Every community has a hero or heroine whom they hail for the good he/she did for them. Abagusii is not an exception as they have a story about the man who killed a white man (omosongo) but was later caught, killed, beheaded and his head transported to England.
Otenyo Nyamaterere is the man recorded in Abagusii books of records for killing Northcote who was commonly known as (Nyarigoti).
As it was a norm, face2faceafrica records that the whites used to steal cattle from the Kisiis and drive them away. In this particular raid, it was different as whites went to a place where cattle were collected together (Ebisarate) and took more than 8,000 cattle's.
This annoyed Otenyo, being motivated by his aunt Moraa Ng'iti, who organized a troop of warriors to bring back the cattle.
They carried spears that were poisoned and medicine prepared by Moraa Ng'iti believed to prevent them from bullets. They, therefore, used a different route shorter than the one used by the whites. They hid in bushes (ebitutu) and as the whites were passing by led by Geoffrey Northcote, the Abagusii warriors attacked them.
This is the time Otenyo speared Northcote on the shoulder. The Abagusii worriers succeeded to drive back the cattle which they hid at Manga escarpments. Otenyo who was badly injured with bullets did not die and was taken to his aunt, a medicine woman, for treatment. People thought Northcote had died.
They hailed Otenyo and songs of praise were composed to celebrate the hero. However, Northcote did not die but was only injured.
After the incident, the colonial policemen were brought from Kisumu and invaded Gusii land. What followed was a massacre. This led to the deaths of many locals but still, the fight went on.
This is the time Otenyo was caught. The head of the colony said that he needed his head. He was therefore tried and killed in public at Gusii Stadium in Kisii town that was initially called Getembe.
After being shot to death, his head was chopped off and transported to England. It is believed that his skull is kept in one of the British museums till today.