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Nandi County is a county in Kenya in the North Rift, occupying an area of 2,884.4 square kilometres. Its capital, Kapsabet, is the largest town in the county while other towns include Mosoriot, Tinderet, Kobujoi, Kaiboi, Kabiyet and Nandi Hills. According to a 2019 census, the county has a population of 885,711, [2] made up of a number of Kenyan communities, the majority of whom belong to the native tribe called Nandi.
Geographically, the unique jug-shaped structure of Nandi County is bound by the Equator to the south and extends northwards to latitude 0034’N. The western boundary extends to west. The county's major area is covered by the Nandi Hills.
Historically, Nandi like other Kalenjin areas was divided into districts known as emotinwek (sing. emet). There were six emotinwek in Nandi which were Wareñg in the north, Mosop in the East, Soiin (also known as Pelkut) in the south-east, Aldai and Chesumei in the west and Em'gwen in the center. [3]
The districts were further divided into divisions known as bororiōsiek (sing. bororiet) which were made up of several villages known as koret. [4]
The traditional Nandi account is that the first settlers in Nandi came from Elgon and formed the Kipoiis clan; a name that possibly means 'the spirits'. They were led by a man named Kakipoch, founder of the Nandi section of the Kalenjin and are said to have settled in the emet of Aldai in south-western Nandi. One of the early Nandi bororiōsiek was named after Kakipoch.
Studies of the settlement pattern indicate that the southern regions were the first to be settled. As of 1910, these comprised the emet of Aldai on the west and the, by then annexed, emet of Soiin on the east. It was conjectured that the first pororiosiek were Kakipoch in Aldai and Tuken in Soiin. [5]
It is notable that Sirikwa holes (known to the Nandi as mukowanisiek) were almost non-existent in the areas first settled, being only present on the Nandi Escarpment itself. They were however found in great numbers in the northern regions of Nandi. [5]
Inward migrants and general population growth are thought to have led to a northward expansion of the growing identity during the eighteenth century. This period is thought to have seen the occupation and establishment of the emotinwek of Chesume, Emgwen and Masop. This period would also have seen the establishment of more pororosiek. [5]
The final expansion occurred during the middle of the nineteenth century when the Nandi took the Uain Gishu plateau from the Uasin Gishu. Traditions contained in the tale of Tapkendi however seem to indicate that the plateau was previously held by the Nandi and that Nandi place names were superseded by Maasai names. This is further evinced by certain "Masai place-names in eastern Nandi which indicate that the Masai had temporary possession of strip of Nandi roughly five miles wide", these include Ndalat, Lolkeringeti, Nduele and Ol-lesos, which were by the early nineteenth century in use by the Nandi as koret names. [5]
Nandi county was the scene of the resistance struggle that has come to be known as the Nandi Resistance. The traditional system of governance came to an end c.1905 with the end of the resistance struggle. This was followed by the subsequent absorption of Nandi into the East African Protectorate in 1905 and later into the Kenya Colony in 1920.
The Emet of Wareng was amalgamated into the Uasin Gishu district during the colonial period. It is today part of Uasin Gishu County and last bore its name as a county of Eldoret South Constituency. The Emet of Soiin would be appropriated for European occupation, as part of what were known as the white highlands, during the colonial period. [6] It was later split in two and is today named after the Tinderet and Nandi Hills.
