Rwantaab Kosyomo: The Rock That Flew to Kiptaber

A legend shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group by a member who preferred to stay anonymous. The full text is given below with light spelling corrections. These are oral traditions and beliefs, told as they are told.

If the world has never found a space to document the eighth wonder of the world, then history has a gap worth filling! History might have left this to be told as a myth or an ogre story, among the other legendary stories passed from one generation to another.

However, you can be conspicuously historically emaciated if you have never heard of Rwantaab Kosyoomo! This is one of the huge, huge rocks believed to have migrated naturally hundreds of kilometres from Mt Elgon to Kipteber, on the border between West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet, in the early 1900s. The residents of Kiptaber woke, to their surprise, to see a huge rock which had not existed in their village. To them there had been no eruption, nor had there been any landslide. The spirits of those who were smashed by this rock still exist to date!

Kiptaber lies about 5 km from the Cherang'any hills. The rock juts out from a plain, and on one side it has a fairly steep cliff facing West Pokot County, while the other side slopes gradually towards Elgeyo Marakwet County. According to the Pokot, its form is associated with the hump of a zebu bull. According to them, the rock was never originally there, and it fell from the sky.

However, it is also believed that the same rock has been found in one of the military barracks in Egypt since 1983, a rock which is also believed to have found itself there, though it had not existed there for ages!

Those who have lived on the escarpments of Chesikak, a few metres from Sirisia, can testify to a huge depression left by this rock.

According to the Sabaot, its migration is attached to prophetic communal occurrences which have to be fulfilled before its return. Some of these prophecies have come to pass!

Its movement did not occur as a creep on the earth's surface, like normal debris of regolith moved by gravity; rather, it moved through the air with the buoyant whirl of a typhoon wind, producing a loud bang!

It was early morning, between 5 am and 6 am. There was light rain and mist. Those who saw it at close distance saw it moving while shining like the morning star of the east, but more reddish, like burning embers. Those who saw it from a distance saw something like a huge burning dragon swimming through the air with a loud sound towards the east, following the escarpments of Mt Elgon.

It is prophetically believed by the orkoyiik (prophets) that the rock will come back, and that when it comes, that time will be the most prosperous era for the Kalenjin, particularly the Sabaot. The events of the early 1990s were a turning point in which the Sabaot won against all odds! The cleansing of the Soosaab Kaamarat, which had been prophesied centuries ago, paved the way for the return of the Sabaot people from different places around East Africa.

The remaining part is the completion of the circling tarmac road, a belt of road around Tulweetaab Koony (Mt Elgon), exiting Bukwo into Sebei land, to Suam and Endebess. A major hurdle was a bridge connecting Bugisu and Sabiny (Sebei). This has already been done by one of the most prominent Kalenjin political leaders and M7 (President Museveni). This had been prophesied. Since I am not a Jewish prophet, nor do I come from a prophetic family, I cannot vouch for these prophecies!

On the other side, the Marakwet refer to it as "kale nee tariit?", "what is this bird saying?" In their narrative, it is said that long ago two communities lived in the area and were holding a ceremony to mark the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. This ceremony is associated with the Talai clan. As the celebration went on, a crow appeared among the revellers and gave a warning for three days, which most of the people at the party ignored. The warning was that they should leave the ceremony, as a big rock was about to fall from the sky. Only one pregnant woman listened to the crow's message and left. Just in time: the rock fell in the morning and crushed and buried alive those who were still at the party!

Kosyoomo Rock has not been the only rock to have migrated from Mt Elgon! In 2015, residents of Chemondi in Cheptais Sub County, Mt Elgon, woke, to their surprise too, to find missing a huge rock that used to sit on top of another rock. There was no sign, like a mudslide or creep, to show how it left. To date no one knows where that rock went! Another went missing at Kapkota, towards Uganda, and to date nobody knows where it is. No one has explained why the Chemondi rock is missing; no geologist has scientifically explained these occurrences!

See also Historical and cultural facts about Kiptabar (Kipteberr) Hill.