Dramatic life and tragic death of a great seer

By AMOS KAREITHI

The great seer's life had been dramatic but it ended tragically during a season of madness as an agitated crowd charged into his house, pelted him with stones and speared him to death. And as he drew his last breath, the betrayed diviner declared that never again would his community be independent. This was the price they had to pay for conspiring to kill him and elevate his son as the next Orkoiyot (seer).

Despite the secrecy, which had gone into the planning, Kimnyolei arap Turgat had predicted through his mystic powers his own tragic demise much earlier and warned his sons. Like his forefathers before him, Turgat had inherited his office as the supreme spiritual leader of the Nandi. His word was final in military, political and social matters.

The office also earned him some powerful enemies who held him accountable for many failed cattle raids, which the Orkoiyot had sanctioned. They were determined to eliminate him.

"It was mandatory for the Nandi to consult the Orkoiyot before they raided any of their neighbours to secure his blessing. Only after the Orkoiyot gave his blessing, would the raid be executed," Bill Ruto, a researcher explained.

One of Turgat’s great grandsons, Joseph Elly Sigilai, explains the clans had pressured the Orkoiyot to bless their raids and after disastrous results resented the prophet and secretly planned to kill and replace him with one of his sons, Koitalel arap Samoei.

Before he was executed, Turgat reportedly summoned his council of elders and his sons for a feast where he talked of the planned treachery. He told his sons to approach the beer pot and report what they saw.

Koitalel announced he had seen strange white people armed with a stick, which had fire, emerging from a gigantic metallic snake, with no head or tail.

The white men, elders now explain, were the British colonialists and the white snake was the Kenya- Uganda Railway, while the stick was the gun, used to suppress those opposed to British occupation.

Turgat then predicted Koitalel would be whipped with the burning stick on the face, with tragic results. Kurgat was killed by a group led by some of his in-laws related to Koitalel’s mother.

That Koitalel was the natural Orkoiyot after his father had never been in doubt. He had been confirmed as the special one at infancy when some of his stepmothers doubted his parentage.

"Shortly before Koitalel was born, his mother deserted Turgat’s home. This got the other wives gossiping the baby boy had been born out of wedlock," Sigilai explains.

Scandalised by the rumours of infidelity, Turgat ordered Koitalel’s mother to place the six-month-old baby at the entrance of the homestead one evening.

Sigilai recounts the outraged seer declaring to his gossipy wives, "If he is not my flesh and blood, he would be trampled to death and this shame would be over."

Nandi escarpment

The cows’ hooves thundered past the baby boy as his mother watched, electrified in fear, until the last one was in the kraal. Koitalel had passed his first test, confirming to the father and the entire homestead he was the chosen one.

The diviner was killed in 1890 and the elder sons, Kiptonui arap Bisio, Kibugut arap Singo’ei, Kipchomber arap Koilegen migrated from their home in Samitui village at the western edge of Nandi Escarpment to South Rift.

Koitalel remained in Nandi and consolidated his power as he reorganised his soldiers into a formidable force that could stand up against the mighty Maasai.

He tested his might by continuously harassing the whites as they constructed the railway across the Nandi land, targeting the collies and uprooting the railway at night, a move the British treated as a declaration of war.

At the time, the boundaries of the present day Uganda extended from Kampala up to Naivasha, enveloping the whole of Nyanza, Western and Rift Valley provinces to form part of Uganda’s Eastern Province.

Military historian Moyse Bartlett writes in Kings African Rifles that Uganda administrators could not cope with the constant attacks staged by Koitalel and his men.

Despite their superior weapons and trained soldiers, they were unable to contain the rebellion masterminded by the Koitalel’s well-organised military attacks.

Of eastern Uganda, Barllet writes, "The province was officially transferred to East Africa (Kenya) on April 1, 1902. Five days later, Kibigori Railway Station was raided and 30 sleevers stolen. When troops came to retaliate they found 60 more sleeves had been carried away."

When a deputy commissioner, Hobley, visited Kaptumo near Nandi Hills, he was horrified to discover the stolen iron had been cut up and sold.

He declared this was an act of war, saying the railway was as important to the British as cattle were vital to the locals and demanded that the community surrender 300 cows or face military action.