Year | Pop. | ±% |
---|---|---|
1979 | 299,319 | — |
1989 | 433,613 | +44.9% |
1999 | 578,751 | +33.5% |
2009 | 752,965 | +30.1% |
2019 | 885,711 | +17.6% |
source: [7] |
Religion in Nandi County [8]
Religion (2019 Census) | Number |
---|---|
Catholicism | 216,901 |
Protestant | 401,975 |
Evangelical Churches | 153,342 |
African instituted Churches | 49,849 |
Orthodox | 14,936 |
Other Christian | 21,776 |
Islam | 5,755 |
Hindu | 90 |
Traditionists | 630 |
Other | 7,580 |
No Religion | 10,002 |
Don't Know | 749 |
Not Stated | 58 |
The county has six subcounties:
The county (2,884.5 km2 or 1,113.7 sq mi) is further sub-divided into 30 wards namely:
Ward | Area | 2009 pop. | |
---|---|---|---|
km2 | sq. mi. | ||
Songhor/Soba | 193 | 75 | 39,934 |
Tindiret | 159 | 61 | 27,896 |
Chemelil/Chemase | 128 | 49 | 14,479 |
Kapsimotwo | 73 | 28 | 18,362 |
Kabwareng | 47 | 18 | 22,807 |
Terik | 48 | 19 | 20,456 |
Kemeloi | 115 | 44 | 35,085 |
Kobujoi | 81 | 31 | 26,539 |
Kaptumo/Kaboi | 98 | 38 | 24,464 |
Koyo/Ndurio | 69 | 27 | 19,905 |
Nandi Hills | 74 | 29 | 33,545 |
Chepkunyuk | 129 | 50 | 36,775 |
Ol'lessos | 68 | 26 | 19,396 |
Kapchorua | 161 | 62 | 17,818 |
Chemundu/Kapng'etuny | 52 | 20 | 25,403 |
Kosirai | 93 | 36 | 25,741 |
Lelmokwo/Ngechek | 106 | 41 | 23,354 |
Kaptel/Kamoiywo | 150 | 58 | 31,375 |
Kiptuiya | 71 | 27 | 24,879 |
Chepkumia | 87 | 34 | 21,283 |
Kapkangani | 43 | 17 | 23,994 |
Kapsabet | 75 | 29 | 35,962 |
Kilibwoni | 164 | 63 | 48,845 |
Chepterwai | 73 | 28 | 18,944 |
Kipkaren | 94 | 36 | 19,147 |
Kurgung/Surungai | 82 | 32 | 18,225 |
Kabiyet | 77 | 30 | 19,262 |
Ndalat | 75 | 29 | 18,651 |
Kabisaga | 79 | 31 | 19,029 |
Sangalo/Kebulonik | 121 | 47 | 21,390 |
Authority | Type | Population [9] | Urban population [9] |
---|---|---|---|
Kapsabet | Municipality | 64,830 | 17,918 |
Nandi Hills | Town | 63,134 | 3,575 |
Nandi county | County | 450,787 | 3,156 |
The county consists of six constituencies: 151. Tinderet , 152. Aldai , 153. Nandi Hills , 154. Chesumei , 155. Emgwen , 156. Mosop .
Nandi County is home to many world record holders in athletics, including Kipchoge Keino, Henry Rono, Eliud Kipchoge, Pamela Jelimo, Janeth Jepkosgei, Moses Tanui, Julius Yego, Jairus Birech, Conseslus Kipruto and Bernard Lagat.
There are 443 primary education schools and 80 secondary education schools in Nandi.
Kapsabet Boys High school, situated in Kapsabet and founded in 1925, is a prominent national school. Its list of alumni includes cabinet ministers such as Nicholas Biwott, Kipruto Arap Kirwa, Henry Kosgey and William Arap Ruto who is currently the Kenyan President. Sports stars such as Julius Yego went here and a former President of Kenya, Daniel Arap Moi. [10]
Nandi county is endowed with a scenic topography that is dotted with numerous tea plantations. [11] These provide the raw material for the county's most vibrant agricultural industry, tea processing.
It hosts fifteen of Kenya's tea factories. [13]
Nandi County is renowned for its heritage, landscapes, its cool highland climate and vistas of rolling tea plantations.
Home to a number of tea estates as well as the Koitalel Samoei Museum, Kapsimotwa Gardens and the Nandi Bears Club.
Koitalel Arap Samoei Museum was instituted in commemoration of Koitalel arap Samoei, a traditional spiritual leader of the Nandi. It incorporates a mausoleum as well as a center that display of the cultural heritage of the larger Kalenjin community. [14] [15]
The area is home to the Ngabunat caves, the site of ancient battles between the Nandi and Maasai – one of which led to the capture of Moki chebo Cheplabot and establishment of the second Orkoinotet.
