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Talai community revive push for Sh20bn payment for atrocities by colonialists
Leaders of the Talai Council of Elders address the media in Nandi Hills, Nandi County on April 05, 2025.
What you need to know:
- The community was displaced from its ancestral land after their spiritual leader Koitaleel Samoei was assassinated by British soldiers.
- The demand for compensation has received support from Nandi leaders who have promised to find redress for families that were displaced.
The Talai elders have renewed the push for compensation for atrocities committed by the British government against the community.
They are seeking over Sh20 billion as compensation for forceful displacement of families from their ancestral land, confinement of the community leaders among other acts of human rights violation by the colonialists.
Talai Council of Elders Chairman Rev James Bassy petitioned President William Ruto to intervene and implement the recommendations by the Senate and the National Assembly to allocate them alternative land.
He disclosed that the Talai clan members have suffered a lot after they were restricted to the mosquito infested Kapsisiywa swamp in 1910 by the British colonialists.
“The clan members were 300 when the colonialist confined them to this island but the population has since increased to more than 10,000 people. Their property including land and other valuables were taken away subjecting them into socio-economic sufferings,” added Rev Bassy.
The Talai elders held interdenominational prayers at Kapsisywa on Saturday where they petitioned the government to hasten the process of allocating them alternative land and more slots in the public service.
The community was displaced from its ancestral land in Nandi Hills, Kaptumo and Tindiret after their spiritual leader Koitaleel Samoei was assassinated some 120 years ago by British soldiers led by Col Richard Meinertzhagen after a seven-year resistance.
The crushing of the rebellion was to pave way for establishment of multinational tea companies.
Talai elders have pressured British authorities to return ‘stolen’ cultural artifacts following the assassination of their leader.
“We fail to understand why it has taken long for Parliament’s approval to allocate us 8,000 acres despite the endorsement by the National Lands Commission?” Mr Noah Kosgei, one of the elders, posed.
The senate committee on Justice Legal Affairs has in the past toured Kapsisiywa where the Talai elders presented their petition demanding compensation for atrocities meted against them by the British colonialists.
They faulted successive regimes for not making public the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) report.
The demand for compensation by the Talai elders has received support from Nandi leaders who have promised to find redress for families displaced from their ancestral land.
Led by Governor Stephen Sang and Tindiret MP Julius Meli, the leaders said the compensation will enable the county and national government to construct more public universities in the six sub-counties.
Similar process for compensation had been initiated by former Governor Dr Cleophas Lagat. International lawyer Karim Khan as well as Lilan and Koech advocates had been appointed to collect evidence support a case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over displacement of the community from their ancestral land and killing of Samoei.
This was after the previous county assembly approved Sh108 million to hire legal experts to file the suit at ICC and African Court of Justice.
Mr Khan has since been appointed the ICC prosecutor.
