Reports Leo Odera Omolo
Seven dwelling houses were set ablaze by unidentified attackers forcing 19 families members of the Talai {Laibons} to flee from their homes narrowly escaping deaths.
The Talai, a, minority community or a sub-clan with sorcerers who are scattered in most of the Kalenjin sub-tribes have had no peace ever since they were forcefully evicted from their ancestral land by the colonial administration in 1934 and forced into exile in the remotest area of Southern Nyanza.
The Talai suffered the brunt of colonial persecution including forced exile out of their ancestral land in Kericho, Nandi, Baringo and other places over the accusation that they practiced witchcraft, Close to 2700 members of the sub-clan together with their herds of cattle and other domesticated animals were forced out of their land in 1934 following a proclamation endorsed by the colonial legislative Council.
The colonialists worked in collaboration with chiefs, white missionaries and white settlers who accused them of sensitizing the community against giving their land away for the plantation of tea bushes in Kericho and Nandi Hill region at the turn of the 20th century.
It was hoped most of them would die of starvation and lack of water for themselves and their animals. They were settled on top of Gwassi Hills in what is today called Gwassi district in the Suba region. Heir hard-core leaders were taken cross the Lake Victoria and exiled on Mangano Island. Others were consigned to detention camps in Nyeri and other places far away from their homes.
It was in 1962 when the diminutive Kipsigis politician, who was then the Member of the Legislative Council for Kipsigis, Dr. Taaitta Araap Towett, moved a motion in the Council and urged the government to revoke the ordinance that had banned the Talai community from Gwassi so that they could go back to their ancestral land and live happily among their fellow Kalenjin
Upon their return, the majority got scattered among many areas within the North and South rift regins and purchased farms,while other remain and less and have been living under a very squalid condition on a two acre Municipal land in Kericho Municipalty. All the previous governments had promised to secure land plots for the Talai, but in vain.
The Talai began mass exodus from Gwassi to their homes in Nandi, Baringo and other places. Unfortunately there was no land to settle them back home because when they were living in exile, the Land Consolidation Programme and land adjudication were introduce and all their land were dished out to other people. To the surprise and shocking of the colonial administration the Talai population had doubled and close to 7,000 could be accounted during their return in 1962.
This is the clan of the renown freedom fighter, Koitalel Arap Samoei, who was shot and killed by the British soldiers IN 1905, He was betrayed and lured into a faked peace talk where he was shot by a British soldier and killed. Nandi rebellion that lasted for close to nine years during which the Nandi warriors engaged the British expedition forces in running battles thereby sabotaging and preventing the construction of the Mombasa-Kisumu Railway line.
Descendants of Koitalel Arap Samoe had settled in Kbirer village in Tinderet in the Nandi Hills district. But on Tuesday night last week unknown persons had invaded the village and torched several houses forcing the occupants to run for shelter into the nearby church. The Talai said they had been warned of the consequences by the local community who claims they were practicing witchcraft causing the villagers some misfortunes.
Former Kapsisiywo civic leader David Sulo said the community had lived peacefully with their neighbors in Kabbirer for close to 50 year, but he suspected the latest flare up as politically motivated as the Talai had coexisted with their neighbors harmoniously for many years. He called upon the Provincial administration in Nandi Hills to intervene and restore order. He could not disclose the location of the whereabouts of those who hadn’t taken shelter in the churches for security reasons.
An impeccable source in Nandi Hills said that three people have already been apprehended and put into police custody on suspicion of being involved in the incident, and police were actively hunting for the rest.
Kabirer Locational Chief Sammy Keter could not tell the exact number of those in custody. The Nandi Hills D.C could not be reached for his immediate comment over the incident which has been roundly condemned by politicians and leaders in the entire Nandi Coounty.
Ends