This, is the most prominent rock formation along the whole length of the Nandi (Nyando) Escarpment, is a 30-minute walk from the KWS post at Kaptumek. [16]
Tucked some two kilometres from Eldoret International Airport, off the Eldoret-Kapsabet road, Chepkiit waterfall in Nandi County is one of the marvels of mother nature, carved out of the magnificent walls of the Great Rift Valley.
There are three hospitals, 45 dispensaries, and 9 health care centers in Nandi. It has a doctor to population ratio of 1:94,000 [17]
The Kalenjin are a group of tribes indigenous to East Africa, residing mainly in what was formerly the Rift Valley Province in Kenya and the Eastern slopes of Mount Elgon in Uganda. They number 6,358,113 individuals per the Kenyan 2019 census and an estimated 273,839 in Uganda according to the 2014 census mainly in Kapchorwa, Kween and Bukwo districts.
The Nandi are part of the Kalenjin, a Nilotic tribe living in East Africa. The Nandi ethnic group live with close association and relation with the Kipsigis tribe. They traditionally have lived and still form the majority in the highland areas of the former Rift Valley Province of Kenya, in what is today Nandi County. They speak the Nandi dialect of the Kalenjin language.
Kimnyole Arap Turkat was the Nandi Orkoiyot who predicted the arrival of Europeans and the railways ; two events that were to forever alter the history of the Nandi.
Nandi Hills is a town and also an electoral constituency in Kenya's Nandi County.The name also refers to the general area of Nandi County, where the urban settlement is located. Its current Member of Parliament is Hon. Bernard Kibor Kitur of United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party.
The Elgeyo are an ethnic group who are part of the larger Kalenjin ethnic group of Nilotic origin. They live near Eldoret, Kenya, in the highlands of the former Keiyo District, now part of the larger Elgeyo Marakwet County. The Elgeyo originally settled at the foothills of the Elgeyo escarpment, in the area between Kerio river to the east and the escarpment to the west. Due to drought and famine in the valley, the Keiyos climbed the escarpment and started to settle on the highland east of Uasin Gishu plateau. When the British came, the Keiyos were pushed to settle in clusters called reserves.
Kapsabet is a town in Kenya. It is the capital of Nandi County and is located 40 kilometres southwest of Eldoret on the way to Chavakali.
Kaptagat is a settlement in Uasin Gishu County, in the southwestern part of Kenya. This part of the country, where the two counties of Uasin Gishu and Elgeyo Marakwet County share a border, is used by the majority of Kenyan professional long-distance runners to train for professional competition. Eliud Kipchoge, the former marathon world record holder, and the Tokyo Olympics and Rio Olympics marathon gold medalist, maintains a training camp in Kaptagat.
Koitalel arap Samoei was an Orkoiyot who led the Nandi people from 1890 until his assassination in 1905. The Orkoiyot occupied a sacred and special role within the Nandi and Kipsigis people of Kenya. He held the dual roles of chief spiritual and military leader, and had the authority to make decisions regarding security matters particularly the waging of war and negotiating for peace. Koitalel was the supreme chief of the Nandi people of Kenya. He led the Nandi resistance against British colonial rule.
The Tachoni is one of the tribes that occupy the western part of Kenya, its known for its gallant defense of the Chetambe in 1895 when resisting British rule. Tachoni people were masters at building forts such as Chetambe, Lumboka, and Kiliboti. It was their defiance of colonialism that led to the colonial government putting the entire region occupied by the Tachoni under administration of paramount chiefs drawn from Bunyala and Wanga communities. Sharing land with the Abanyala, the Kabras, Nandi, and Bukusu tribe. They live mainly in Webuye, Chetambe Hills, Ndivisi Matete sub-county-Lwandeti, Maturu, Mayoyo, Lukhokho, Kiliboti, Kivaywa, Chepsai, and Lugari sub-county in Kakamega County. Most Tachoni clans living in Bungoma speak the ' Olutachoni dialect which is a hybrid of the luhyia language of the luhyia people. Since they lost their original dialect during the divide and rule system used by the whites to scatter them for being resistants to their colonialism, they had to find a way to interact with their new neighbors and thats why they're subsequently mistaken as Bukusus. They spread from Kakamega county to Trans-Nzoia County, webuye especially around Kitale, Tambach in Iten Nandi in areas like kabiyet and kapsisiwa, kericho and to Uasin Gishu County near Turbo, Eldoret.
