Anderson Resistance in Colonial Kenya PDF

Black Mischief: Crime, Protest and Resistance in Colonial Kenya
Author(s): David M. Anderson

Source: The Historical Journal, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Dec., 1993), pp. 851-877
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2640035
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The Historical Journal, 36, 4 (I993), pp. 85I-877
Copyright ( I 993 Cambridge University Press
BLACK MISCHIEF: CRIME, PROTEST
AND RESISTANCE IN COLONIAL
KENYA*
DAVID M. ANDERSON
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
ABSTRACT. This article examines the history of African resistance to colonial rule among the
Nandi and Kipsigis peoples of Kenya's Western Highlands. Anti-colonial protest centred on the
activities of a group of ritual leaders, the orkoiik of the Talai clan, who were believed to possess
supernatural powers of prophecy and divination. Between the late 189os and 1905, the orkoiyot
Koitalel had come to prominence as a leader of resistance to conquest. After his defeat the British
briefly attempted to harness his Talai clansmen to the system of colonial government, promoting them
as chiefs. This move was based upon a misunderstanding of the status of the orkoiik, whose powers
often stood in direct conflict with the authority of the elders and who were greatly feared by many
Jfandi and Kipsigis. By the 1920S the orkoiik were deeply implicated in much criminal activity,
especially the theft of livestock from European settlerfarmers. On three occasions orkoiik attempted
to organize armed risings.
The article concludes with a discussion of the place of the orkoiik in the historiography of Kenya.
Although Koitalel and Barserion are commonly presented as heroes of a glorious resistance to
colonialism, it is suggested that this interpretation fails to reflect the deep ambiguity of the status of
the orkoiik, and the complexity of the struggles that took place within African societies under colonial
rule.
On a near-moonless night in June I 934, a group of eight Africans entered the
compound of a European-owned farm in the Kinangop area of Naivasha
District, Kenya Colony. The farm was the home of Alex and Stella Semini, a
settler couple who had only been farming in the district for the past year. The
intention of their African visitors was burglary: the theft of money, firearms
and ammunition. Why these interlopers selected the Semini farm is unclear,
but their simple burglary was to go horribly wrong, with consequences they
could not have foreseen. The burglars clumsily disturbed the family from their
sleep, and when Alex Semini went on to the porch to investigate, a struggle
ensued. In the general melee Alex Semini was speared and then beaten while
he lay injured, and Stella Semini assaulted. Hearing the Seminis' farm
labourers coming to investigate the commotion, the African interlopers made
* I am grateful to Roy Foster, John Lonsdale, Joseph Miller, Terence Ranger, Neal Sobania,
Ed Steinhart and Richard Waller for their comments on an earlier version of this paper, and also
to seminar groups at the University of Cambridge, University of Minnesota, and the School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of London, whose constructive criticisms helped to shape
the ideas presented here.
85I
852 DAVID M. ANDERSON
their escape into the night, taking with them some of their booty but leaving
behind pieces of clothing and personal possessions dislodged in the fracas.
These would later be crucial items of evidence in the apprehenlsion and
conviction of the criminals. Dazed and in a state of shock, Stella Semini
bundled her husband into the family car, and the couple managed to
manoeuvre the vehicle over the two miles to the nearest neighbouring farm.
Alex Semini passed into a coma later that night, and survived for the next
three weeks, before finally succumbing to his wounds.1
News of the 'Kinangop Outrage', as these events came to be known, caused
an immediate furore among the settlers of Naivasha and quickly became a
matter of debate and concern throughout Kenya's White Highlands.2
Rumours that Stella Semini had been sexually assaulted fuelled the 'Black
Peril' anxieties of the white settler community. The response of the police and
the administration was accordingly rapid and intense, and within days the
first of a series of arrests was made. The police had identified the culprits as
being Kipsigis, a people whose home reserve lay some Ioo miles to the west of
Kinangop, beyond the Mau escarpment (Fig. i). A small number of Kipsigis
- less than IOO - were employed on farms in the Naivasha district, but none
of those eventually charged with the murder of Alex Semini was found to be
a resident of Naivasha (although one had previously been employed on the
Semini farm).' The Kipsigis people, along with their neighbours the Nandi,
had long been stigmatized in European perceptions as habitual cattle thieves
and were commonly portrayed as the most 'criminally' inclined of all Kenya's
African peoples. That reputation had taken on a more sinister tone as attacks
on the property and person of European settlers and Asian traders in the
Western Highlands had steadily increased from I928, reaching proportions
which generated considerable alarm among sometimes over-anxious settlers
and calmer colonial officials alike by I933. Over this period thefts of livestock,
money and firearms, which had initially been concentrated on the European
farms in the immediate vicinity of the Kipsigis reserve, gradually increased
and spread over an ever-widening area. In the interpretation of the colonial
government, the 'Kinangop Outrage' conformed to this wider pattern of
criminal activity involving the Kipsigis (and to a lesser extent their other
Kalenjin neighbours).
1 This account is based upon the trial papers. Criminal Case I23 (I934), Rex. v. Kibet arap
Boregi and 6 others. P.R.O. CO 533/481/I. Eight persons were known to have been involved in
the crime, but only seven were prosecuted. For a brief reference to the case, but only in the context
of settler reaction, see Dane Kennedy, Islands of white: settler society and culture in Kenya and Southern
Rhodesia, I89o-i939 (Durham, NC, i987), p. I33. This murder has taken its place in settler
mythology, with perhaps predictable distortions. See the settler traditions collected by Mary
Gillett, Tribute to pioneers (privately published, Oxford, i986), [no pagination, entries listed
alphabetically], where Alex Semini is stated to have been 'murdered on his farm in 1954 during
the Mau Mau rebellion'.
2 'Report of public meeting of Naivasha Farmers' Association', 2 July I934, KNA [Kenya
National Archive] PC/RVP.6A/ I 7/50.
3 Criminal Case I23 (I934), trial transcript, CO 533/48i/I.
CRIME IN COLONIAL KENYA 853
_______ European
farmland
Mt Elgon" SAMBaReNANDi Ethnic; groups
Tra 0 Kisii Towns
Nzoia L~~arkeg Laikipia Districts
Kapsabete Gishu
Thomson's Falls Nanyuki 0 Meru
Kisumu
-Lake Nyanza
Nyeri * Embu
0 Kisii Na as Ft Hall
ig. I.Centrakur and wesernKeya
MAASAI
TANGANYIKA
Kajiado
Fig. i. Central and western Kenya.
Investigation of this spiralling pattern of lawlessness led, in the early months
Of I1934, to the revelation that much of this crime was 'organized', and that
a particular section of the Kipsigis people were its principal instigators.
Responsibility for this 'lawlessness' was attributed to the activities of the male
members of the Talai clan, known by the Kalenjin term orkoiik (sing. orkoiyot),
who were believed to possess ritual and supernatural powers. The 'Kinangop
Outrage' was believed to have been instigated by one of these ritual experts.
By the time of the trial of the seven Africans accused of the murder of Alex
Semini, the colonial administration had become convinced that the
'witchcraft' of the Kipsigis orkoiik had been turned towards crime, and that
much of that criminal activity was deliberately directed against the authority
of the government.4 The victims of these crimes included African chiefs and
their agents as well as Europeans and Asians, and the colonial authorities
came to realize that some of these incidents had a political significance that
4 Governor Byrne to secretary of state, 3 May I934, CO 533/44I/I, summarizes the findings
of the government inquiry into the activities of the orkoiik.
went beyond simple accumulation: crimes against colonial laws, protest
against colonial authorities, and ultimately the aim of a general armed
resistance were seen to be linked in a serious challenge to colonial rule in the
Western Highlands. The murder of Alex Semini, coming just as the Nairobi
administration was debating how to deal with the threat posed by these
African 'gangsters', contributed significantly to the decision to take the drastic
and unparalleled action of deporting the entire Talai clan from the Kipsigis
Reserve and detaining them indefinitely in an alien and inhospitable area of
Nyanza province in what was, in effect, an open prison.5
The 'outrage' on the Semini farm was part of white Kenyan history (and
later its mythology). It can also be too easily adopted into nationalist
historiography as part of a tradition of resistance in which the leading orkoiik
have a heroic role. But Kenya has many histories; what historians think (or
once thought) important may not be what their subjects were most concerned
with. All African societies had their internal conflicts, which are revealed only
tangentially and perhaps misleadingly in their brushes with colonial authority.
This is a case study of trying to see through the misperceptions which our
inherited historiography has imposed upon us. What mattered to the Kalenjin
was male generational conflict over livestock resources and access to the
various forms of political and moral authority which underwrote, or
patronized, household strategies of accumulation, stock management and
alliance. All this was problematic, even threatening, to those involved: disease,
drought, enmity had to be combated. There were different, even conflicting
means of doing so. There was the 'normal' authority of elders, exercising con-
trol through seniority and the manipulation of kin and herds: and there were
two forms of 'abnormal' (and to varying degrees, abhorrent) means of insur-
ance and seeking advantage. One was everyday witchcraft, available to all who
were malignantly inclined. There were also the 'prophetic' or divinatory
powers available only to the most senior and most proficient orkoiik, powers
which could most successfully be invoked and harnessed during moments of
high social drama, when society was challenged from outside or when its own
mechanics of social change, such as the age-sets that regulated the relationships
between generations, went through contested processes of transition. We have
to understand 'resistance', if we are to understand it as part of African, rather
than merely colonial, history, as an external manifestation of this deeper
rhythm of social life. And these rhythms changed as colonial rule created the
possibility of a new moral order - ultimately to be shaped by those elders who
grasped the opportunities of Christianity, who accepted the political authority
of the new state, and who turned their energies to economic gain in an
increasingly agricultural (rather than cattle-keeping) economy. This new
5 'The Laibons Removal Ordinance' (no. 32 of I934), was initially drafted and put before the
Colonial Office in May I934. The amended ordinance became law on 25 Sept. I934, Laws of
Kenya, 1948 (Nairobi, I948), Cap. 46. Comments on the provisions of this legislation are to be
found among the papers in CO 533/48I/I. The term 'gangster' was employed by the prosecuting
counsel in the Semini case, none other than Attorney-General William Harrigan, in his opening
remarks to the court. Criminal Case I23 (I934), trial transcript, p. 4, CO 533/48I/I.
world was inevitably built at the cost of the authority of the orkoiik, whose
powers were intrinsically linked to older social patterns, and whose success
depended upon the exploitation of the ambitions of younger men with as yet
no household (and thus no moral authority) to their name. This essay is about
the ways in which the struggles of the orkoiik to adapt to the new rhythms of
the colonial world were and have been perceived, and about the importance
of such perceptions in shaping our views of villains and heroes in the colonial
past.
Laibons, orkoiik and witchcraft
