25/03/2026
Reclaiming Our Story: The Nandi Truth That Colonial Pens Tried to Bury.
Via Silas Tarus
While digging deep into our history for genuine research, I uncovered something both shocking and liberating. The colonial writers flooded the world with books about the Nandi people.
In a few places they got it right, but in most cases, they deliberately twisted, mythologised, and mangled our story beyond recognition. They viewed everything through their own colonial lenses.
Pick up A.C. Hollis’ 1909 book and you’ll swim in a sea of outright wild myths, about 45% of his book has no known Nandi historcal connection. Their mission was never truth; it was conquest by pen before conquest by sword.
They intentionally “jungled up” our history to justify land theft, violence, and the systematic dismantling of Nandi society.
Their greatest target? The sacred Orkoyot institution and the legendary leadership of Koitalel Samoei.
They painted the Orkoyot as a devil, the Nandi military structure as chaotic, and our resistance as primitive savagery and acts of terrorism. By demonising our spiritual and military leaders, they made it psychologically easier to break our people and our organisation.
Sadly, many researchers and historians have lazily treated these colonial texts as gospel truth. Even post-independence literature kept copying Hollis almost word-for-word, turning a biased book into the so-called “authority” on Nandi history.
That is why Dr Godfrey Sang’s bold stand against Prof David Anderson still sends chills of pride down my spine. When Anderson prepared to present his insensitive paper titled “How Koitaleel Samoei Lost His Head,” real scholars rose up and called him out for trivialising one of the most painful and heroic chapters in our people’s story.
Even our own Bible suffered from this cultural sabotage. How did we end up calling the Almighty God “Jehovah” when our language already carried beautiful, powerful names for God? Cheptaileel — with attributes like Chebo Ng’olo, Chepkochor, Chepkelyen Sogol, and many more majestic attributes that truly reflect who He is to the Nandi. They replaced our God with a foreign one to colonise not just our land, but our minds and souls.
Enough is enough.
My brother and I recently presented a paper drawn from authentic family roots and oral sources of Koitalel Samoei himself. When the community heard the real story — unfiltered, unapologetic, and straight from the hearts of our elders — there was loud cheering, tears of relief, and a powerful sense of reconnection.
Of course, not everyone was happy. Those still mentally chained to the colonial version tried to sabotage the work. Some even attacked the research because the truth threatened the lies they had swallowed for decades.
But we will not be silenced. I want to salute the courageous elders of the Kapsamoei family, Maotik, and all those who opened their hearts and shared exclusive, guarded knowledge about Nandi leadership, military strategy, and spiritual organisation.
Their generosity has changed the narrative forever. Now the call goes out to every Kalenjin son and daughter: Rise up. Go back to the villages. Sit with the elders. Collect the primary sources that still live in our homes and hearts.
Write your own history — not through borrowed colonial eyes, but through Nandi eyes, Kalenjin voices, and African truth.
We must take back control of our story, because whoever controls the past controls the future.
The time for mental decolonisation is now.
The Nandi story is not a colonial footnote. It is a blazing epic of courage, faith, strategy, and unbreakable spirit. Kongoi Koitaleel Samoei University College, Prof Yego, Dr Mangira, Dr Basilano Dr Godfrey Sang & my friend Raymond Kiryongi
Mamny salutes to Dr habil Dr Seronei Chelulei Cheison and Alfred Koech -Sergent for sharing part and ensuring that the debate is on even after the lapse of the International Conference in Mosoriot.
And we are finally writing it ourselves — the right way. Find us
The only verified digital archive of Koitaleel Samoei's life and legacy. Genealogy traced to the House of Turgat. AI-composed music from oral tradition. The Maotik Council of 24. Peer-reviewed conference papers. Built by descendants, for the world.
