Kalenjin elders now demand UK payout

By Kipchumba Kemei and Job Weru

Kenya: A group of Kalenjin elders wants the British Government to compensate the community for atrocities it committed against it during the fight for independence.

Like Mau Mau who have been compensated, they said the community bore the brunt of the fight for liberation and accused the United Kingdom of discriminating against them.

“The notion that it is only one community which fought in the war for independence is misplaced. All communities participated in it. The Kalenjin community, which fought the British incursion of the white highlands is eligible for compensation,” said the elders’ spokespersons Samuel Samoei and Tarno Kibet.

Lost warriors

They said in Narok that the community which inhabits North Rift region lost its warriors in the war for independence, adding that the UK Government had acknowledged having killed their leader, Laibon Koitalel Samoei.

“In his memoirs, Mein Hertz Hagen acknowledged killing Samoei who opposed the building of the Kenya-Uganda railway. In 2003, the UK Government returned some of the things that were taken from his house,” said Kibet, who demanded that his head, which is still in Britain, be returned.

Arable land

Separately, Maasai elders also asked UK to consider compensating the community, claiming that it lost huge tracts of arable land during the battle for independence.

In Central region, a legislator has called on the British Government to increase the compensation package they have offered Mau Mau fighters to at least Sh10 billion.

Kieni MP James Kanini Kega said the Sh2.6 billion was not enough to cover the suffering and loses the freedom fighters underwent during the clamour for independence.

“We are also reading ill-motive in the fact that the British Government has declared it will only compensate over 5,000 people, while so many people participated in the fight,” he said.