We must begin by dealing with the definition of certain terms and categories.
The Kipsigis and the Nandi are sections of the broader group now known as
the Kalenjin, and in earlier ethnographic literature referred to as the 'Nandi-
speaking peoples'.6 Among Kalenjin the term orkoiyot refers to the male
members of specific clans, who are attributed with a variety of supernatural
powers. Orkoiyot was not an 'office', and there was no automatic legitimacy for
any person to claim to be the 'paramount' or 'senior' orkoiyot. The status of an
orkoiyot depended entirely upon reputation, and that in turn depended upon
the fulfilment of prophecy, success in rain-making and divination, the
acknowledged efficacy of medicines, and so on. Each practising orkoiyot
operated within a limited geographical area, which might contract or expand
with his reputation. However, certain orkoiyot were believed to hold greater
powers, and people came from much further afield to consult such a person.
These individuals also took a prominent role in rituals and ceremonies with a
deeper significance for the wider community, most notably those involving the
transitional phases of age-sets.7
The powers of the orkoiyot were believed to be hereditary; that is to say, they
were thought to possess mental powers that were passed through the lineage.
You could not learn to be an orkoiyot: you were born one. All male members
of specific clans among the Nandi and Kipsigis were, by definition, orkoiyot. But
it was recognized that though all had inherited the powers, only some would
be able to use them. This ambiguity as to the 'redistribution' of powers
through each generation led to rivalry and competition within immediate
family groups, most frequently between cousins, but sometimes also between
brothers and half-brothers. If you were born the son of a well-respected and
6 C. W. Hobley, Eastern Uganda: an ethnological survey (Anthropological Institute, occasional
papers no. i: London, I 902) and A. C. Hollis, The Nandi: their language andfolk-lore (Oxford, I 909)
are the earliest works, but what have become the standard texts were published later. See
G. W. B. Huntingford, Nandi work and culture (Colonial Research Studies no. 4, HMSO, London,
I 950); idem, The Nandi of Kenya: tribal control in a pastoral society (London, I 953); idem, Ethnographic
survey of Africa: East Central Africa, part VIII, the southern Nilo-Hamites (London, I 953); E. E. Evans-
Pritchard, 'The political structure of the Nandi-speaking peoples of Kenya', Africa, xiii (I940),
250-67 ;J. G. Peristiany, The social institutions of the Kipsigis (London, I 939); and I. Q Orchardson,
The Kipsigis (Nairobi, I96I, abridged version reprinted Nairobi, I97I.
Huntingford, Nandi of Kenya, pp. 38-52; Peristiany, Social institutions, passim; Orchardson,
The Kipsigis, chs. 4 and 5.
31 HIS 36
powerful orkoiyot, the public perception was that you had a higher probability
of inheriting similar powers. Rivalries within lineages were matched by those
between lineages, as each struggled for pre-eminence within the clan. Less
obviously, this led to a degree of fictive kinship: on the one hand, younger and
aspiring orkoiik used their relationship to senior and highly regarded clansmen
as a form of legitimation (and such patronage was an important aspect of the
political domain exercised by leading orkoiik); on the other, the wider public
commonly assumed kinship between successive generations of powerful orkoiik.
The colonial authorities described the practices of the orkoiik (and laibons) as
a form of witchcraft, and troublesome individuals were often prosecuted under
the witchcraft ordinance.8 This seems straightforward enough from the
perspective of the colonial administration, but is both confused and confusing
when explored from the perspective of the Kalenjin. Witchcraft (ponisiet), as
Nandi and Kipsigis understood it, was not confined to the members of the
Talai clans, but could be practised by any person. Witchcraft was believed to
require skills which could be learned, and although in certain cases it was
thought to pass through the lineage, in general it was not considered
hereditary.9 Some orkoiik were recognized practitioners of witchcraft, but this
was seen as being distinct from their potential to hold greater powers as
members of an orkoiik clan. Orkoiik could be witches, but witches who were not
members of the specific orkoiik clans could not be orkoiik: and there were
believed to be many such people. To Kalenjin, witchcraft and the practices of
the orkoiyot were two quite distinct phenomena. The important point here is
that colonial debate about the prevalence of witchcraft and the activities of the
orkoiik assumed the two categories to be synonymous. From the perspective of
the Christian missionary churches, who entered the Western Highlands in the
early years of this century, both were pagan and represented elements of
African belief to which Christianity was implacably opposed: in the missionary
mind the orkoiik were, like witches, practitioners of the black arts.10
A further confusion of terms must be explained. Throughout the colonial
period male members of the Talai clan among the Kipsigis were referred to by
Europeans as 'laibon' rather than ' orkoiyot'. The activities of the Kipsigis laibon
were, in general terms, identical to those of the Nandi orkoiik. However, laibon
is the name given to a category of ritual expert among the Maasai (the word
is from the Maa language, not Kalenjin), whose practices and social status are
not the same as those of the Kalenjin orkoiyot. The confusion stems partly from
the tendency of early colonial officials to use laibon as a generic term for 'ritual
8 Witchcraft accusations were commonly used by district commissioners as the basis for
deportation orders to be issued against troublesome orkojik. This involved the collection of sworn
affidavits from local elders. See, for example, several cases from Elgeyo district reported in
'Laibons, I934-63', KNA PC/NKU/3/I/IO.
9 Huntingford, J\fandi of Kenya, pp. Io7-I I; Orchardson, The Kipsigis, pp. I I9-22.
10 Huntingford, ibid. For an account of mission work among Kalenjin which deals with early
(pre- I 9 I 4) perceptions of the orkoiik, see W. R. Hotchkiss, Then and now in Kenya Colony (New York,
I937), and for an introductory discussion of mission conflict with the orkoiik Huntingford, J\fandi
work and culture, pp. i I 6- i 8.
expert', and to give the role of such an individual pronounced political
overtones: this generic was avoided in the case of Nandi, where the prolonged
resistance to British conquest in which the orkoiik were involved gave the
colonizer an early awareness of the precise Nandi term. At the same time,
there is a strong historical connection between Kalenjin and Maasai ritual
experts throughout the Rift Valley and Western Highlands, and this also
contributed to the blurring of indigenous categories and types in British eyes.1"
For the sake of simplicity, and also because (as we shall see) there are very
good historical reasons for doing so, I shall hereafter refer to all these ritual
experts among the Kipsigis and Nandi as orkoiik.
This historical connection is essential to an understanding of the colonial
history of the Kalenjin. During the second half of the nineteenth century the
role of the orkoiik among some sections of the Kalenjin was 'overlaid' by
aspects of Maasai laibon practice. Although ritual experts throughout East
Africa were commonly identified with a particular community, that
association was not necessarily bounded by notions of ethnicity: Maasai laibons,
in particular, were widely consulted by non-Maa peoples during the
nineteenth century.'2 Some time during the i86os a laibon named Barsabotwo
(or Kapuso), from the Uas Nkishu Maasai (who had until then occupied the
grazing lands of the plateau adjacent to Nandi country), came to prominence
among the Nandi. Nandi oral histories date the emergence of a pre-eminent
orkoiyot, with greater powers and gaining a wider constituency than had
previously been the norm, to this event. Precisely what may have existed
before this date, and how the role of the orkoiik may have been evolving at this
time, we do not know: but the arrival of Barsabotwo - the embodiment
perhaps of the intrusion of a broader wave of influences brought into Nandi
by Uas Nkishu Maasai refugees, defeated and scattered after internecine
squabbles with other Maasai herders - marks a watershed in Nandi perception
of their recent history.13
The introduction of these influences among the Kipsigis came c. I890,
around the time that Kimnyole, according to some accounts Barsabotwo's
grandson, was stoned to death by Nandi following a sequence of failed
predictions: whatever the power of the lineage, the status of any orkoXyot
depended upon performance. In the unsettled period surrounding Kimnyole's
death, part of his family departed from Nandi and moved south to settle
among Kipsigis. By the late I89os one of this group, Kipchomber arap
11 J. L. Berntsen, 'Pastoralism, raiding and prophets: Maasailand in the nineteenth century'
(Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, I979), and 'Maasai age-sets and prophetic leadership',
Africa, XLIX (I979), I34-46.
12 J. L. Berntsen, 'The Maasai and the Inkidongi: prophets, followers and pastoralism in the
Rift Valley in the nineteenth century', paper delivered to the conference on 'Seers, prophets and
prophecy', London, Dec. I989, pp. i-i6.
13 P. K. arap Magut, 'The rise and fall of the Nandi Orkoiyot', in B. G. McIntosh (ed.),
Ngano: studies in the traditional and modern history of East Africa (Nairobi, I969); S. K. arap Ng'eny,
'Nandi resistance to the establishment of British administration I883-I906', in B. A. Ogot (ed.),
Hadith 2 (Nairobi, I970), pp. I04-26; G. W. B. Huntingford, 'The genealogy of the Orkoiik of
Nandi', Man, xxiv (I935)), 24.
31-2
Koilege, one of Kimnyole's many sons, had emerged as the most prominent
orkoiyot among the Kipsigis. At the same time, another of Kimnyole's sons,
Koitalel arap Samoie, had come to prominence among Nandi. Whether
Kipchomber and Koitalel were fictive or real kin to Kimnyole is a moot point,
although sources from the early i9OOS appear to confirm that they were
perceived and presented as such then. As Nandi and Kipsigis prepared to
encounter colonialism in the I89os, the most prominent ritual experts among
both peoples were therefore drawn from the same family: a lineage whose
origins are widely attributed as being Maasai, and whose leading members are
believed to have gradually recast the role of the orkoiyot to give themselves
greater political power over the community.'4 The extent of that power was
established in the resistance of the Nandi to colonial conquest.
Koitalel and Kipchomber
The Nandi orkoiyot Koitalel arap Samoie is a hero of African resistance to
colonialism in Kenya. His story is well known to most Kenyan schoolchildren
today. Koitalel is portrayed as the military leader of the Nandi warriors in
their stubborn and protracted resistance to British colonialism between i896
and I9o5.'5 Having marshalled the Nandi and successfully held the colonial
power at bay for more than a decade, over which time the Nandi endured
several 'punitive' raids and two major military campaigns against them by the
British, Koitalel's glorious struggle was brought to an end by treachery. With
the Nandi and the British locked in a war of attrition in I905, Koitalel met
with a British officer, Captain Meinertzhagen, in a forest clearing under a flag
of truce. Many accounts are given of what transpired in that clearing, but
most are agreed in the simple fact that Meinertzhagen drew his revolver and
shot Koitalel.'6 In the weeks following this event Nandi resistance crumbled,
and along with it the resistance of the Kipsigis, whom Koitalel's brother
Kipchomber arap Koilege had allegedly been mustering to support the Nandi
in 1905g.
The events following Koitalel's death are less well known, yet form a crucial
element in understanding the internal struggles and divisions within Nandi
and Kipsigis society over the colonial period. In establishing control of the
14 Ng'eny, 'Nandi resistance', pp. 97-I02; S. C. Lang'at, 'Some aspects of Kipsigis history
before I9I4', in B. G. McIntosh (ed.), Ngano: studies in the traditional and modern history of East Africa
(Nairobi, I969), pp. 87-92.
15 William R. Ochieng', A history of Kenya (Nairobi, I985), pp. 94-5. A. T. Matson, The Nandi
