Kimnyole
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Kimnyole Arap Turkat (c.1840s -1890) was the Nandi Orkoiyot who predicted the arrival of Europeans ("the white tribe") and the railways ("the Iron Snake"); two events that were to forever alter the history of the Nandi.
He is noted for the prophesies he made and is famous for being the father of Koitalel Arap Samoei, the leader of the Nandi Resistance. He was also the father of Kipchomber Arap Koilege, the first Kipsigis Orkoioyot, and grandfather of Barsirian Arap Manyei, Kenya's longest serving political detainee.
Reconquest of Uasin Gishu
During Kimnyole's reign, internecine conflicts of the 1870s and 80s between the various Maasai factions saw the routing of the Uasin Gishu Maasai by a combined force of the Naivasha and Laikipia Maasai. The Nandi then defeated the remnants of the Uasin Gishu at a battle in the Kipkaren Valley, as the Maasai had tried to re-assert their claim to the plateau.
Shortly after, the Laikipiak were defeated by the Naivasha such that the latter were left as the only military power strong enough to contest the grazing rights to the Uasin Gishu plateau with the rising Nandi.
Several inconclusive skirmishes took place between the two until eventually, the Naivasha were routed at Ziwa and chased back into the Rift Valley. Thus the Nandi had unchallenged access to the pastures and salt licks throughout the vast Uasin Gishu plateau. Cattle and captives swelled the Nandi animal and human populations.[2]