It was a bad omen.
Two sacred sycamore fig trees known as Simotwet to the Kalenjin toppled almost simultaneously in Nandi county in different places – on May 1 at 10am.
The community is still coming to terms with the falling of the enormous, multi-trunked trees, also revered as Mugumu trees to the Kikuyu. The fact that they fell at virtually the same time has just come to light and its significance is being weighed carefully.
They were estimated to be as old as 150 years and considered home to spirits.
The omen? Some say the toppled trees signified the inability of the leadership to unite the Kalenjin people. Some say they signified the troubles of Deputy President William Ruto. Some say their death signifies a new crop of leaders following the death of former President Daniel Arab Moi.
“This is a very bad sign for our people and more importantly, the community’s leadership which is in shambles,” Kiplagat arap Surtan said.
He is the second descendant of the Koitalel Samoei, the famous Orkoiyo. He works as a caretaker at his mausoleum.
Some say the end of the trees signifies nothing, they were just old.
African Inland Church Nandi region Bishop Rev Patrice Chumba said simply, “The trees outlived their strength and we shouldn’t be made captives of superstitions that have no significance today.”
One tree was composed of 12 trunks - one for each of the 12 Kalenjin subtribes, it is said – and four of them separated from the others and fell, completely rooted. People are saying that four trees actually toppled.
That occurred next to the Nandi historical monument, the Koitalel Samoei Museum in Nandi Hills, adjacent to the grave of legendary Orkoiyot killed in 1905 by the British.
His death marked the end of the 10-year Nandi resistance and opened the way for the British occupation of Nandi land.
That fig tree was one of two giant trees within the compound, both given great significance due to the predictions of the Orkoiyot. They are especially revered.
The second tree, a massive single trunk, fell in Saniak village in Chesumei subcounty, even its roots were exposed. It had towered at the home of a prominent Talai clan family of the late elder Chepkwony arap Matutu.
The fallen tree attracted little attention at the time.
DP Ruto recently visited some Nandi elders in the area for their blessings and protection as he vies for the presidency.
Saniak and the outlying villages were set aside by the colonial government in Nandi as concentration camps and isolation areas for the feared members of Talai clan in the 1930s.
Matutu was one of the feared Talai elders sent to Mfangano Island concentration camp in Lake Victoria by the British. He was banished along with Arap Basy, the father of Rev Canon James Basy who ‘crowned’ Ruto.
Mfangano Island was one of the prisons set up by the British to detain Talai elders to ensure they never administered any oath to the Nandi people to resist their rule.
The tree at Matutu’s was used to carry out traditional rituals to protect the clan from extermination by the colonial government.
Talai elder Christopher Koiyoki said the falling of the trees represents the collapse of the current Kalenjin leadership that failed to unite the community.
“With passing of President Daniel arap Moi, the community is now left to have a new breed and we expect a generational transfer,” Koiyoki said.
A cleansing ceremony must be carried and the trees will eventually be cut into small pieces and removed for communal use.
The great tree fell when the community was marking the 100th anniversary of the clan’s isolation at Kapsisywo location.
Koiyoki has dismissed the blessing carried out by his kinsman for the Deputy President, as there are different groups of elders with different allegiances.
(Edited by V. Graham)