70 years later, Nandi leaders still demanding for Koitalel Arap Samoei’s Head from British Gov't

Barely a day after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, members of the Nandi community have reiterated their 2016 stance to have the UK government return the head of freedom fighter Koitalel Arap Samoei, which they claim was taken as a war trophy during the battle for Kenya's independence.

According to Nandi County legal officer Geoge Tarus, despite the monarch's sudden passing on Thursday, Kenya's struggle for independence remains fresh in the memory of Kenyans and more so the Nandi community as such, at the very least, the UK government should return Koitalel's head and offer a public apology for invading Kenya.  

“We appreciate the relationship that has been between Queen Elizabeth II and Kenya. She actually became queen when she was right here in Kenya. Kenya has a long history and affections for her but we cannot forget what happened historically between Britain and Kenya including Colonial resistance by Koitalel Arap Samoei and the fight for independence," Taurus told Citizen Digital.

"Contemporarily we acknowledge the strong ties with UK only that we want them to issue a public apology to the Nandi people. We also want them to return the head of Koitalel Arap Samoei. Maybe it is now the right time to do that especially as we seek to strengthen ties moving forward."

Koitalel, who led an eleven-year resistance movement against the building of the Uganda Railway through the Nandi area, was on October 19, 1905 shot dead by British Col. Richard Meinertzhagen.

Meinertzhagen had invited Koitalel to negotiate a truce, using that ruse to lure the Nandi leader for the fatal ambush.

The colonialists decapitated the body and took the head to London.

The Nandi leader’s symbolic grave was built at the Nandi Hills Town, where his headless body was found. The grave is designed with marble and it shows that his head is missing.

In 2016, Tarus observed that Nandi people went through a difficult time under the reign of British colonialists, and that the British government should apologise to the people, and compensate them.

Tarus claimed that as a result of being colonised, Nandi residents lost huge tracts of fertile land to the British lords, which they are yet to recover.

Tarus’ revelation came after the British government in June, 2013 announced that it would pay about $30 million (Ksh.3 billion) in compensation to more than 5,000 Kenyans whose families were affected by Britain’s authoritarian rule.

Former British Government Foreign Secretary William Hague in June 6, 2013 remarkably admitted that imperial forces tortured Kenyans fighting against British rule in the 1950s.

About 12,000 Africans died in the pre-independence revolt.

“The British government recognizes that Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment at the hands of the colonial administration,” Hague told Parliament then while reading from a prepared statement.

“The British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place and they marred Kenya’s progress toward independence.”

He said the compensation package totalled £19.9 million (Ksh.2.5 billion) to 5,228 claimants.

Hague’s announcement came after the British government settled out of court with lawyers representing the claimants following a landmark court ruling in October, 2012.

In that ruling, three Kenyan torture victims won the right to sue the British authorities after legal battles starting in 2009.

The claimants accused British forces of beating, torturing, raping and even castrating people as they sought to put down a revolt begun by the Mau Mau, an anticolonial group that sought to end British domination.

Martyn Day, a lawyer for the Kenyan claimants, said he hoped that Mr. Hague’s statement would prove to be “the final resolution of this legal battle that has been going on for so many years.”