The Talai Question: Hounded by the British, community still in shackles

By Amos Kareithi

The story of Kenya’s longest suffering community, the Talai resonates with the history of Jews of Israel who were targeted for extermination by Adolf Hitler’s regime during the Second World War.

A researcher, Bill Ruto, who has conducted lengthy studies of the clan for the last ten years, says the community was a victim of colonial oppression, a violation of their human rights that is actionable.

He criticises both the colonial and post independence governments for failing to resolve the Talai question, which he likens to the Germany’s policy toward Jews who were targeted for extermination.

Ruto has gathered data, which he claims proves that during their days in captivity, 900 people died from extreme weather conditions, diseases and psychological trauma after being uprooted from their homes.

“There has been a misconception that the British administration relocated the Talai so as to seize their land. The reasons were deeper as they did not need to relocate them to steal the land. They wanted to minimise the Talai’s influence among the Kipsigis,” he explains.

The Resistance

The Talai’s resistance to the British occupation was spearheaded by their most illustrious prophet of modern times, Koitalel Arap Samoei, a military genius who harassed the occupation forces for over ten years.

Koitalel had warned the Nandi about the ulterior motives of the visitors and staged a spirited resistance against the British from 1895 to 1905.

During the protracted war, Nandi warriors made it impossible for the construction of the railway.

Historical records show that the British killed Koitalel, after duping him into attending a peace meeting only to be shot in cold blood by captain Richard Meinertzhagen,? who? had been assigned the duty of capturing Koitalel.

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

According to Meinertzhagen, an attractive young virgin was allegedly sent by the Orkoiyot on October 12, 1905 at Nandi Fort as a peace offering.

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

To capture and kill, Meinhertzhagen had at his disposal 7,648 soldiers, policemen, spies, Masai levies and porters who were transported in two armoured trains.

On September 26, 1905, Koitalel allegedly convened his war council to finalise plans of finishing off the rebellion he had sustained for the last decade.

The epic battle between the two strategists, Koitalel and Meinertzhagen took place? On October 19, 1905 at around 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 Orkoiyot wrenched himself free. I am unable to state with certainty what followed. The Laibon was shot simultaneously by myself and my native officer (Mbaruk Effendi). I took two stone-headed knobkerries from the Laibon’s belt.”

TRIP TO COAST

After the Laibon was killed, the British then tried to endear themselves to Kipchober Arap Koilegen, who resided in Kericho by promoting him to a paramount chief although they already found him an established leader among the Kipsigis.

They tried to woo Koitalel’s brother by organising a trip for him to the coast where he and his seven advisers were taken to Mombasa and feted like celebrities in the hope that Koilegen would sign away the land in Kericho for tea growing.

“During the trip, my grandfather declined to sign any agreement with the British as the land did not belong to him. He realised that all along the British had been planning to grab his people’s land and his attitude towards them changed,” Joseph Sigilai explains.

Somehow, the British did finalise a plan, which was aimed at disciplining Koilegen for his insolence and also rid the entire Nandi and Kipsigis land of the influence of the Talai clan.

On January 7, 1914 Koilegen, his brother Boisio and Kibuigut? were tricked into travelling to Kipkelion (Lumbwa Station) where they were slapped with detention orders? and transported to Nairobi in a cargo train before being taken to Murang’a, Nyeri and Meru.

Deprived of their spiritual leaders and still reeling from the shock of the detention of their leaders, the British colonialists delivered a sucker punch when it rounded up all the Talai clan members in Nandi and confined them in a concentration camp in 1920s.

The remaining Talai clan members, numbering about 110 families, were rounded up in 1934 after the British security agencies allegedly seized some weapons, which had been stolen by some of the Talai military recruits who had participated in the First World War.

“We were worse than prisoners. Prisoners in a conventional jail knew their crime and their verdict. In our case we were all guilty of crimes we were never tried. To majority of the Talai, the sentence has been a lifetime of agony and deprivation.” Sigilai explained.

At Gwassi those who attempted to travel back to their ancestral land were rounded up and charged like common criminals and sentenced to six months in jail.

They all died in detention, which paved the way for the British to execute their plan of removing the entire clan from their ancestral land so that they could grow tea.

The frustrations and bewilderment of Kenyans over the plight of the Talai are captured by a letter authored by one brave policeman, Ndoigo Titilei who breached protocol and attempted to write to Baraza, a Kiswahili newspaper in 1944.

He wondered what crime the entire Talai community had committed to deserve a collective jail term saying the area they had been taken to was uninhabitable while their livestock was being wiped out by disease.

Regardless of whatever crimes they had committed, the police officer in the letter, which was intercepted by his District commissioner and forwarded to the Nyanza PC observed that for ten years, no youth had been allowed to marry.

On November 14, 1945, ten years after the translocation, Kericho DC, telegrammed his boss the Nyanza Provincial Commissioner about the fate of the Talai clan and what he thought was the final solution.

no sympathy

“In all respect I think we should face up to the fact that we should concentrate on the children and as brutal as it may seem, leave the old men to die out gradually. If we do this the area around the township should be sufficient. I have no sympathy for the old age grade who made life so difficult for the government in the past,” the administrator wrote.”

This telegram confirms the government policy at the time, which was to allow some of the young men and women to return from Gwassi, but were not allowed to interact freely with the other residents of Kericho.

Instead, they were accommodated in a concentrated area where they had to obtain special permission whenever they required to travel.

In 1962, when the colonial administration started relinquishing the reins of power, they softened their stance towards the Talai and allowed the clan back to Kericho after more than 30 years in captivity.

“When the rest of Kenya was celebrating the country’s independence, we never got our freedom. We are still waiting for our independence as we are still shackled in poverty,” a former councilor, Rhoda Turengei laments.

Since they returned from Gwassi in 1962, Turengei like hundreds of other Talai clan members has been squatting on Municipal Council land where they were directed to wait as the government sought alternative land to settle them.

“I am 83 years old and near my grave. How can the government make us wait for about 50 years to correct a historical wrong against us? They took our land and have been unwilling to return it. This is unacceptable,” Sigilai expounds.

Ruto feels that the Talai are owed an explanation and an apology by both the colonial and post-Independence regimes for the suffering they went through.

After 78 years of broken promises the Talai are tired of turning the other cheek and are now preparing to? sue for their rights and hopefully, the elusive justice will finally be served.