Heroes that kept the fire burning

By Bill Rutto

Mfangano Island on Lake Victoria was used by the British colonial authorities in Kenya as a detention camp for political dissidents.

The island, a short distance from the Mbita Point on the mainland, was used mainly between the 1930s and 1962 (the eve of Kenya’s Independence), to detain members of the Nandi and Kipsigis Talai clan.

The Talai were descended from the Maasai oloiboni clan, and produced such great opponents of colonialism in Kenya as Koitalel Samoei, who led the Nandi resistance to British rule between 1895 and 1905, and his son, Barsirian arap Manyei.

With an expansive mass of water around it, the Mfangano Island as a dentition camp was as secure as any high security place could be. It was well protected by armed policemen.

Escape from Mfangano Island was, therefore, deemed inconceivable, even in the unlikely event that security around the inmate quarters was lax.

Dramatic escape

But a courageous and creative Nandi woman, who had been detained along with her husband and freedom fighter, escaped from the island in 1957. Her dramatic escape not only baffled the authorities but also set in motion one of the largest (and no doubt most embarrassing) manhunts in Kenya then.

The woman, Tapsiargaa, was the wife of Barsirian arap Manyei who had been in detention from time to time since 1923 for leading a “subversive” movement among the Nandi.

After managing to evade arrest for years, Manyei was arrested and dispatched to Mfangano Island in 1932.

Shocking experience

His two wives, Tapsiargaa and Taprongoer, and a young son, Musee, were allowed to accompany him to the island, as he was expected to remain on the island for a long time.

Tapsiargaa’s escape so soon after arriving in Mfangano was, however, a shocking experience for the authorities there. The incident angered senior Government officials and triggered a shakeup of the local security setup.

In fact, a police corporal named Jairu Osika, who failed to apprehend her when she turned up on the mainland without a pass as a restricted person, was demoted, while the boatman who took her to the mainland was charged with “aiding and abetting the escape” of Tapsiargaa.

“I remember the journey from the island very well, but I had no idea my mother was escaping from the authorities,” says Musee arap Barsirian, who was a toddler on his mother’s back and who is now 60.

“All she told me was that she was taking me to stay with her own mother called Taparno Perut who then lived on Icely’s Farm,” he said.

Musee, the grandson of Koitalel arap Samoei, is now a farmer in Nandi Hills.