Talai clan wants Britain to return Koitalel Samoei's skull for decent burial

The Nandi community has petitioned King Charles III to ensure the return of the skull of their traditional leader -- the Great Nandi laibon Koitalel Arap Samoei -- who was killed by Richard Meinertzhagen, a British colonial soldier, in 1905.
 
Koitalel had waged a successful 10-year armed resistance against the foreign occupation by the British between 1895 to 1905 when he was lured to his death under the guise of a truce by Meinertzhagen.

Remembered as a great Nandi military and spiritual leader, he had mobilized Nandi warriors to resist attempts by the British to construct the Kenya Uganda railway through Nandi land.

Skull in London

After killing him, his assassin then sent Koitalel’s skull to London where it has remained to date. Meinertzhagen also took some Nandi artefacts for himself, but these were returned to the Nandi community in 2006.

The Nandi leader’s descendants are now renewing their call for the return of the remains by demanding that King Charles, who succeeded Queen Elizabeth II following her death, should facilitate for the return of the skull of the laibon.
 
Members of the Talai Clan say the local Nandi community wants his remains back in order to accord him a decent burial.
 
Koitalel Samoei's descendants mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth II, but protested that they have been neglected by the Kenyan government which has not addressed the historical land injustices, which the community suffered under the British colonial government. 

Determined to get justice

With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, they are now determined to seek justice and vow not to give up the search for the skull of Koitalel that was taken away by the British soldiers 1905.

Talai clan elders, led by Koitalel Samoei’s great Grandson David Sulo, explained: “the Nandi community suffered a lot during the British colonial period in Kenya and it resulted in the killing of the Great Nandi laiboin Koitalel Samoei in 1905.”
 
He said following the death of Queen Elizabeth the 11, the family and larger clan of Samoei is petitioning King Charles 111 to facilitate the return of his skull to Kenya for decent burial rituals in line with Nandi culture and traditions.

Seeking audience with British officials

Sulo explained that the Talai clan members are also seeking “a meeting with the British government officials in Kenya from to seek compensation over the killing of their spiritual leader.
 
He said the family of Koitalel Samoei had during late President Mwai Kibaki’s regime only managed to have instruments of power that were used by Koitalel returned to Nandi Hills. The items were taken away by British colonial soldiers soon after the murder of the great laibon.
 
Nandi community history books show that British colonial soldiers led by Col. Richard Meinertzhgen carried out massive killings in Aldai, Nandi County.

'Strange' powers

The colonial soldiers took Koitalel's head to the UK for scientific studies on the kind of powers that the laibon possessed after staging a Nandi Resistance against British rulers for 15 years. Other items included instruments of leadership comprising the laibon’s club and walking sticks.

The items were discovered in a military museum in London and were returned in 2006 to the Koitale Samoei's monument, in Nandi hills.

Koitalel descendants say the British colonial government had not compensated them, stating that they lost huge hectares of fertile land, currently owned by multinational tea companies in the Rift Valley. 

Lunatic Express

Koitalel Arap Samoei spearheaded fierce opposition to the construction of the so-called "Lunatic Express," a railway from Kenya's Indian Ocean port of Mombasa through Nandi in the Rift Valley to Lake Victoria in Uganda.

Many thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the more than decade-long struggle that began in 1895 when surveyors first marked out land in Nandi as a route for the railway.

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