Veterans of Nandi resistance to Britain seek compensation

By Allan Kisia

Kenya: Weeks after the British Government offered Sh2.6 billion in compensation to Mau Mau war veterans, another group is now claiming a similar reparation.

The group, led by Nandi Hill MP Alfred Keter, wants a Sh2 billion compensation for atrocities allegedly committed by the British Government during the Nandi Rebellion.

Keter said they are at the moment putting together a team of lawyers who will file the suit abroad.

“A lot of people were killed and thousands more displaced during the Nandi Rebellion. The UK Government should also accept liability for atrocities committed during the period,” he said.

The Nandi Rebellion against the British colonial rule was led by Koitalel arap Samoei (1860–1905), who was an Orkoiyot, the supreme chief of the Nandi people.

When British colonials began building the Uganda Railway through the Nandi area, he led an 11-year resistance movement against the railway.

On October 19, 1905, he was invited by British Col Richard Meinertzhagen under the guise of negotiating a truce, and was instead murdered along with his companions.