Among the Tachoni clans are Abachikha -further divided into Abakobolo, Abamuongo, Abachambai, Abamakhanga, Abacharia, and Abakabini, Abamarakalu, Abangachi -who are further divided into: Abawaila, Abakhumaya and Abawele, Abasang'alo, Abasamo, Abayumbu, Abaluu, Abarefu, Abanyangali, Abamuchembi, Abamakhuli, Abasioya, Abaabichu, Abacheo, Abamachina, Abaengele, Abamutama, Abakafusi, Abasonge, Abasaniaka, Abaabiya also known as Abakatumi, Abakubwayi, Abakamutebi, Abakamukong, Abamweya, Abalukulu, Abawande, Abatukiika, Abachimuluku. Note that the morpheme 'aba' means 'people'.
Jean-Marie Seroney was a Kenyan human rights advocate, legislator, and an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. He was detained as a prisoner of conscience for 1,155 days.
The Nandi Resistance was a military conflict that took place in present-day Kenya between 1890 and 1906. It involved members of the Kalenjin ethnic group, mainly from the Nandi section, and the British colonial administration. The close of the 19th century, a time referred to as the "pacification period" by Matson, saw a number of local populations that resisted British colonial rule. Of these, the Nandi resistance would stand out for being the longest and most tenacious.
Paul Kiplimo Boit was a prominent KANU politician during the Moi Regime. He was the Chairman of Sirikwa County Council (which later came to be divided to Nandi County, Uasin Gishu County, Trans Nzoia County, West Pokot County Elgeyo Marakwet County from 1964 to 1971 and later became the Chairman of Wareng County Council one of five Councils split from Sirikwa covering Uasin Gishu. He was best known for his excellent farming skills which earned him many awards and a visit from the former Tanzanian president Ali Hassan Mwinyi
Turbo is a town at the border of Uasin Gishu County and Kakamega County Kenya, approximately 34 kilometers northwest of Eldoret Town, along the Nairobi-Malaba Road. Turbo Constituency derives its name from this Town. The town is connected to other trading centres in both counties by a complex road network.
A bororiet was a kind of geographic division of the traditional society of the Nandi people of Kenya. It had military and political functions in addition to the territorial element. Each bororiet was made up of kokwotinwek which were groups of homesteads within the same locality, roughly equal to a hamlet but smaller than a village. The bororosiek were, in turn, grouped into emet but these were only of territorial significance.
The Oreet is a kinship group among the Kalenjin people of Kenya that is similar in concept to a clan. The members of an oreet were not necessarily related by blood as evidenced by the adoption of members of the Uasin Gishu Maasai by Arap Sutek, the only Nandi smith at the time. His proteges would later be adopted into almost every other clan as smiths. More famously, the lineage of the Talai Orkoiik were adopted members of the Segelai Maasai.
Barsirian Arap Manyei was the last widely recognized Nandi Orkoiyot and Kenya's longest serving political detainee.
The Settlement of Nandi was the historical process by which the various communities that today make up the Nandi people of Kenya settled in Nandi County. It is captured in the folklore of the Nandi as a distinct process composed of a series of inward migrations by members from various Kalenjin ortinwek.
Mutai is a term used by the Maa-speaking communities of Kenya to describe a period of wars, usually triggered by disease and/or drought affecting widespread areas of the Rift Valley region of Kenya. According to Samburu and Maasai tradition, two periods of Mutai occurred during the nineteenth century. The second Mutai lasted from the 1870s to the 1890s.
The Uasin Gishu people were a community that inhabited a plateau located in western Kenya that today bears their name. They are said to have arisen from the scattering of the Kwavi by the Maasai in the 1830s. They were one of two significant sections of that community that stayed together. The other being the Laikipiak with whom they would later ally against the Maasai.
The Siger people were a community commonly spoken of in the folklore of a number of Kenyan communities that inhabited regions of northwestern Kenya at various points in history.