Koitalel Arap Samoei’s family demands for his head from British Gov't

Led by Ambrose Tarus, Koitalel Samoei's Great-grandson, the family gathered on Monday in Nandi hills ( Koitalel mausoleum) as the funeral of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II continued in London.

They insisted that the UK government should return Koitalel's head, which they say was taken away as a war trophy, during the battle for Kenya's independence.

The family also asked for a public apology from British government to the Nandi community as well as affected families. They further demanded a total of Ksh.150 billion as compensation for the losses incurred from the confiscated property.

Koitalel, who led an eleven-year resistance movement against the building of the Uganda Railway through the Nandi area, was on October 19, 1905, shot dead by British Col. Richard Meinertzhagen.

Meinertzhagen had invited Koitalel to negotiate a truce, using that ruse to lure the Nandi leader for the fatal ambush.

The colonialists decapitated the body and took the head to London.

The Nandi leader’s symbolic grave was built at the Nandi Hills Town, where his headless body was found. The grave is designed with marble and it shows that his head is missing.

Former British Government Foreign Secretary William Hague in June 6, 2013 remarkably admitted that imperial forces tortured Kenyans fighting against British rule in the 1950s.

About 12,000 Africans died in the pre-independence revolt.