Senator Sang asks NLC, KNHCR to probe colonial injustices in Nandi

Nandi County Senator Stephen Sang has called for a probe into colonial injustices meted on the Talai clan in Nandi by the British.

Mr Sang who has presented a petition of the more than 10,000 people occupying Kapsisiywa area in Nandi County to the senate said that many of the residents had their fundamental human rights violated during the pre-colonial period.

“We are recommending that the National Land Commission (NLC) and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights carry out investigation to pave way for the community's compensation once and for all,” Mr Sang told the Daily Nation.

Mr Sang faulted the government for not making public the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) report which he noted would have addressed all historical land injustices in the country.

“The TJRC report lost credibility after it was politicized and marred with ethnic undertones.  People have been forced to seek justice elsewhere including in London,” said Mr Sang.

The Talai clan comprising of Kapturgat, Kapsogon, Kapmararsoi, Kapchesang and Kapsanet sub clans told the senate committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights which toured the region recently that they suffered a lot of abuse in the hands of colonialists.

Among other demands, the community is seeking the return of the head of Nandi leader Koitalel arap Samoei who was killed in 1905 and beheaded by the colonialists.

Mzee Kipchoge Chomu Kemei colonel narrated how he witnessed colonel Richard Meinertzhagen on 19 October 1905 shoot dead Koitalel.

“He had arranged a meeting to negotiate with Koitalel; little to our knowledge he had planned to assassinate him. Meinertzhagen shot Koitalel, while shaking his hand and his men machine-gunned two dozen Nandi tribesmen, including most of Koitalel's advisors,” said Mr Chomu.

The community complained that during the colonial period, the colonialists discouraged intermarriages between the Talai and other communities.

The Senate Legal Affairs and Human Rights committee led by Busia senator Amos Wako toured the North Rift region two weeks ago to get public hearings on historical injustices.

“Our people were removed from their fertile land and taken to detention camps infested with mosquitos. There was systematic abuse of our fundamental human and civil rights by mass murder,” said Christopher Agui, a Kapsisiywa resident.