campaign against the British, I895-I906 (Nairobi, I 974), provides a brief account (pp. i-i 6), whilst his
Nandi resistance to British rule, I89o-I9o6 (Nairobi, I972), is the first of what had been conceived as
a multi-volumed and highly detailed study.
16 Col. R. Meinertzhagen, Kenya diary I902-06 (Edinburgh, I957), pp. 232-39, gives a
protagonist's account of these events, with subsequent sections of the book discussing the
controversy that led to three separate inquiries into Meinertzhagen's conduct. The oral history of
Nandi provides many vivid accounts, which are consistent in asserting that the orkoiyot was
unarmed and held in his hand a small bundle of grasses, a symbol of peace.
17 Matson, Nandi campaign, p. I2.
Nandi and Kipsigis areas, the British first dealt with those Nandi whom they
believed to have been in league with Koitalel: some were executed, others
deported and imprisoned.'8 Then, believing the position held by the orkoiik
among the Nandi and Kipsigis to be one of executive authority, they set about
establishing the rudiments of the new administrative structure by appointing
several orkoiik as colonial chiefs. Among these was Kipchomber arap Koilege.'9
This placed the orkoiik in a position of authority over the community which
had no precedent. Worse still, it neglected the subtle, ambiguous and
sometimes contradictory nature of the relationship between these ritual
experts and the main body of the Kalenjin. The orkoiik were both feared and
respected, for their powers could be exploitative just as they could be
exploited. They were therefore deliberately kept at a distance from the
community, socially and politically, their power having no role in the running
of day-to-day affairs, their public authority confined to specific ritual
functions. Indeed, the power of these ritual experts was in some senses
'external' to the Kalenjin community, deliberately cordoned off: the orkoiik
lay beyond the moral codes governing social behaviour, operating within a
quite separate moral sphere defined by their own special status. For the
Maasai the ambiguity of the relationship between the laibon and the
community has been summed up in a subtle observation that is equally
apposite for the Kalenjin orkoiik: Maasai could not live with the laibon, but nor
could they live without him.20 Like the Maasai laibon, the orkoiik only came
into a closer relation to the wider community at what might be termed liminal
phases, especially those linked to the passage of age-sets and the organization
of initiation ceremonies, at which prominent orkoiik presided. Even in these
deeply significant affairs, the role of orkoiik was complementary to, yet also in
conflict with, the authority of the elders.
This conflict was most apparent in relation to male generational tensions
surrounding the acquisition of cattle and wives. Around the time of initiation,
young men hoped to begin to acquire cattle of their own, which would mark
the beginnings of herds which would provide the economic basis for their
eventual marriage and the establishment of independent households. Elders
within a family would commonly contribute to this process through various
arrangements of loaning or bonding out cattle, but this naturally placed the
elder in a position of considerable authority regarding the redistribution of
wealth, and (by extension) over the ability of young men to marry and
establish households. The orkoiik intervened in this process in two important
respects: first, leading orkoiik were consulted over the timing of initiations,
18 More than a dozen Nandi believed to be close associates of Koitalel were sentenced to five
years rigorous imprisonment in September I906; see 'Nandi political prisoners, I905-I4', KNA
AG4/4995-
19 C. M. Dobbs, 'Memorandum on the Lumbwa laibons', I2 May I930, CO 533/441/I.
'Lumbwa' was the incorrect colonial name given to the Kipsigis people and their land.
20 The phrase is drawn from Paul Spencer, 'The diviner's oracle and the prophet's domain in
Maasai', Africa, LXI (I99I), 360-70, and is also employed by Berntsen, 'Maasai and Inkidongi',
p. I.
86o DAVID M. ANDERSON
being able to effectively slow down or accelerate the passage of the age-set
cycle (and thereby exert pressures on elders to redistribute wealth); and
secondly, the powers of the orkoiik were invariably invoked by young men in
the organization, sanctioning and conduct of cattle raids. Theft of cattle
represented a means by which younger man might acquire wealth
independently of the redistribution of the wealth of their immediate relatives.
For services rendered in regard to cattle raids, orkoiik were rewarded with a
share of the cattle seized, and so this was also an important element in the
orkoiyot's own pattern of wealth accumulation. The orkoiik were thus placed in
a strategic position in the mediation of generational conflicts concerning age-
set transitions, and the social and economic transactions that followed in their
wake: the balance between them and male elders was a delicate one. So it was
that, by placing orkoiik in a position of administrative authority, the British
had unwittingly turned the world of the Kalenjin on its head, undermining the
authority vested in elders by the community and placing orkoiik in a position
to challenge the accepted principles of moral order for their own advantage.2'
It took the colonial administration some time to realize their mistake: it
took the orkoiik among the Kipsigis no time at all to capitalize upon their
unexpected opportunity. Although there was a steady trickle of complaints to
the administration from Kipsigis elders from I907 onwards about the excesses
of those orkoiik appointed as chiefs, it was not until I 9 i i that the administration
began to appreciate the enormity of their error. From I 9I2 onwards a number
of orkoiik were removed from positions of authority, largely for failing to carry
out government orders. Over the next two years groups of elders levelled a
series of accusations of witchcraft against Kipchomber arap Koilege, claiming
that he was plotting to turn the people against the government. In I914
Kipchomber arap Koilege was tried under the witchcraft ordinance, along
with several other orkoiik who had held the posts of chiefs and headmen. He
was convicted and deported to Fort Hall, where he subsequently died.22
Shortly after Kipchomber arap Koilege had been taken away by the British
a strange illness was reported to be sweeping through the Kipsigis reserve. The
disease was named kusto, and it was said that people became suddenly feverish,
and would writhe and agitate with severe sweats and acute swellings of the
glands, and that within a few hours they would die. It was reported to the
District Commissioner that hundreds were dead and dying in every location,
and it was alleged that the disease had originated in the locality where
Kipchomber arap Koilege had lived. Although the District Commissioner and
the European doctor who rushed to Kericho found people who claimed to be
21 Huntingford, The Nandi, pp. 38-52, offers a general discussion of the relations between elders
and orkoiik.
22 The deportation of Kipchomber and two other orkoiik, arap Boisio anld arap Kiboyot, was
sanctioned by the secretary of state on 26 Dec. I9I3, under the removal of natives ordinance
(I909). They left the Kipsigis reserve on 20 Jan. I9I4, Kipchomber being taken to Fort Hall;
Barton to Hemsted, 30 May I928, KNA DC/NYI/2/8/I. Kipchomber died in exile on i8 July
I9I6, see District Commissioner [DC] Fort Hall to DC Nyeri, i9 July I9I6, KNA
PC/NZA-3/3 I / I 2.
CRIME IN COLONIAL KENYA 86i
smitten, they could locate no visible symptoms; and though everyone spoken
to claimed that many had died, no body was ever seen by a European. In his
report on the incident, the District Commissioner concluded it to be a form of
hysteria, and ventured to suggest that it was in some way connected to the
deportation of Kipchomber arap Koilege. Later that same year, in the midst
of a worsening drought, a group of Kipsigis petitioned the District
Commissioner for the return of the orkoiyot, on the grounds that his removal
was the cause of their present misfortunes.23
The history of the next twenty years in the Kipsigis reserve is dominated by
the struggle for ascendancy between the orkoiik of the Talai clan and those
elders who came to oppose them. The evidence of elders' complaints against
the orkoiik suggests that 'opposition' took many forms. Some elders indicated
the alien character of orkoiik practice among the Kipsigis since the arrival of
Kipchomber in the I89os, and argued for their expulsion back to the Nandi
reserve: others reacted against the subversion of 'tradition' displayed by the
encroachment by the orkoiik into the domain of civil authority; others tied
their fortunes to those of their new colonial masters, and opposed the orkoiik
simply as enemies of law and order, following the 'official line'; others still
became converts to Christianity, and viewed the orkoiik as the pagan enemy in
the struggle for 'hearts and minds'. On the other side were those who favoured
the orkoiik. The motives of these people are less easy to characterize, but among
them were certainly those who wished to perpetuate Kalenjin resistance to
colonialism and also those who saw the orkoiik (rightly or wrongly) as
protectors of an older and preferred social order. There were also certainly
many who supported the orkoiik out of fear and a genuine belief that they held
the power - whether natural or supernatural - to inflict real harm and
misfortune. The patterns of motive, loyalties and patronage were made all the
more complex by the various transformations that had occurred in the role
and functions of the orkoiik between the I 86os and I 9 I OS - first by the intrusion
of a Maasai element in the nineteenth century, then by the experience of
resistance to colonial conquest, and again by the early 'alliance' with colonial
authority.24 The tensions this generated within the community were therefore
novel, a product of recent 'crises'. But it would be wrong to label these
conflicts in simple terms of collaboration and resistance: the orkoiik stood at the
centre of the battle to redefine the moral order, to establish a new social
consensus in a transformed world. We can follow that struggle through the
careers of leading orkoiik during the colonial period.
23 Acting provincial commissioner [PC] Nyanza to chief secretary, 4 May I935, quoting from
the district political record book for I9I4, KNA PC/NZA.3/I5/I I6. On agitation for the return
of the orkoiyot see Dobbs, 'Memorandum on the Lumbwa laibons', I2 May I930, CO 533/44I/I,
pp. I4-I5. 24 Magut, 'The rise alnd fall', passim.
Barserion arap Kimanye
The struggle between the authority of the elders and the power of the orkoiik
emerged among the Nandi in the months following Koitalel's death, but the
ramifications took longer to penetrate the consciousness of the colonial
administration than in Kipsigis. The reasons for this seem clear enough.
Several leading Nandi orkoiik had been killed in the fighting of I905, and
others had subsequently been deported by the government. Of those who had
survived, some had dispersed to other parts of the Western Highlands, and
only a rump remained in Nandi.25 Defeated and depleted by the events of
I905-6, the Nandi orkoiik were in no position at that time to challenge the
authority of their new colonial masters. As among the Kipsigis, the British
initially sought to govern the Nandi through their orkoiik, appointing
Koitalel's erstwhile rival, Kipeles, as chief.26 Kipeles held his colonial post,
though to little effect, until his death in September I9' I. The British then
appointed Lelimo arap Samoie, a son of Koitalel, as chief, in the belief that
they were honouring local 'custom' in maintaining authority in the lineage.
This was a grave error ofjudgement: Lelimo was little respected by the Nandi,
his powers thought to be very limited in comparison to his brothers and half-
brothers.27 Upon the death of Kipeles, in i9 i I, the power of the orkoiik among
the Nandi had sunk to a low point, and a small group of elders were already
emerging as conspicuous allies of the British in their role as chiefs and
headmen. By I9I8 it seemed to the colonial administration that the power of
the orkoiik was a thing of the past, and that the Nandi were slowly settling
down 'to an orderly way of life' under the pax britannica.28
This optimistic outlook was soon overshadowed by a very serious challenge
