A story is told of Koitalel Arap Samoei, the great Nandi Supreme Chief and foreseer who predicted the coming of the British colonialists into the nation and further into the Nandi region.
Samooei went a head to lead the Nandi in resisting the Britons in an 11-year ordeal before he was nabbed and killed by the colonialists on October 19, 1905.
However, it now emerges that Samoei was did not spend most of his time within the borders of Nandi as he coordinated the war which frustrated the colonialists for over a decade.
Instead, the famed Orkoiyot lived in the neighboring Kisumu County, specifically Kano Plains, South of Nandi.
According to historian AT Matson in his book ‘The Volcano Erupts: Nandi Resistance Against British Rule’, the British soldiers at some point after 1900 sent sharpshooters to eliminate Samoei who was then living in Nyando Valley, today in Nyando constituency, Kisumu County.
Samoei would later be notified of the plan and fled, this time housing himself in Muhoroni, along the borders of Nandi and Kisumu counties.
It was here that the two groups were to reach a pact that would end the fight, but it too collapsed.
Before his death, Samoei was invited for a truce by British Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, and after an agreement that each would bring with them 5 people, the Colonel cleverly brought with him 80 soldiers, 75 of whom hid near the venue.
When the Orkoiyot stretched his hand to greet the Colonel, Richard shot him at point blank, ending the resistance for good.
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