Koitalel laughed off the ultimatum and his soldiers intensified his attacks at times raiding railway camps in broad daylight and were undeterred by posting of additional heavily armed security agents.

"In January 1903, Kamelilo, Koitalel’s clan, made four trips to one camp. They removed 800 rivets, and 1,000 dog spikes at their pleasure. Cattle raids accompanied this. They got daring by the day and even attempted to raid 5KAR cattle Boma in Muhoroni," Bartlett said.

Five maxim rifles

The Government mobilised 570 guns, five maxim rifles, deployed 2,000 soldiers in an expedition in 1903 against the Nandi, who were armed with spears, shields and poisoned arrows.

When the big guns finally fell silent after the April 1903 onslaught, the troops had overran the country, killing 100 Nandi soldiers while they captured 4,800 cows and goats.

But the Nandi soldiers armed with spears, shields bows and arrows doggedly fought on, forcing the British to organise yet another military operation.

The operation Okayed on September 26, 1905, in Nairobi, which one of the biggest military at the time, was timed to begin in the third week of October.

Richard Meinertzhagen, a soldier who was commanding the fort in Nandi Hills, was also tasked with capturing Koitalel. He graphically describes the historic confrontation.

His book, Kenya Diary (1902-1906), narrates how he and Koitalel had tried to outwit each other by planting spies and employing black magic.

Meinertzhagen said the Laibon allegedly sent an attractive young virgin on October 12, 1905, at Nandi Fort as a peace offering. He (Meinertzhagen) had her stripped and retrieved a package of poison.

Meinertzhagen recounts that when Sir Donald Stewart, Kenya Protectorate’s Commissioner died on October 1, 1905, shortly before the Nandi punitive expedition began, this was attributed to Koitalel’s psychic powers.

In the meantime, Meinertzhagen’s plot to capture or kill Koitalel thickened when he tricked him to attend a peace meeting, even as the Government amassed a force of 7,648 soldiers and porters.

The troops comprised 1,320 KAR soldiers, 260 policemen, ten machine guns, two armoured trains, 500-armed porters, 1,000 Maasai levies and 3,460 unarmed porters.

On September 26, 1905, Meinertzhagen writes in his diary that Koitalel had presided over a war council on that day and declared the author was to be eliminated.

He dismisses Koitalel’s mission thus, "When 25,000 people are trying to kill one European it may seem like an easy job, but it is going to be difficult. Their methods are crude and I do not expect any difficulty in beating them at their own game".

Meinertzhagen had by this time obtained permission from his superiors to kill or capture Koitalel before the start of operation.

On October 19, 1905, he recounts he met his nemesis at 11.15am and Koitalel refused to shake hands. Meinertzhagen took this as treachery, grabbed his hand, and used him as a human shield.

Meinertzhagen gloats, "I seized the Laibon and dragged him forward, getting scratched by his spear. The Laibon wrenched himself free. I cannot state with certainty what followed. The Laibon was shot simultaneously by my native officer (Mbaruk Effendi) and I. I took two stone headed knobkerries from the Laibon’s belt."

"Before going to the meeting, I had warned (Sammy) Buttler to open fire if he saw us overwhelmed. He mounted the machine gun and covered the place of the meeting," Meinertzhagen adds.

The stuff, which Meinertzhagen seized have been in captivity in Britain for 100 years, until they recently liberated by scholars and returned to the community and are now prominently displayed at the museum.

The Koitalel Museum curator Francis Talam, explains "These are not ordinary sticks. They are the samburto, which symbolises the three offices of religion, administration and military associated with the Orkoiyot’s office."

Paramount chief

Koitalel was killed alongside 23 of his closest aides but much worse suffering for the community was to follow.

His eldest brother Arap Koilegen was initially made a paramount chief, but was later detained at Murang’a (Fort Hall), where he died in 1916. Arap Boisio, was detained in Nyeri at Kirichu village, and later transferred to Moyale where he died. Sing’oei Kibuigut died at Meru where he had been detained.

After 106 years since his demise, Francis Imbuga in Betrayal in the City somehow sums up Turgat’s descendants’ fate for "when the madness of an entire nation lies on the solitary shoulders of a man like Koitalel, it is not enough to say such a man is insane.

akareithi@standardmedia.co.ke