Kimnyolei Simbolei Araap Turgat: The Nandi Orkoiyot Who Foresaw the Iron Snake

Compiled by Barmoiben Kipkemoi Araap Korir

First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 1 August 2024.

Kimnyolei Simbolei Araap Turgat, born in the 1800s, was the Nandi Orkoiyot who predicted the arrival of Europeans, “the white tribe,” and of the railway, “the Iron Snake,” two events that were to alter Nandi forever. Kimnyolei was clubbed to death by some of the Nandi bororiosiek around 1890.

He is remembered for his prophecies and as the father of Koitalel Araap Samoei, the leader of the Nandi Resistance. He was also the father of Kipchomber Araap Koilege, the first Kipsigis Orkoiyot, and grandfather of Barsirian Araap Manyei, Kenya's longest serving political detainee.

During Kimnyolei's time, the conflicts of the 1870s and 1880s between the various Maasai sections saw the Uasin Gishu Maasai routed by a combined force of the Naivasha and Laikipia Maasai. The Nandi then defeated the remnants of the Uasin Gishu Maasai at a battle in the Kipkaren Valley, when the Maasai tried to reassert their claim to the plateau.

Shortly afterwards, the Laikipiak were defeated by the Naivasha Maasai, leaving the Naivasha as the only military power strong enough to contest grazing rights on the Uasin Gishu plateau with the rising Nandi. Several inconclusive skirmishes took place between the two until eventually the Naivasha were routed at Siwa and chased back into the Rift Valley. The Nandi thus gained unchallenged access to the pastures and salt licks across the wide Uasin Gishu plateau, and cattle and captives swelled the Nandi herds and population.

Trouble began for Kimnyolei in the late 1880s, around 1888, when disaster struck the Nandi in the form of rinderpest, the cattle disease then spreading across Kenya. Kimnyolei was blamed for not having warned the warriors who went out raiding and brought the disease back. It was noted that only his own cattle had not died, and it was this suspicion that led to his death.

First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 1 August 2024.

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