Sosiot or palm tree is a sacred plant in Kalenjin which is known to be an “enemy’ of lightening or thunder. It is the same name used by the Samburu and Borona or Oromo( Sosio,Esosian). It is also used for ‘driving”away heavy rains and thunderstorms alongside bamboo.
Dr J.Peristiany wrote about this plant in 1935 in his book, Social Institutions of the Kipsigis later published in 1939 while Gerald Fish and his wife wrote about the functions of sosiot in their 1995 book, Kalenjin Heritage.
Dr Peristiany was surprised when interviewing Kiruongidet Kipsiongok araap Terer in Kipkoibon village in Kericho, clouds were forming in the distance horizons and was about to disrupt the interview.
Araap Terer assured him that it was not going to rain yet the rains were about 500 m away. Terer went to a nearby bush and brought a root of A certain plant( will not tell you which one), waved it violently at the direction of the rain. It was never to rain that vicinity something that baffled Dr Peristiany.He even recorded he best moments in his life was spent living with the Kipsigis people whome he wrote as "belonging to Homeric race".
When lightning has burned down a house, a bamboo plant is erected atop the pointer of another hut of the same family. Bamboo plants are also planted in the compound following a ceremony called “king’eet” or kiing'us literally to resurrect.
Our people were great scientists till the white man came and upended their lives.
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