The Chebokerit: A Keiyo Tale of the Nandi Bear

By Kiprop Kimutai, an excerpt from True Stories from Iten

First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 27 November 2023.

In the 19th century, the Keiyo and Marakwet lived on the cliffs of the second Rift Valley escarpment, tending the irrigation furrows left to them by the Sirikwa, who vanished mysteriously. Back then, a belt of forest stretched thinly near the valley’s edge, from Cherangany all the way to the Mau.

The Keiyo would at times cross the forest to seek the salt licks at Sergoit, but they would go no further, to avoid the Maasai and Karamojong who wandered the Uasin Gishu plateau. It is said that beasts called the chebokerit lived in this forest. They were described as having the limping gait of hyenas and long, shaggy coats. They also had long whiskers that would whistle in the wind, and they would hide in bamboo thickets by day, only to walk about at night, when their haunting wails sounded like the voices of a thousand tortured demons.

The chebokerit feared men and avoided the valley when they were around, but when the men went out on raids, the kerit would go down the valley to the villages to prey upon women and children. On dark, moonless nights, they would climb onto hut roofs and wait patiently for someone to step out to answer a call of nature, upon which the chebokerit would jump on the person, take off the head and run off into the darkness, where it would eat only the brain. Women took to wearing large pots on their heads when they walked out, so that the chebokerit would pluck the pot instead of their heads and they could rush back into the hut and hide.

A story is told of a boy, strong enough to wield a spear, who was instructed to carry some pieces of meat to the sentries who stood guard on Sergoit hill. The sentries kept watch for any sudden invasion from either the Nandi or the Karamojong. The boy walked up the valley with the meat stuck on his spear and followed a narrow path all the way to the forest at Kamariny. In the vast canopy of the forest, where light trickled down as thick as liquid jade, he heard the voice of a woman wailing in the distance. He walked on, for he was used to the ways of the leopard and other forest creatures, and could defend himself. The wailing came closer, and something about its tone chilled him to the bone, because it sounded distinctly nonhuman. The boy hid behind a tree and waited.

Moments later, a beast walked by and paused at the tree he hid behind, sniffing. Blood had clotted around its mouth, and hordes of flies buzzed around it. It stood on its hind legs like a person and began pawing at the air, wailing in an ear splitting crescendo. Finally it went down on all fours and ran off. When warriors from the hill arrived, the boy was so panic stricken that he could not speak. The men followed the beast all the way to Sing’ore, but then rain began falling and they lost the spoor. They abandoned the search and guided the boy back to the valley.

First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 27 November 2023. For other accounts of the creature, see The Nandi Bear: A Legend of Sergoit Hill.