Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the Nandi community in Kenya is still demanding the head of Koitalel Arap Samoei which the British took home as a trophy.
Members of the Nandi community have maintained their 2016 stance to have the UK government return the head of freedom fighter Koitalel Arap Samoei, which they claim was taken as a war trophy during the battle for Kenya’s independence.
According to Nandi County legal officer George Tarus, despite the monarch’s sudden passing on Thursday, Kenya’s struggle for independence remains fresh in the memory of Kenyans and more so the Nandi community as such, at the very least, the UK government should return Koitalel’s head and offer a public apology for invading Kenya.
“We appreciate the relationship that has been between Queen Elizabeth II and Kenya. She was crowned queen when she was right here in Kenya. Kenya has a long history and affections for her but we cannot forget what happened historically between Britain and Kenya including Colonial resistance by Koitalel Arap Samoei and the fight for independence,” Taurus
“Contemporarily we acknowledge the strong ties with the UK only that we want them to issue a public apology to the Nandi people. We also want them to return the head of Koitalel Arap Samoei. Maybe it is now the right time to do that especially as we seek to strengthen ties moving forward.” He added.
Koitalel, who was the resistance movement leader for eleven years, fought against the building of the Uganda Railway through the Nandi area.
On October 19, 1905, Koitalel was shot dead by British Colonialist Richard Meinertzhagen, who had invited Koitalel to negotiate a truce, using that tactic to lure the Nandi leader for the fatal ambush.
The colonialists decapitated the body and took the head to London.
The Nandi leader’s symbolic grave was built at the Nandi Hills Town, where his headless body was found. The grave is designed with marble and it shows that his head is missing.
In 2016, Tarus observed that the Nandi people went through a difficult time under the reign of British colonialists and that the British government should apologize to the people, and compensate them.
Tarus claimed that the Nandi people lost big tracks of fertile land to the British colonialists which they are yet to recover.
Tarus’ declaration came after the British government announced in June 2013, that it would pay about $30 million (Ksh.3 billion) in compensation to more than 5,000 Kenyans whose families were affected by Britain’s authoritarian rule.
Former British Government Foreign Secretary William Hague June 6, 2013, remarkably admitted that imperial forces tortured Kenyans fighting against British rule in the 1950s. About 12,000 Africans died in the pre-independence revolt.
“The British government recognizes that Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill-treatment at the hands of the colonial administration,” Hague told Parliament then while reading from a prepared statement.
“The British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place and they marred Kenya’s progress toward independence.”
He said the compensation package totaled £19.9 million (Ksh.2.5 billion) to 5,228 claimants.
Hague’s announcement came after the British government settled out of court with lawyers representing the claimants following a landmark court ruling in October 2012.
In that ruling, three Kenyan torture victims won the right to sue the British authorities after legal battles starting in 2009.
The petitioners accused British forces of beating, torturing, raping, and emasculating Kenyans with aim of putting off the Mau Mau revolt, the anticolonial group that sought to end British domination.
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Martyn Day, a lawyer for the Kenyan appellants said he hoped that Mr. Hague’s statement would be “the final resolution of this legal battle that has been going on for so many years.”