to colonial authority among the Nandi. The challenge was led by an orkoiyot
named Barserion arap Kimanye, the youngest son of Koitalel. Resident as a
'squatter' on a European farm just north of the Nandi reserve, Barserion lay
beyond the authority of the Nandi elders and beyond the immediate control
of the District Commissioner at Kapsabet in the Nandi reserve.29 Following
Kipeles' death, he emerged unrivalled as the most prominent Nandi orkoiyot.
By I920 the colonial officers in Nandi viewed him with suspicion: the initiation
of a new age-set was imminent, and it was rumoured that Barserion was deeply
involved in the growing number of stock thefts from settler farms near the
Nandi reserve, and that he had sworn vengeance on the colonial government
for his father's murder.30
Barserion had reason enough to oppose the colonial government, but by the
early I920S unrest among the Nandi was widespread, and it was by no means
25 'Nandi political prisoners, I905-I4', KNA AG4/4995.
26 Huntingford, The Nandi, p. 25.
27 Ibid. p. 52; Huntingford, 'The genealogy', p. 24.
28 Nandi District Annual Report, IgI8-Ig.
29 Castle-Smith to Senior Commissioner [SC], Kisumu, 22 Oct. I923, 'Report on Nandi
unrest', p. i, KNA PC/NZA. 3/3 I/ I I .
30 Castle-Smith to SC Kisumu, 5 Oct. I923, KNA PC/NZA.3/3I/II.
all instigated by the orkoiyot. The years following the end of the first world war
were a difficult period among the Nandi. Influenza took its toll of the human
population, and stock diseases swept through the cattle herds. At the same
time, the colonial government increased its demands for taxes and improved
its system of collection, compelling more Nandi to take employment on the
European-owned farms on the Uasin Gishu plateau, along the northern
border of the Nandi reserve.3' Most serious of all, in I920 the government
alienated a further iOO square miles of the Nandi reserve in the Kipkarren
valley to provide farms for Europeans under the post-war Soldier Settlement
Scheme, and permitted further land grants to Europeans in the Kaimosi area.
In I906 the Nandi had lost substantial grasslands in the Songhor area as part
of their punishment for resistance, and the alienations of I920 further
restricted the grazing land available to several pororoisiek (territorial units,
based on clans). Many Nandi viewed this as a hostile act on the part of
government, and by I 92I it was apparent that the Nandi were again
becoming 'disaffected '.32
Although he was not entirely the source of this 'disaffection', Barserion
became its focus.33 During I932 Nandi elders petitioned the District
Commissioner on the subject of the ceremony of saket-ap-eito, an important
ritual in the transition from one age-set to another. According to Nandi
'custom' (as presented at the time), this ceremony involved a gathering of all
the murran of a single age-set under the guardianship of senior elders, but
presided over by the most prominent orkoiyot.34 Although the saket-ap-eito
should be held every I4 years or so, no ceremony had been conducted since
before the troubles of I905, and an unusually large body of men awaited
initiation, many of them much older than would normally be expected. Nandi
elders earnestly pressed upon the administration the urgency of the situation.
Adopting an attitude of non-interference, the administration permitted the
organization of the ceremony to go ahead. Barserion arap Kimanye was to
officiate, and it was proposed to hold the ceremony on the European farm
where he then resided.35
In the months leading up to the saket-ap-eito, the authority of the elders
diminished, giving way to the influence of the orkoiyot. 'Lawlessness' among
the Nandi increased markedly, particularly the incidence of stock theft by the
Nyongi age-set, who were preparing to participate in the ceremony. Settlers
were quick to report these thefts, and also to comment upon what they
perceived as the growing 'truculence' of the younger Nandi men. The
realization that most of the Nandi labour from the settler farms on the Uasin
31 Diana Ellis, 'The Nandi protest of I923 in the context of African resistance to colonial rule
in Kenya', Journal of African History, XVII (I976), 562-6.
32 Huntingford, The Nandi, pp. 4I-2.
3 Ellis, 'The Nandi protest', remains the only detailed study of these events.
" Huntingford, Southern Nilo-Hamites, pp. 3I-2.
3 For a detailed account of administrative actions concerning the saket-ap-eito see Castle-Smith
to acting SC Kisumu, 22 Oct. I923, 'Report upon Nandi unrest', KNA PC/NZA.3/3I/I I .
Gishu plateau would be absent for three days to attend the ceremony raised
a further crop of complaints.36 More seriously, rumours began to circulate the
European farms and the Nandi reserve that the ceremony was to be the signal
for a rebellion, led by Barserion arap Kimanye, to take back the Nandi lands
from the Europeans and to avenge the death of Koitalel. With this intelligence,
the gathering of several hundred Nandi men on a farm in the midst of the
European settler community began to take on a distinctly sinister appearance
in the eyes of European officials.37 Uncertain of Barserion's intentions, and of
the reliability of their own intelligence network, the administration dallied.
Finally, only four days before the ceremony was due, Barserion and four elders
who had been prominent in the organization of the gathering were arrested by
the District Commissioner, accompanied by a detachment of armed police. A
week later, the orkoiyot was brought before the magistrate at Eldoret, and
sentenced to be deported to Nyeri, in the Kikuyu area of central Kenya.38
Unlike the I914 disturbances among the Kipsigis, which had seen a group
of elders emerge in direct conflict with the orkoiik, the I923 troubles in Nandi
appear to have united a broad spectrum of Nandi society behind the orkoiyot
and against the government. The driving force behind this was not the orkoiyot
himself, but the resentments that still lingered over the injuries of a war then
still strong in the memory, and the continuation of what seemed to be further
punitive measures in the further land alienations of I920.
The road to Gwassi
With the deportation of Barserion arap Kimanye the administration had, for
the time being, gained the upper hand in the struggle against the Kalenjin
orkoiik. Or so it seemed. However, in Barserion's absence, his Kipsigis cousins
(the sons and nephews of his uncle Kipchomber arap Koilege) mounted a
challenge of their own to the authority of the colonial government.
To place the actions of the Kipsigis orkoiik in context, we must first briefly
consider the manner in which the colonial government sought to enforce law
and order among the Kalenjin during the I 920S and I 930s. Stock theft was the
crime with which the Kalenjin were most closely associated in the eyes of the
government.39 It had long been understood by the colonial administration
that the orkoiik were involved in stock thefts. Their role in sanctioning and
blessing pre-colonial cattle raiding by murran had continued in a modified form
36 Ibid. p. 2; J.J. Drought to SC Kisumu, 4 Oct. I923; and Castle-Smith to SC Kisumu,
confidential, I 3 Oct. I 923, all in KNA PC/NZA.3/3 I / I I .
37 Capt. Slade Hawkins to Castle-Smith, 22 Oct. I923, 'Nandi unrest'; 'Statements regarding
unrest', I5 Sept. I923, and 'Evidence of Kipto arap Kimais' (East African Police), enclosures 3
and io in Castle-Smith to SC Kisumu, 22 Oct. I923, all in KNA PC/NZA.3/3I/I I.
38 Barserion was arrested on i6 October. Castle-Smith to SC Kisumu, I7 Oct. I923, KNA
PC/NZA.3/3I/I i. He was deported to Meru early in I924.
3 The following section is based on David M. Alndersoln, 'Stock theft and moral economy in
colonial Kenya', Africa, LVI (I986), 399-4I6.
in the colonial period, although the practice of large-scale raiding had ended.
For his ritual and practical assistance in the organization of thefts and the
disposal or secretion of stolen animals, an orkoiyot stood to make considerable
personal gain, in the form of livestock and other tribute; and there was
evidence that some orkoiik actively encouraged theft as a means of
accumulating wealth for themselves. The inability of Kalenjin elders to stamp
out cattle rustling by the murran came to be viewed by the colonial
administration as confirmation of the general acquiescence of the wider
Kalenjin community in such crimes: the Kalenjin considered stock theft to be
a ' sport' rather than a crime, it was alleged. The thrust of colonial sanction
against stock theft was accordingly aimed at cultivating a community morality
against the criminal activities of the murran. In prosecutions against stock
thieves, or against those believed to have aided them, the colonial authorities
frequently invoked collective punishments: that is, the punishment of the
wider community for the offence of one of its members.40 For example, the
residents of a particular location might be collectively fined if stolen livestock
were found within the location boundaries, the assumption being that they
knew the animals were there and should have reported the matter. The
enforcement of collective punishments had two broad effects: firstly, in
bringing pressure to bear on chiefs and headmen to discourage stock theft, it
pushed them into direct conflict with those orkoiik who were actively involved
in - and benefiting from - the activities of the murran; secondly, it pushed the
orkoiik and the stock thieves into a more highly organized system of ' rings' in
order to avoid detection and transfer stolen stock without implicating local
Kalenjin communities.
The colonial challenge to the involvement of the orkoiik in stock theft was
therefore moral as well as legal. It sought to turn the community, and
especially the chiefs, against the orkoiik and their agents. As the colonial
authorities stepped up the enforcement of legislation against stock theft during
the I920S, these tensions became more apparent, especially among the
Kipsigis. Matters came to a head in the middle of I928, and rumbled through
the next year. The transition of the Kipsigis' Maina age-set was then
imminent, a phase when (as we have seen) the orkoiik could exploit their closest
relationship with, and greatest influence over, the murran.i In I928 this
coincided with a serious and prolonged drought, which increased still further
the spate of stock thefts that officials had now come to expect when age-set
transitions were due. But as the drought worsened, in July and August I929,
Kipsigis' 'lawlessness' took a different, and unexpected form: a series of arson
40 The collective punishments ordinance (I909) and the stock and produce theft ordinance
( 9I 3) both allowed magistrates the power to apply fines to communities for the offences of the
individual, and both further allowed punishment in respect of non-cooperation or the withholding
of information on the part of any community. As a colntrol against abuse, these punishments had
to be referred to the governor for approval. See Anderson, 'Stock theft', pp. 404-6.
41 Orchardson, The Kipsigis, p. I2. Dobbs, 'Memorandum on the Lumbwa laibons', I2 May
I930, CO 533/44I/I, p. 2I.
attacks began on the property of Africans in the Kipsigis reserve. Huts and
grain stores were set alight, and on several occasions these acts were clearly
intended to endanger life. As the months passed the attacks appeared to take
on a pattern: they were concentrated in those locations where the
administration had been most successful in its efforts to suppress stock theft,
and the principal victims were those colonial chiefs, their headmen and
retainers, who were known to have informed against stock thieves or to have
spoken out against the orkoiik.i2
These attacks brought the covert struggle between the elders and the orkoiik,
which had simmered since the deportation of Kipchomber arap Koilege in
I914, into the open. Elders once again began to seek the assistance of the
administration against the orkoiik. Prominent among these elders were early
participants in the Christian churches that were then being established among
the Kipsigis. We do not know enough about the discussions that took place
among Kipsigis elders over this crucial period, and it would be unwise to view
this as reflecting what might be termed a climate of 'popular opinion' among
the Kipsigis, but it appears that some individuals elected to take a stand
against the orkoiik. In coming forward to give evidence to the district
commissioner, several elders requested that the orkoiik be removed from the
