Case file · Folklore / legend
Koitalel and the iron snake
On 19 October 1905 the Nandi orkoiyot (spiritual leader) Koitalel arap Samoei was shot by the British officer Richard Meinertzhagen at a meeting called to make peace; Nandi tradition said a prophecy had foretold a black snake crossing their land.
1905 CE · 0.10, 35.18 · status: official
The account
The Nandi had resisted the Uganda Railway for a decade. Koitalel's grandfather Kimnyole is remembered for foretelling the 'iron snake' that would belch fire and the coming of strangers. Meinertzhagen claimed self-defence; Nandi accounts call the killing an ambush. Koitalel's mausoleum stands at Nandi Hills.
The sceptical view
Prophecies of the railway were recorded after it was built, so they may have been sharpened by hindsight.