Calls are growing in Kenya for Britain to return the remains of a revered tribal leader who fought against colonial rule more than a century ago.
Koitalel Arap Samoei led for more than 10 years, from 1895, fierce opposition to the construction of the "Lunatic Express", a railway linking Mombasa, a Kenyan port in the Indian Ocean, via Nandi in the Rift Valley, to Lake Victoria in Uganda.
Read alsoKenya, cradle of the reign of Elizabeth II, cultivates proximity to London
Thousands of people who joined in resistance against this project were killed in the repression of the movement.
According to Kenyan historians, the colonial authorities lured Samoei to a meeting in October 1905, ostensibly to negotiate a truce, actually a trap to shoot him and several of his fellow fighters.
Samoei, spiritual leader of the Nandi people, was beheaded and his head taken to England as a war trophy, according to Nandi community elders.
A proper burial
The Kenyan government has been working for months with several Western chancelleries to obtain the restitution of a certain number of objects of its national heritage.
Since the death on Thursday of Queen Elizabeth II, who was visiting Kenya in 1952 when she became monarch, several voices have been raised calling on Britain to deal with the atrocities committed by the colonial regime.
Read alsoElizabeth II, a great queen who knew how to embody the immutable England
The Nandi people are calling for the return of the head of Samoei to his ancestral land in order to offer him a proper burial, a call widely relayed and shared on social networks in Kenya.
"Do what is right"
The Queen "
meant so much to so many people...despite the history of the British Empire and its atrocities
," Nandi County lawyer George Tarus told AFP.
"
But as the world mourns the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, perhaps now is the time to implore the UK government to do what is right - hand over Koitalel Samoei's head and publicly apologize to the Nandi people.
" .
A reparation due to the inhabitants
According to Mr. Tarus, who estimates the number of victims killed during the popular uprising at 20,000, the British authorities also owe compensation to the inhabitants of the region for having seized fertile land, now exploited as tea plantations by British multinationals.
"
To date, there has been no compensation from the British government
," says the lawyer, who is leading legal efforts to seek justice from the former colonial power.
In 2006, personal effects belonging to tribal chief Samoei, a cane and a stick, had already been returned to Kenya.