reserve, on the grounds that their influence was 'evil' and that they should be
removed back to Nandi or Maasailand, from where they had come.43
Disturbed by the challenge to the authority of the chiefs, and concerned to
reduce stock theft and subdue the crescendo of European settler complaints
about the 'lawless Kipsigis', the administration mounted an investigation into
the activities of the orkoiik. The evidence accumulated by District Com-
missioner Brumage led to the conviction and imprisonment of several orkoiik
for their involvement in stock theft, and gave a clearer picture of the extent of
orkoiik activity in the 'handling' of stolen animals. In a reassertion of colonial
authority, a military levy force patrolled the Kipsigis reserve for I 8 months to
maintain law and order, paid for by increased taxation. With the support of
his provincial commissioner, C. M. Dobbs (who had considerable experience
of Kipsigis), Brumage went so far as to suggest that the entire clan should be
removed from the Kipsigis reserve, presenting signed affidavits from several
elders and chiefs to indicate that this was the wish of the people. But the
42 Beresford-Stooke to PC Nyanza, I5 Oct. I929, KNA PC/NZA.3/32/39. The police were
warning of trouble in Kipsigis reserve from early in I928; head of criminal investigation
department to chief native commissioner, 22 Feb. I928, KNA PC/NZA.3/32/39. It was believed
that the orkoiyot arap Boisio, who had been deported to Nyeri in I 9 I 4 along with Kipchomber, was
behind these disturbances; Filluel to PC Nyanza, 24 April I928, KNA PC/NZA.3/32/39. For
fuller details of his activities see 'Arap Boisio', KNA DC/NYI/2/8/i.
" The inquiry into these events was conducted by DC Beresford-Stooke, assisted by the district
officer [DO], Brumage, both under the direction of senior commissioner C. M. Dobbs. Dobbs to
Brumage, 22 Sept. I929; Brumage employed six Kipsigis 'agents' to collect information on the
orkoiik, Brumage, 'Report for week ending I6 November I929'; and Beresford-Stooke to Dobbs,
25 Sept. I929, all in KNA PC/NZA.3/32/39. On proposals to remove the orkoiik in I930,
supported by the Nandi local native council, see PC Nzoia to chief secretary, 23 June I930, KNA
DC/KAPT/ I/9/24.
suggestion was rejected as being too extreme a reaction to what were perceived
by most officials as simply the activities of a few criminal types.44
With the presence of the military patrol things were quieter in the Kipsigis
locations over I 930 and the early part of I 93 I. Thereafter the situation rapidly
deteriorated. The normal pattern of stock thefts again spiralled, but crimes of
a new character became more common: thefts of cash, items of high value,
firearms and ammunition from settlers and government officers. In the last
months of I933 there was a rash of attacks on settler farms, in which two
settlers in Lumbwa were physically injured, and a substantial number of guns
stolen.45 In response to settler criticism and rumours of Kipsigis 'insurrection',
and with a growing sense of unease at the pattern of events, the administration
mounted a second investigation into crime among the Kipsigis, bringing back
District Commissioner Brumage to conduct the inquiry.46 Over several
months of I934, Brumage interviewed Kipsigis chiefs and elders, detained and
interrogated all the more important orkoiik, and reviewed the material
collected in the district files. Playing one orkoiyot against another, exploiting
the rivalries between individuals (and often pretending he knew more than he
did), and coaxing the elders into believing that it would be safe to speak out
against the orkoiik, Brumage began to assemble a fragmentary, but fascinating
picture of recent events. His final report made a quite startling set of
revelations about the extent of organized crime among the orkoiik, and its
connection with anti-government activities."
Several elements of this report are strikingly problematic, but highly
suggestive of the nature of the conflicts within Kipsigis society at this time.
Many of the principal informants were young Kipsigis who had very recently
come under the influence of Christian missionaries; others were beleaguered
chiefs and elders, victimized by the orkoiik and pressured by the colonial
administration; at least one was a member of the Talai clan, whose immediate
family was involved in a long-standing dispute with other leading orkoiik.48
Above all else, the tone of the evidence assembled by Brumage conveys a very
real sense of the tension and deeply rooted fear that surrounded the revelation
of these events for those involved. The evidence presented in Brumage's report
clearly requires careful assessment, both for what it can tell us about Kalenjin
society in this period and for what it tells us about the colonial mind. Brumage
was not a policeman, but his report was compiled in much the same manner
44 On the levy force, see commissioner of police to DC Kericho, I9 Oct. I929, and related
papers in KNA PC/NZA.3/32/39. The events of I928-9 were closely linked to an increase in
stock thefts along the Maasai border with Kipsigis. Dobbs strongly advocated the removal of the
orkoiik; Dobbs to PC Nzoia, 22 June I930, KNA DC/KAPT/I /9/24.
4' Relevant correspondence on these events is to be found in 'Law and order: Lumbwa
laibons, I 930-34', KNA PC/NZA.3/ I 5/ I I 5.
46 Montgomery to colonial secretary, 8 Feb. I 934, KNA PC/NZA.3/ I 5/ I I 5.
4' Brumage to PC Nyanza, i9 April I934, KNA AG3/29.
48 Crucial evidence was provided by Kibinot arap Rongoe, an orkoiyot whose family were
involved in a protracted dispute with the family of Kipchomber. His role as an informant, and his
conflicts with other orkoiik, continued at Gwassi; PC Nyanza to colonial secretary, I 2 July I944,
KNA MAA/9/974; PC Nyanza to DC Kisii, i i Jan. I949, KNA PC/NZA.3/I5/99.
that any detective might draw together the strands of a case. Perhaps, over
keen to make connections and see patterns in the morass of detail, Brumage
may be guilty of having laid too much stress upon the degree to which the
activities of the orkoiik were orchestrated by powerful individuals. All the same,
it is quite clear that, whether individually or collectively, the orkoiik were
deeply involved in what Brumage termed 'criminal activities'-the theft of
property from both Africans and Europeans, along with actions which
colonial law determined as forms of extortion. Brumage also gave these
matters a political slant, accusing the leading orkoiik of plotting a rising against
the state. Thus, the colonial view of the orkoiik tarnished them at once as
criminal accumulators - lining their own pockets - and as subversive rebels,
holding a political purpose against the legitimacy of colonial authority.
The burden of the evidence gathered by Brumage indicated that the
Kipsigis orkoiik were at the head of a sophisticated and well-organized criminal
network, operating throughout the Western Highlands. Several informants
alluded to a meeting of orkoiik that had allegedly taken place in the Buret area
of the Kipsigis reserve some time during I928.49 Some presented this meeting
as an effort to resolve a power struggle between rival orkoiik families. If
Brumage's recounting of this information is correct, the resolution of the
struggle was found in cooperation rather than conflict. The meeting would
seem to have had two principal outcomes: first, it defined a group of
confederates among the orkoiik who stood in direct opposition to government
(the arson attacks in the Kipsigis reserve apparently began in the wake of this
meeting), and who agreed to accumulate resources with which to mount a
future rebellion; secondly, it seems that the eight leading orkoiik agreed upon
a division of territory, each identifying a 'domain' over which he had control.
This territorial division extended over the entire Western Highlands,
incorporating the lands of other Kalenjin groups and extensive areas of
European settlement. Brumage described these territories as 'fiefdoms'.50
The eight orkoiik who were the principal parties of this agreement - the 'Big
Eight', as colonial officials came to call them - were all closely related.
Brumage went to considerable trouble to reconstruct a family tree for these
orkoiik, taxing each of his informants as to the precise relationships of
individuals and collecting details of orkoiik wives and their numbers of
children. His findings may not be biologically accurate (fictive kin may well
be presented as real kin), but the evidence is strong to support the view that
these relationships reflect Kipsigis perceptions. Four of the 'Big Eight' were
identified as sons of Kipchomber arap Koilege: Ngasura arap Chomber,
Kiboin arap Sitonik, Sauli arap Mibei, and Kiberenge arap Toinge. Another,
Marumah arap Bore, was Kipchomber's nephew. The remaining three, the
brothers Chebuchuk arap Boigut and Telile arap Boigut, and Muneria arap
Tonui, were cousins of Kipchomber arap Koilege (see Fig. 2) 51 All of these
" Brumage to PC Nyanza, 5 Feb. I 934, KNA PC/NZA.3/ I 5/ I I 5, p. 8.
50 See KNA PC/NZA.3/I5/I I7 for a detailed map outlining the 'fiefdoms' controlled by each
orkoiyot. 51 Brumage to PC Nyanza, 5 Feb. I934, KNA PC/NZA.3/I5/I I5.
Barsabotwo (Kapuso)
Kipsokon Kibogui Turugat Marasoi
I ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~I I I
arap Sokon Chomber a. Kimnyole Kiboigut Tonni a.
Koilagen Bosiek
Chebuchuk Telile a. Muneria
a. Boigut Boigut a. Tonui
Kipchomber Kisanoi Ogui Koitalel Kibore
a. Koilege a. S moei
Baserion Lelimo Marumah a. Bore
a. Kimanye
I..II
Ngasura Kiboin Sauli Kiberenge
a. Chomber a. Sitonik a. Mibei a. Toinge
Fig. 2. Genealogy of the orkoiik.
men were found to be deeply involved in 'criminal activities', and each was
alleged to be at the head of a network of 'lesser orkoiik' who were also involved
in crime. The networks of agents were found to include at least two chiefs,
several location headmen and a number of other government employees.52
The eventual list of charges against each of the eight, along with several of
their accomplices, was long. Marumah arap Bore was found in possession of
three rifles and a quantity of ammunition, all hidden in a cave. Chebuchuk
arap Boigut was also found to have stolen weapons and ammunition, and
several valuable jewels stolen from a settler farm were recovered from his hut.
Muneria arap Tonui was found to be responsible for a wide range of crimes
in the Nakuru and Rumuruti districts (and was later to be strongly suspected
of involvement in the 'Kinangop Outrage'). Most serious of all, Kiboin arap
Sitonik was in possession of no fewer than eight firearms, including three 303
magazine rifles (one of which had been stolen from the police in I 929), and a
Martini-Henry rifle that had been stolen from a forest department official in
I928. A further four orkoiik were found to be hiding other stolen weapons and
ammunition. Numerous charges relating to old stock theft cases were also
brought against many orkoiik. Where less concrete evidence could be found,
charges were made under the witchcraft ordinance. As a result of the
investigations of I934 more than a dozen orkoiik were imprisoned, with hard
labour, for terms of between one and five years.53
52 Ibid. pp. 9-I i; also, Brumage to PC Nyanza, I9 April I934, KNA AG3/29.
5 Brumage to PC Nyanza, 5 Feb. I934, KNA PC/NZA.3/s5/I I5, pp. 4-7; Byrne to Cunliffe-
Lister, 3 May I934, CO 533/44I/I, summarizing convictions of orkojik and sending a first draft
of the 'Laibons removal ordinance'.
Portraying the orkoiik as the 'evil' and disruptive force among the Kipsigis,
whose powerful influence was based upon intimidation and the fear of
witchcraft, Brumage reiterated his earlier recommendation for the wholesale
deportation of the entire Talai clan from the Kipsigis reserve. The legal and
moral objections that had been raised to so extreme a measure in I930 now
melted away: the extent of Talai involvement in crime and witchcraft had
been substantively documented, and the alleged intention of the orkoiik to
mount a rebellion gave these events a deeper significance than had been
apparent four years earlier. In May I934, with the strong support of other
senior administrators, and no doubt conscious of settler anxiety about the
situation in the Western Highlands, the attorney general drafted legislation to
provide for the mass deportation of the orkoiik clan, and forwarded it to
London for approval.54
While this extraordinary and unprecedented proposal was under con-
