Please give me back my monkey skin, 93-year-old tells Ruto

A 93-year-old man from Kapkoi village in Eldama Ravine, Baringo County, is appealing to Deputy President William Ruto to return his traditional regalia.

Kimitei Kiplagat claims the shawl, made from black monkey skin, was used by the DP when he toured the region on Saturday.

A disturbed Kiplagat says his friend borrowed the attire to go perform at a cultural dance in December last year, but had not returned it several months down the line.

Kiplagat says every time he requested to have the regalia back, the man would claim he still had other festivals to attend, and promised to hand it over as soon as he was done.

“It wasn’t until the other day that I learnt it was taken away by the Deputy President while in the area,” said Kiplagat.

News that his “cloth”, as he calls it, had been transferred to a third party surprised him, and he thought someone was trying a joke on him.

Taken away

“I thought the man I lent it to had it, only to realise it had been taken away. The “cloth” was kept inside one of the DP’s vehicles and one of my children told me that he heard the man saying it was taken away,” said Kiplagat.

The elderly man says it was not in order to have the DP wear the shawl, since whoever gave it to him was not its owner.

He claims the shawl, known as Sambut in local dialect, is a special one usually worn in ceremonial rites of passage like circumcision, where it is wrapped around initiates, particularly one who is an only boy in the family, or an orphan. Kiplagat says it would have been in order to have him, as the owner of the shawl, wrap it around the DP.

He now claims the shawl is the only one of its kind remaining in the area and is worried that no major traditional ceremony will be performed without it, hence his plea to the DP to have it returned to him.

Asked why he could not replace the shawl with another one, Kiplagat sheepishly smiles and says ‘’it is difficult’’. Kiplagat seems to understand the law against poaching and says getting another monkey skin would be inviting trouble.

His age does not also allow him to go hunting, he says, adding that at least 10 monkeys would have to be killed to identify the right skin to have a similar shawl made.

He says the shawl is not for sale and is meant to be handed down from one generation to the next. “I just need to have it back and all will be well with me,” pleaded the old man.

Jonah Taalam confirmed that it is the one he had borrowed from Kiplagat.

A worried Taalam told The Standard he was approached by some elders, who wanted to ‘coronate’ the DP, and asked to give the regalia.

“I gave them knowing it will come back, as such regalia are usually not taken away,” said Taalam.

When reached for comment, Ruto’s spokesman David Mugonyi said he is not aware of claims that the DP took the regalia. The DP, he added, is not aware of who organised the ceremony and where the shawl came from.