No town in Kenya has a chilling story of road accidents like Salgaa. But the accidents do not occur in Salgaa exactly but rather the Salgaa-Sachangwan stretch. Any Kenyan road traveler has heard of horror accidents that that occur here. The accidents maybe due to poor road design, over speeding and more.

Today we will look at a Kalenjin story about the origin of this traffic accidents in the region. In 1961 a Chevrolet driven by a white woman, was speeding up the Mau escarpment. It slammed into a Volkswagen heading to Nakuru, killing the occupants of the Volkswagen on the spot. The occupants of the Volkswagen were Nandi chiefs Elijah Cheruiyot and two others. The chiefs were from a princess crowning ceremony in Kisumu heading to Thika. This minor incident cannot really be the cause of the Salgaa horrors, or can it be? To understand the context, we need to go a little back in time.

When Koitalel Araap Samoei was killed in 1905, his sons were later banished by the colonial government after an attempted Saket-Ap-Eito ceremony in the 1920s. One of the banished sons was Barsirian Araap Manyei. While koitalels sons were in exile, Elijah Cheruiyot was made chief. In return he gifted Richard Meinertzhagen (Koitalels Killer) with a Sambut that belonged to Koitalel. This led elders to cursing whoever participated in giving out the Sambut with the curse:

Barak Korgo! Barak Korgo! Barak Korgo! Barak Korko! (May thee be killed by a woman)

Barsirian went on to become the longest serving political prisoner in Kenya. On his release on the eve of independence, Barsirian found Elijah Cheruiyot as a chief in Nandi. On the eve of the crowning of a British princess in Kisumu, Barsirian and Cheruiyot quarreled. Araap Manyei told Cheruiyot that if he is not happy with his presence that signified end of British rule and freedom to the Nandi’s then he can as well follow them (White men) with his spirit.

After crowning the princess, the Chief’s left Kisumu to Nakuru but on reaching at exact spot where a tanker exploded, they were involved in a head-on collision with another vehicle driven by a white woman. The Chiefs died on the spot but the white woman survived, a confirmation of the curse for the believers. Being killed by a white woman while attending the crowning of a woman.

Since then it is believed the curse had ran in the region taking countless lives before its thirst for blood was reduced by the construction of the barrier, traditional prayers with appeasement and Christian prayers. It only remains to be found out what intervention really reduced the carnage.

Content created and supplied by: MissRova (via Opera News )