sideration at the colonial office, Alex Semini was murdered. The 'Kinangop
Outrage' was soon rumoured to be yet another example of the activities of
Kipsigis 'gangsters', a rumour given some substance by evidence gathered
which implicated the orkoiyot Muneria arap Tonui, who, it was claimed, had
given 'blessings' to the eight burglars before their raid on the Semini farm.
Lingering doubts in London and Nairobi about the propriety of the proposed
legislation dissipated in the weeks following the 'Kinangop Outrage'.55 On 25
September I934, the day after seven Kipsigis had been found guilty in the high
court of the murder of Alex Semini, the Laibons Removal Ordinance (no. 32
of I934) was added the laws of Kenya (Cap. 46) 56 Over the following three
years, all members of the Talai clan, men, women and children - more than
700 persons in all - were removed, with a portion of their livestock and other
possessions, to the Gwassi location in South Nyanza, where the bulk of them
were to remain, under direct supervision, until the mid-Ig9os.57
The official record of this forced migration portrays the removal of the
orkoiik as marking the welcome end of tyranny in the Kipsigis reserve and the
restoration of the 'traditional' authority of the elders. There were certainly
some Kipsigis who viewed events in these terms, but not all shared this sense
of well-being. Aside from the involvement of orkoiik in organized crime,
members of the Talai clan were recognized and respected practitioners of such
arts as divining, rain-making and witch-finding: who would now perform
" On the detailed drafting of the ordinance, see Montgomery to chief secretary, I9 July I 934,
KNA PC/NKU/3/I/Io.
5 For discussion of the legislation in the colonial office, see CO 533/48i/i.
56 For the Semini case see criminal case I 23 (I 934), Rex v. Kibet arap Boregi and 6 others, CO
533/48I/I5. 'The laibons removal ordinance' (no. 32 of I934), Laws of Kenya, I948 (Nairobi,
I948), Cap. 46; see CO 533/48I/I.
" On the selection of Gwassi see DC South Kavirondo to PC Nyanza, 27 March I934, and
subsequent papers, KNA PC/NZA.3/I5/II5, and on the beginnings of the move itself, DC
Kericho to Acting PC Nyanza, 22 Oct. I934, KNA PC/NZA.3/I5/I i6. The first move of eleven
families (I20 people in all, with their livestock) was completed on io Nov. I934. ByJune I937 the
last family had been moved, and I I 3 orkoiik with 647 dependants were resident in Gwassi; PC
Nyanza to chief secretary, 30 June I 937, KNA PC/NZA.3/ I 5/ I I 7.
CRIME IN COLONIAL KENYA 87I
these mundane, but essential social functions? The departure of the orkoiik left
a vacuum which the aspiring Christian churches were not yet in a position to
fill. The position of the churches was strengthened after I935, but the power
and influence of the orkoiik lingered on. On many occasions the administration
uncovered evidence of attempts by Kipsigis to contact the orkoiik at Gwassi,
seeking to employ their services for ritual purposes.58 While the departure of
the orkoiik was welcomed by some, it marked an immediate social crisis of
significant proportions for others: towards the end of I935, following the
imprisonment of several leading orkoiik and the beginnings of the deportations
to Gwassi, the strange illness known as kusto was once again reported to be
sweeping through the Kipsigis reserve. This time the administration were
more confident in asserting that this was nothing more than a minor outbreak
of cerebral meningitis, but the district commissioner stated plainly that many
Kipsigis saw this as part of the revenge to be exacted by the orkoiik.59
'The promised land'
With the Kipsigis wing of the family removed from the Western Highlands, let
us return to the story of Barserion arap Kimanye and the Nandi. Accused of
witchcraft and revolt, Barserion had been exiled to central Kenya in I923. In
his absence, the Nandi had continued to consult other orkoiik-some of whom
continued to be actively involved in the encouragement of stock theft - on
divinatory and other matters.60 Although the Nandi orkoiik remained a threat
to progress and to law and order in the eyes of the administration, there is no
evidence that their opposition to the policies of the colonial government took
the same form as among the Kipsigis. Certainly, by the late I 920S none of the
Nandi orkoiik had achieved a reputation to match that of the exiled son of
Koitalel.
In I929 the district commissioner reported that 'certain Nandi elders' were
petitioning for the return of Barserion. The reason for their request was stated
to be the seriousness of the drought then afflicting the Nandi reserve, the elders
hoping that the restoration of the orkoiyot might restore the fortunes of the
people. This argument seems to have been accepted by the administration,
and Barserion was permitted to return to Nandi, where he was compelled to
live at the government town of Kapsabet, under the watchful eye of the district
58 For example, Kiboin arap Sitonik and Muneria arap Tonui, two of the 'Big Eight' who were
exiled to Gwassi following prison sentences served in the I930s, managed to maintain 'constant
contact with the Kipsigis' from Gwassi, and as a result were moved to Mfangano Island in Lake
Victoria during I 944; PC Nyanza to colonial secretary, 3 I Aug. I 944, and related papers, KNA
MAA/9/974.
5 Dr Howell to DC Kericho, 'A mysterious disease among the natives of south Lumbwa
district', I7 April I935, KNA PC/NZA.3/I5/i I6. Like the similar events of I9I4, Europeans
believed this to be associated with an outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis, although this was
never established.
60 See 'Laibons and deportees, I927-35', KNA DC/NDI/4/I, for monthly intelligence reports
from the criminal intelligence department on the activities of orkoiik in Nandi, and on Barserion's
activities in exile.
commissioner.6" But it also seems likely that the request for Barserion's return
was part of a wider conflict within Nandi society, between those who wished
to restore the orkoiik to the prominence they had enjoyed in the recent past and
those who did not. Among other evidence, this is indicated by events that
followed Barserion's homecoming in I930 when, within a few months of his
return, another group of elders (including a number of recent Christian
converts) complained to the district commissioner that the orkoiyot was
'practising witchcraft'. Although the district commissioner found insufficient
evidence to support this accusation, similar claims were reiterated at intervals
throughout the I930s. It is certain that all the Christian churches in Nandi
viewed Barserion as an evil and potentially dangerous influence. For his own
part, Barserion undoubtedly continued to ply his trade over this period, but
there is no evidence that his activities mounted a serious challenge to the
government, or to the Nandi chiefs. None the less, his presence remained a
focus of attention for those elders and (increasingly) chiefs who sought to
reduce the power and influence of the orkoiik among the Nandi.62
Barserion was to commit one final act, however, that brings our story full
circle. In the late I940S the question of land again became a critical political
issue in the Nandi reserve, following the decision of the settler-controlled
district councils of Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia to repatriate the majority of
the Nandi squatters and their livestock to the Nandi reserve. The squatters
were resident labourers, living and working on farms in the European-settled
areas to the north and east of the Nandi reserve. Many squatter families had
resided on these lands since before I920, but they were treated under the law
as tenants-at-will and thereby had no rights. The agreement by which most
worked for the Europeans permitted them to graze a stipulated number of
their cattle on the farm. In the early days of European settlement this system
had evolved as an essential element in securing labour - without grazing
rights, Nandi simply would not work the farms. By the I940S the economic
position of the farms had changed, and the majority of European landowners
(though by no means all) desired to move towards a better-defined system of
contract labour and to remove African-owned livestock from their lands in
order to implement fuller development on the farms and to remove the risk of
the spread of stock diseases.63
After considerable debate, and a good deal of persuasion from the
61 Barserion returned to Nandi in May I930, after requests from the elders; DC Nandi to PC
Nzoia, 28 Dec. I929, KNA DC/KAPT/I/9/23.
62 'Law and order: Barserion arap Kimanye, I932-39', KNA PC/RVP/6A/I7/27, for
accusations against the orkoiyot made by Nandi elders in I932 and I938. Also, Hislop to PC Rift
Valley, I 2 Jan. I 935, KNA DC/NDI/4/ I .
63 On the squatter system in general, the best account remains Roger van Zwanenberg, Colonial
capitalism and laboutr in Kenya I9I9-I939 (Nairobi, I975), ch. 8. On the importance of the settler
pressures in the Western Highlands to remove squatter labour, see David M. Anderson and David
Throup, 'Africans and agricultural production in colonial Kenya: the myth of the war as a
watershed', Journal of Africani History, xxvi (I985), 327-46, and Christopher P. Youe, 'Settler
capital and the assault on the squatter peasantry in Kenya's Uasin Gishu District, I942-I963',
African Affairs, LXXXVII (i988), 393-4I8.
government, the Nandi chiefs agreed to accept the returning squatters back
into the reserve and to supervise the 'reabsorption' of thousands of head of
cattle. Part of the government plan to accomplish this involved a land
clearance and resettlement scheme in the Nandi reserve and the compulsory
sale of stock that was surplus to the calculated carrying capacity of the
available land, along with the compulsory branding of all stock to be
repatriated to the reserve. All of this implied more people and livestock within
the Nandi reserve, and greater direction from government as to the use of their
land.64 Barserion, by then an old man, entered the political debate on these
questions, predictably taking the side of those returning squatters who seemed
likely to lose their livestock and be made landless in this process of change.
After an abortive campaign in I95I, as the main process of repatriation got
under way, to persuade the squatters to march back to the farms and
'repossess' the land, Barserion again seemed to disappear from the political
arena. At this time government energies were diverted by the Mau Mau
emergency, and the removal of Kikuyu labour from farms throughout many
parts of Kenya created openings for Nandi squatters then being repatriated
from the Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia farms.65 This lessened the pressures of
absorbing so many people and livestock back into the reserve, and lowered the
political temperature, albeit temporarily.
It was not until May I957, with the Mau Mau emergency in its fourth year,
that Barserion arap Kimanye made what was to be his final bid to avenge the
death of his father, Koitalel. In the early months of I957 the district
intelligence reports began to mention that Barserion was again active. His
supporters had been seen travelling about the reserve and, mysteriously,
several of them had made visits to Nandi squatters on the Laikipia Escarpment,
on the eastern side of the Rift Valley.66 Nandi had only gone to Laikipia as
squatters in any numbers during the Mau Mau emergency, replacing Kikuyu
labour on the farms. Many Nandi expelled from Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia
had made their way to Laikipia instead of returning to the overcrowded Nandi
reserve. They had done this with the tacit knowledge of the administration,
who viewed this strictly illegal procedure as neatly ameliorating their
difficulties in accommodating more people in the Nandi reserve and solving
the problems of labour shortage in those areas of Kenya where Kikuyu labour
had predominated.67
64 On the planning, implementation and political repercussions of the scheme to repatriate
Nandi squatters to the reserve, see papers in 'Return of Nandi stock from Uasin Gishu, I 944-59',
KNA DC/NDI/5/2, and 'Nandi: return of squatter stock, I954-57', KNA DC/NDI/5/3.
65 DC Kericho to DC Nandi, I5 Jan. I955, KNA DC/NDI/s/3, for details of special branch
reports. The administration were concerned enough by the re-emergence of Barserion and by the
