Statecraft & Independence
Peerless
Koitalel arap Samoei
c. 1860 – 1905
Led the Nandi against the railway for eleven years
Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the Kenya Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Orkoiyot of the Nandi, who held off the British and their railway for eleven years — the longest sustained resistance in Kenya's colonial history — until he was shot at a meeting called under a flag of truce.
Koitalel arap Samoei was the Orkoiyot — the spiritual and political leader — of the Nandi from 1890.
He led an eleven-year resistance against British colonial rule and against the railway being driven through Nandi land, one of the longest and most effective campaigns waged against the British in East Africa. He was assassinated on 19 October 1905, shot at a meeting he had been invited to under the appearance of negotiation.
He led an eleven-year resistance against British colonial rule and against the railway being driven through Nandi land, one of the longest and most effective campaigns waged against the British in East Africa. He was assassinated on 19 October 1905, shot at a meeting he had been invited to under the appearance of negotiation.
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