Nandi Resistance

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The Nandi Resistance was a military conflict that took place in present-day Kenya between 1890 and 1906. It involved members of the Kalenjin ethnic group, mainly from the Nandi section, and the British colonial administration. The close of the 19th century, a time referred to as the "pacification period" by Matson, saw a number of local populations that resisted British colonial rule. Of these, the Nandi resistance would stand out for being the longest and most tenacious.^[1]

The Nandi resistance was led by Koitalel Arap Samoei, the Orkoiyot of the Nandi at the time. On 19 October 1905, on the grounds of what is now Nandi Bears Club, Arap Samoei was asked to meet Col Richard Meinertzhagen for a truce. However, Meinertzhagen and his men killed Koitalel Arap Samoei and his entourage, ending the resistance.^[2] Afterward, the British decapitated Koitalel's body and took his head to London as proof of his death as well as a macabre trophy of colonialism.^[3]