disaffection of those sections among the Nandi who supported him to secure approval from the
secretary of state (Lennox-Boyd) for the extensions of the laibons removal ordinance to apply to
Nandi; see Baring to Lennox-Boyd, 29 July I955, and 'Memo. on laibons in Nandi', from
Ministry of African Affairs, 2 I April I955, both in KNA MAA/9/974.
66 Acting PC Rift Valley to DC Nandi, 27 April I957, KNA DC/NDI/5/3; DC Thomson's
Falls to PC Rift Valley, 2 May I957, reporting Nandi activities on Laikipia.
67 Acting PC Rift Valley to secretary for African affairs, I May I957, KNA DC/NDI/6/i.
From the evidence of Nandi who took part in the events of I 956 and from
the intelligence on his activities gathered by the government, it appears that
Barserion's scheme was to lead a rebellion of the Nandi squatters on Laikipia
who, taking advantage of the preoccupation of the British with Mau Mau,
would turn on the European settlers, kill them, and claim Laikipia as the
Nandi's 'Promised Land'.68 The killing of Koitalel would thus be avenged
and, symbolically at least, the lands taken from the Nandi as punishment for
the resistance led by Koitalel would be restored. On the day prior to the
planned insurrection Barserion and a group of his supporters were arrested on
the road between Kapsabet and Laikipia. On the next day the police rounded
up a large number of Nandi squatters in the fringes of the Marmanet Forest,
on the western edge of Laikipia. They also confiscated over 5,ooo newly made
arrows and large quantities of freshly prepared poisons.69
Protest and resistance in Kenyan historiography
Barserion arap Kimanye was once again deported in I957, this time to
Mfangano Island in Lake Nyanza, where he remained until i96i.70 His
kinsmen among the Kipsigis were allowed to return from Gwassi to the
Kipsigis reserve from the mid-I95os, where those orkoiik suspected of anti-
government or criminal activities were kept under close watch. By then the
influence of Kipchomber's immediate family was much diminished within the
clan, many of the children were attending school and some had embraced
Christianity. Back among Kipsigis, the orkoiik resumed many of their social
functions as diviners, and it may be assumed that some continued to maintain
an interest in stock theft: but there was no significant political disturbance
involving the orkoiik in the last years of colonial rule.7" By the eve of Kenya's
independence in I963, it would appear that the civil authority of the elders,
bolstered by the colonial state, had ultimately triumphed over the orkoiik. But
that is too simple a conclusion: the pattern of gains and losses was more
complex, and requires a more cautious and ambivalent assessment.
68 Barserion's intentions and plans are described fully, from intelligence reports, in DC Laikipia
to PC Rift Valley, 25 April I957, KNA DC/NDI/6/i.
69 'Armed uprising by Nandi squatters averted', East African Standard (I4 May I957). Nandi
chiefs were quick to condemn Barserion and his supporters; see 'Report on visit of Governor to
Nandi, 5July I957', KNA DC/NDI/Io/2.
70 PC Rift Valley to DC Nandi, 29 July I957, KNA DC/KAPT/I/9/25. Two of Barserion's
sons were also later deported to Mfangano Island, see 'Deportation Orders, I 7 September I959',
KNA PC/NZA/I/I5/27.
71 The decision to allow younger orkoiik to return to Kipsigis was taken in I947, see minute by
chief native commissioner, I4 Feb. I953, KNA MAA/9/974. The policy regarding the
establishment of a school for orkoiik children (devised in I947) had originally involved their
segregation. This policy was changed to one of integration in I953; acting chief native
commissioner to PC Rift Valley, 2I March I953, KNA MAA/9/974. The decision to allow all
surviving orkoijik to return was announced to a baraza (public meeting) in the Kipsigis reserve on
I 4 February I 96 I, the day on which their greatest opponent and staunch ally of the government,
chief arap Tengecha, formally retired from office; PC Nyanza to colonial secretary, 2 Feb. I96I,
KNA PC/NZA/I/1I5/27.
Kalenjin orkoiik have taken up a surprising and symbolically significant
position in the evolving historiography of Kenya since the Ig6os. This
historiography has remained an arena for sharp political controversy, within
which highly divergent views of Kenya's past are contested. The theme of
resistance dominates this discourse, both of African resistance to colonial
conquest and (more poignantly) African resistance in the Mau Mau
emergency of the I95os. The Mau Mau war was a struggle which divided
Africans in Kenya among themselves, even dividing those Kikuyu com-
munities who were at its centre. These divisions were not an accidental
product of the struggle, but were cultivated as a deliberate tactic: the British
colonial government mobilized a Kikuyu home guard to combat Mau Mau,
and were conspicuously successful in keeping groups other than Kikuyu out of
the armed struggle.72 While many Kalenjin may have sympathized with the
armed struggle, and some elements certainly organized themselves to support
the Mau Mau land and freedom army, it remains true that the British, for very
good reason, considered the Kalenjin to be the most loyal of all the peoples of
Kenya during the I95os.73 Moreover, whilst the Mau Mau fighters may be
thought to have ultimately won the war even in military defeat - in so far as
their activities can be seen to have dramatically altered the political landscape
of Kenya and brought the end of imperial rule much faster than might
otherwise have been the case - they did not win the peace. The spoils of war
- political power in the independent Kenya - went not to the freedom fighters
from the forests, or even to their commanders, but instead to the more liberal
elements in the nationalist movement of the I 940S and I 950s, most of whom
had argued throughout for constitutional settlement and remained, at best,
ambivalent in their attitudes towards the armed struggle.74
The popular image of nationalist struggle that the state in independent
Kenya has consistently promoted is predictably devoid of the contradictions
implicit in this rendering of the historical evidence. The process of nation-
building has required a simplistic picture of a glorious nationalist struggle
during Mau Mau in which all Kenya peoples played a part.75 Yet with
landlessness - the most fundamental aspect of the land and freedom army's
charter - having not diminished in Kenya since independence, and with
72 Frank Furedi, The Mau Mau war in perspective (London, I989); Carl G. Rosberg and John
Nottingham, The myth of Mau Mau (New York, I966), chapter 8. For a very sophisticated
reassessment,J. M. Lonsdale, 'Mau Maus of the mind: making Mau Mau and remaking Kenya',
Journal of African History, xxxi (I 990), 393-422.
73 F. D. Corfield, Historical survey of the origins and growth of Mau Manl, Cmd. I030 (London,
I960), pp. 2II-I7.
74 Lonsdale, 'Mau Maus of the mind', passim; John Spencer, KA U. The Kenya Africanl Union,
especially chapters 5-7; D. W. Throup, Economic and social origins of Mazn Manl 1945-53 (London,
Nairobi and Athens, Ohio, I987).
75 The most obvious example remains Jomo Kenyatta, Sufferinlg withouit bitterness: thefozundinig of
the Kenya nation (Nairobi, I968). For the most recent example of the way in which textbooks for
Kenyan students avoid any controversy in this respect see D. N. Sifuna, 'Nationalism and
decolonisation', in W. R. Ochieng' (ed.), Themes in Kenyan history (Nairobi, I989), especially pp.
I95-9.
politics continuing to be seen in largely local terms, the nationalist
interpretation has been undermined by class-based and ethnocentric
alternatives.76 None of this is very surprising, yet it emphasizes that resistance
remains the most prominent yet also most problematic theme of Kenya's
historiography.
This brings us back to Koitalel, Kipchomber and Barserion, and the way in
which they have been portrayed in writings on Kenya's past. In his widely
read and highly praised novel Petals of Blood, Ngugi wa Thiong'o includes
Barserion and Koitalel in his pantheon of true heroes of African resistance to
colonialism, invoking their names as a plea for justice and right.77 This literary
allusion reflects what might be considered the 'orthodox' view of many
Kenyan-born historians. William Ochieng' has echoed this in his school and
university textbooks written for Kenyan students, while Atieno Odhiambo has
described Koitalel as 'the greatest of the resisters'.78 In another literary work,
Homecoming, Ngugi praises Koitalel as the leader of a 'violent peasant
resistance' against colonialism, and in his work Detained he applauds Barserion
as a leading Mau Mau activist.79 In the only work to deal at any length with
Kipchomber, Henry Mwanzi smears those who opposed the orkoiik as
'collaborators' with colonialism.80 To these writers, the orkoiik are heroic
figures.
All history needs its heroes and heroines, but it must also have its villains:
and, depending upon your perspective, the same individuals may fulfil both
roles. The orkoiik may be seen as heroes of resistance, yet they were also villains
of the piece among Kalenjin, who feared their power and the role they came
to assume in the years prior to and during colonialism. If we accept Koitalel,
Kipchomber and Barserion simply as heroes of resistance, where does this
leave the elders who stood against the power of the orkoiik? Are these
individuals to be stigmatized as colonial stooges, collaborators with the
imperial power, and thereby opponents of the forces of African nationalism?
This question has much importance for the writing of Kenya's history, and
for an analysis of present Kenyan politics. But the simplistic view of resistance
and collaboration cannot begin to explain the social and moral process in
which the elders' 'collaborative' search for a new order that kept material
progress under household control was fundamentally opposed to the occult
power of the orkoiik. The authority of the orkoiik was more appropriate to the
76 Maina wa Kinyatti (ed.), Thzunderfrom the mountains: Mau A/fau patriotic songs (London, I980);
idem, 'Mau Mau: the peak of African political organization and struggle for liberation in colonial
Kenya', Ufahainu, XII (I983), 90-I23; Furedi, AMIau.Mau war, introduction; Lonsdale, 'Mau Maus
of the mind', passim. " Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Petals of blood (London, I977).
78 Ochieng', History of Kenya, pp. 94-5; E. S. Atieno Odhiambo, "'Mind limps after reality":
a diagnostic essay on the treatment of historical themes in Kenyan writings since independence',
paper delivered at the annual conference of the Historical Association of Kenya, Nairobi (I 976).
79 Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Homecoming: essays on African anid Caribbean literature, culture and politics
(London, I972), p. 49, and Detained: a writer's prison diary (Lolndon, I98I), pp. 48-9. Carol
Sicherman, Ngugi wa Tliong'o: the making of a rebel. A source book in Kenyan literature and resistance
(London, I990) deals with these themes in detail.
80 Henry Mwanzi, 'Koitalel arap Samoei', passim.
potentially violent entrepreneurial drive of livestock accumulation on the
relatively open pasturage of pre-colonial times. Modern Kenya is the product
of its collaborative elders who learned to exploit the state, with its new
concepts of fixed household property and agricultural production. In essence,
those who opposed the orkoiik in the Western Highlands have inherited the
power of the colonial state:81 the parallels with the Mau Mau forest fighters
are clear.
But resistance has more meanings than Kenya's historiography presently
reflects. 'Africa, after all', Ngugi reminds us, 'did not have one but several
pasts which were in perpetual struggle'.82 This holds true as much for the
history of the orkoiik within the context of Kalenjin social history as it does for
the more generalized reconstructions of the history of resistance to colonialism
in Kenya, but one can surely inform our understanding of the other. Despite
their prominence in the heroic litany of resistance, the deeper social history of
these actors and their actions has been woefully neglected. In this, and in
many other respects, Kenya has many pasts yet to be fully explored.
81 For a splendid example see A. T. Matson, 'Elijah Cheruiyot arap Chepkwony: a great Nandi
chief', in B. E. Kipkorir (ed.), Biographical essays on imperialism and collaboration in colonial Kenya
(Nairobi, I980), pp. 209-43. 82 Ngugi, Petals of blood, p. 2I4-

