The Cliff Dwellers of Kerio

By Kiprop Kimutai, an excerpt from True Stories from Iten

First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 2 November 2023.

My great grandmother, Kabon, who passed on in 1953, once walked up the Kerio Valley all the way to Kakamega with the women from her village to seek food. She spoke of a great famine that struck the valley, so severe that breastfeeding mothers could produce no more milk and had to feed their babies on boiled herbs. The babies died, of course, and there was such pain as the mothers carried the bodies all the way to the bush to be devoured by hyenas. As was typical in Keiyo culture, mothers served themselves last, after feeding any guest, the husband and the children, and since there was no food, women would sit beside their families as they ate, waiting for anyone to pass them a scrap of food they could afford to give.

Kabon watched as her mother would tie a stone tightly around her belly after serving them food, to keep the hunger pangs away. Yet the drought persisted, despite the pleas the Keiyo sent to Asiis, the nine legged goddess, and children walked about with their rectums falling out as their abdominal muscles collapsed. Kabon spoke about one of the saddest events in the history of the valley, when parents began giving their children to the Nandi in exchange for food, telling them not to cry when they were left behind, that they were giving them away so as not to watch them die.

It was at this time of such horror that news about Kakamega began trickling in. They heard stories of pumpkins so big two men had to carry them, of huts so tall and with such thick thatch that you would not hear the rain at night, of food so plentiful that people washed their hands in milk. Kabon joined a team of women that walked up the valley to Kakamega to seek food. They were guided by warriors only up to Sergoit hill, since the Karamojong, a hostile people, had at that time formed a camp around Moiben and were renowned for cutting off a man’s legs and leaving him to bleed to death. They did not kill women, however, so the women walked on, sleeping in trees at night to keep safe from animals, until they reached Kakamega.

The people of Kakamega were friendly and gave them food and shelter, but warned the women against stealing anything, or they would be tied to trees to be eaten by hyenas at night. Kabon said that she never wanted to leave Kakamega because it had so much food, but the women had an obligation to bring food back to their communities. Their journey back was more eventful, since they met a gang of Maasai men who chased after them until some dropped their bags of grain, which the Maasai poked with their spears, scattered on the ground and urinated on. The women salvaged all they could and walked back to the valley, where they cried with joy to see that rain had fallen.

First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 2 November 2023. See also The Great Famine of Kiptabis (1894) in Kerio Valley.