The Nandi of Kenya by Huntingford G. W. B.;

Author:Huntingford, G. W. B.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Chapter Five

Administrative Changes

IT is obvious that no native political system can continue unchanged when it is subjected to the control of an alien government armed with powers which the native polity cannot withstand, no matter how resistant the natives may be; and the Nandi for the first ten years of the British Administration were far from willing to submit to the foreigner. Even to-day the more conservative of them are not wholly resigned, though I think they have realized that it is now useless to try to resist by force. The Nandi have two distinct feelings for Europeans. On the one hand, as a tribe, they dislike them, for they consider themselves their equals, if not their superiors, and resent being controlled and restricted by foreigners. On the other hand, individual Nandi both like and respect individual Europeans. It is important to realize this divided attitude, because Europeans whom they do not like or respect stand very little chance of winning their confidence or of being able to control them with any sort of success.

It was some years before the authorities began to understand even the outer and more obvious features of the Nandi political system. This was natural when the Administration was purely aggressive. The first step towards a peaceful Administration was made when the Reserve1 was divided into locations based upon the pororosiek though these were assumed (as sometimes even now) to be clans; nevertheless something of their significance as military units was grasped. A location was placed under the nominal control of a headman, who became known by the title of the leader of the pororiet council, kiruokindet, and whose principal work was to help in the collection of hut-tax, and to keep such order as he could by reporting breaches of government orders to the District Commissioner. Many of these headmen had little or no standing among the Nandi, their sole authority being their official appointment. They were still largely under the control of the men who really mattered, the poiisiek ap kokwotinwek. Some of them indeed were quite unsuitable, being despised by the Nandi as ineffective for one reason or another. Occasionally a man of real standing and ability was appointed, like Arap Chepkiyen in Location 7, But the location was not a native institution, and the headman did not replace any native authority, for the location was not the successor to the pororiet, except in so far as it coincided with the territorial boundaries of the pororiet. It was not till about 1924 that the existence of the kiptaienik or military section commanders was fully realized, and they were then officially recognized to the extent that one man in each koret was designated kiptaiyat and paid as a sub-headman whose work was to help the official headman. The organization of the Reserve therefore began on these lines:

LOCATION =pororiet group under a headman, kiruokindet

KORET, i.e. kokwet, under a sub-headman, kiptaiyat.

The kokwet council under its poiyot still performs its old functions, with the limitation that it

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