land.

Koitalel Arap Samoei (Photo/ Kalenjin Media) 

Sometime later, there came the Kenya-Uganda railway with the British. The railway, which a news article on allAfrica calls "Lunatic Express" commenced at the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and was to pass through Nandi in the Rift Valley to Lake Victoria in Uganda. It is very clear from a Citizen Digital article that the British government had not yet reached an agreement with the Nandi community before building through their land.

>> Mekatilili Wa Menza: The heroine who is considered the first freedom fighter in Kenya<<

The interference on his ancestral land by a foreign people seemed something that Koitalel as a leader could not allow. He organized a strong resistance against the building of the railway across Nandi land. In the article by Shujaa Stories and the National Museum of Kenya, Koitalel is said to have been a strategic military leader. He attacked the railroad workers and the British colonial forces when they least expected it.

Calls on the British government to produce the head of Koitalel Arap Samoei and compensate victims of colonialism in Kenya

After leading an 11-year war against the British invasion of Nandi land, Koitalel Arap Samoei was murdered on October 19, 1905, in a fatal ambush. It is said that the British could not capture Koitalel for all that time and it highly humiliated them. 

The British later decided to call for a truce negotiation meeting where each party was to be accompanied by 5 people. Unknown to Koitalel and his 5 unprepared men, they were attacked by 80 men led by Col. Richard Meinertzhagen. According to Capital FM Kenya, more than 12,000 people are believed to have been killed in the 10-year struggle over the railroad that began in 1895 when surveyors first marked Nandi land as a route for the tracks.

The final blow to the Nandi community is said by Kenyan historians to happen when the British lured Koitalel into a death trap. My sources inform me that Koitalel was shot dead by Meinertzhagen when he was approaching to shake the colonel's hand. Only one of Koitalel's men managed to escape and tell the story to the villagers.

Sadly, that was the end of the Nandi resistance movement, after they lost their great leader, Koitalel Arap Samoei. Citizen Digital states that: "The colonialists decapitated the body and took the head to London". The reputed Kenyan media company on its official website says that the head of Koitalel was taken by the British as a war trophy. Koitalel's body was later buried at Nandi Hills Town, where his headless body was discovered. The grave is today designed with marble which shows his head missing.

Koitalel Arap Samoei Museum (Photo/ Wikimedia Commons)

The colonial era was a formidable period for Africans. Women and children died and men were forced to fight for their survival. In my previous article, The impacts of British imperialism in Africa,  I spoke more about the damages that the British government caused to Africa. Contrary to what former British foreign secretary, William Hague, said as quoted by Citizen Digital, colonialism marred Africa's progress not only toward independence but toward its achievement of a suitable African system of governance and economic development.

More on the Koitalel issue is that Mr. Geoge Tarus (Nandi County legal officer) who was reported on Citizen Digital on September 9th, 2022, urged the UK government to return Koitalel's head and offer a public apology for invading Kenya.

Contemporarily we acknowledge the strong ties with UK only that we want them to issue a public apology to the Nandi people. We also want them to return the head of Koitalel Arap Samoei. Maybe it is now the right time to do that especially as we seek to strengthen ties moving forward.

Said Mr. Tarus

Of course, this is not the first call made in reference to that matter. Similar calls by the Nandi community were made in 2016. This time, shortly after the death of Uk's Queen Elizabeth II on 8th September 2022, the call was reiterated expressing the urgency of the matter.

Tarus also informed Citizen Digital that during colonization, Nandi residents lost huge tracts of fertile land to the British lords, which are yet to be recovered. He also called for compensation to the affected families.

Citizen Digital further tells us that on 6th June 2013, the British government through its Foreign Secretary, William Hague, agreed to issue a compensation package of £19.9 million (Ksh.2.5 billion) to 5,228 claimants. This was after a landmark court ruling in October 2012 where 3 Kenyans won the right to sue the British Government.

The claimants (Wambugu Wa Nyingi, Paulo Muoka Nzili, and Jane Muthoni Mara) accused British forces of beating, torturing, raping, and even castrating people as they sought to put down the Mau Mau revolution against colonialism.

(getButton) #text=(Buy The African in Me by Martin Chiro) #file=(Use code CHIRO001MARTINDC and get 60% off) #icon=(buy) #size=(1) #color=(#bd2323) #info=(Buy Now)

Even though there is no matching price for the property damage and all lives lost under British colonialism, it will be a sign of good faith to compensate the affected families. If the Western world truly stands for democracy and human rights, it should see to it that there is a solution to historical injustices indiscriminately.

Acknowledgments: As informed by my former Campus friend, Alphonse KipKorir, through a WhatsApp conversation, 'Arap' simply translates to 'son of' as used by the Rift Valley communities - KipKorir is a proud son of those communities.