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Black Mischief: Crime, Protest and Resistance in Colonial Kenya

Author(s): David M. Anderson

Copyright ( I 993 Cambridge University Press

BLACK MISCHIEF: CRIME, PROTEST

AND RESISTANCE IN COLONIAL

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

to organize armed risings.

On a near-moonless night in June I 934, a group of eight Africans entered the

compound of a European-owned farm in the Kinangop area of Naivasha

labourers coming to investigate the commotion, the African interlopers made

the ideas presented here.

behind pieces of clothing and personal possessions dislodged in the fracas.

These would later be crucial items of evidence in the apprehenlsion and

conviction of the criminals. Dazed and in a state of shock, Stella Semini

three weeks, before finally succumbing to his wounds.1

News of the 'Kinangop Outrage', as these events came to be known, caused

an immediate furore among the settlers of Naivasha and quickly became a

matter of debate and concern throughout Kenya's White Highlands.2

a resident of Naivasha (although one had previously been employed on the

had long been stigmatized in European perceptions as habitual cattle thieves

Western Highlands had steadily increased from I928, reaching proportions

which generated considerable alarm among sometimes over-anxious settlers

farms in the immediate vicinity of the Kipsigis reserve, gradually increased

and spread over an ever-widening area. In the interpretation of the colonial

government, the 'Kinangop Outrage' conformed to this wider pattern of

the Mau Mau rebellion'.

National Archive] PC/RVP.6A/ I 7/50.

3 Criminal Case I23 (I934), trial transcript, CO 533/48i/I.

Mt Elgon" SAMBaReNANDi Ethnic; groups

Tra 0 Kisii Towns

Nzoia L~~arkeg Laikipia Districts

Thomson's Falls Nanyuki 0 Meru

ig. I.Centrakur and wesernKeya

Fig. i. Central and western Kenya.

Investigation of this spiralling pattern of lawlessness led, in the early months

a particular section of the Kipsigis people were its principal instigators.

Semini, the colonial administration had become convinced that the

of the government inquiry into the activities of the orkoiik.

went beyond simple accumulation: crimes against colonial laws, protest

against colonial authorities, and ultimately the aim of a general armed

resistance were seen to be linked in a serious challenge to colonial rule in the

African 'gangsters', contributed significantly to the decision to take the drastic

Reserve and detaining them indefinitely in an alien and inhospitable area of

Nyanza province in what was, in effect, an open prison.5

historiography as part of a tradition of resistance in which the leading orkoiik

tangentially and perhaps misleadingly in their brushes with colonial authority.

various forms of political and moral authority which underwrote, or

patronized, household strategies of accumulation, stock management and

drought, enmity had to be combated. There were different, even conflicting

two forms of 'abnormal' (and to varying degrees, abhorrent) means of insur-

were malignantly inclined. There were also the 'prophetic' or divinatory

which could most successfully be invoked and harnessed during moments of

between generations, went through contested processes of transition. We have

to understand 'resistance', if we are to understand it as part of African, rather

than merely colonial, history, as an external manifestation of this deeper

possibility of a new moral order - ultimately to be shaped by those elders who

grasped the opportunities of Christianity, who accepted the political authority

increasingly agricultural (rather than cattle-keeping) economy. This new

Laibons, orkoiik and witchcraft

the Kalenjin, and in earlier ethnographic literature referred to as the 'Nandi-

members of specific clans, who are attributed with a variety of supernatural

any person to claim to be the 'paramount' or 'senior' orkoiyot. The status of an

the fulfilment of prophecy, success in rain-making and divination, the