![]() ![]() While Kimnyole’s prophecies turned out to be true, the “iron snake” did dramatically change the land and the lives of the Nandi people in ways even Kimnyole couldn’t have predicted. By the time the Nandi gave up arms thousands of them were dead. Emboldened by their victories against neighboring tribes, the Nandi people went to war against the whites with predictable results. The tribes who lived in this region resisted the construction of the railway. The “iron snake” was the Kenya-Uganda Railway, or the “Lunatic Express,” as the British press liked to call because of the colossal waste of wealth and human life suffered during its construction. Although Kimnyole could not have known the details, the prophecy he made was clear on one thing-hardship for his people. The beast, he said, would bring a kind of foreigner never seen before, one with strange red hair who would one day rule their land. ![]() More than a hundred years ago, before Europeans had set foot on what is now Kenya, a tribal prophet named Kimnyole spoke of a vicious “iron snake” that would slither its way across the grassy plains, devouring cattle, plundering their lands and wreaking havoc along the way.
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