The family of Kenyan freedom fighter Koitalel Arap Samoei has demanded that the British government return Koitalel’s head to them.
The family gathered on Monday in Nandi Hills (Koitalel mausoleum) led by Ambrose Tarus, Koitalel Samoei’s Great-grandson, as the funeral of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II continued in London.
They demanded that the UK government return Koitalel’s head, which they claimed was taken as a war trophy during Kenya’s independence struggle.
The family also requested a public apology from the British government to the Nandi community and affected families.
They also sought Ksh.150 billion in compensation for the losses caused by the confiscated property.
On October 19, 1905, British Col. Richard Meinertzhagen shot dead Koitalel, who led an eleven-year resistance movement against the construction of the Uganda Railway through the Nandi area.
Meinertzhagen had invited Koitalel to negotiate a truce, luring the Nandi leader into the fatal ambush.
The colonialists dismembered the body and took the head to London.
The symbolic grave of the Nandi leader was built in Nandi Hills Town, where his headless body was found. The grave is made of marble, and it is visible that his head is missing.
Former British Foreign Secretary William Hague admitted on June 6, 2013, that imperial forces tortured Kenyans fighting against British rule in the 1950s.
The pre-independence revolt killed approximately 12,000 Africans.
