Nandi Colonial Chieftaincy as Social Agency, 1902-1963

Upon annexing Kenya as a colony, the British colonial administration established different structures to support its political and economic agenda. One of those structures was the office of colonial chiefs. Among the Nandi of Kenya, indigenous leaders, especially the office of the Orkoiyot, were maintained where most of them were appointed as chiefs at the onset of colonial rule. However, the new appointees were no longer leaders derived from the traditional processes of the Nandi. Yet, the transformative role of these chiefs in Kenya during the colonial period cannot be overlooked as they were referred to as the agents of social change. Therefore, the study investigated the transformative role of colonial chiefs in Nandi, Kenya from 1902-1963. The study employed the Elite theory and Principal-Agent theories. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population comprised former colonial chiefs, Nandi community elders, current chiefs who knew the history of their office of chieftaincy in the community. The inclusion criteria comprised variables such as geographical distribution, age and command of historical knowledge of the Nandi colonial chiefs. Data was collected using a questioning guideline, interviews and secondary sources. Therefore, apart from the respondents, the primary sources included archival material on colonial and post-colonial chiefs as well as their roles, collected at the Kenya National Archives in Nairobi and Kakamega, and the information from the County Government offices. Oral interviews were tape-recorded. Secondary sources were obtained from research libraries in Kenya and subjected to content analysis. Data from the interviews and document analysis was analysed thematically. The themes were derived from the objectives of the study and from the reviewed literature. Data from the questionnaire was analysed using descriptive statistics. The results showed that that the Nandi colonial chiefs played significant roles in the social transformation of their people. These included introduction of education, health care and Christianity. From these results, more studies are needed to develop a comprehensive documentation of the contribution of colonial chiefs to different aspects of socio-economic and political transformation, such as security, tourism, agriculture, education, health care, transport infrastructure, politics, substance abuse-related issues and environmental conservation. Such a documentation will provide a reference point for evaluating contemporary leadership challenges in Kenya’s ongoing history.