Editing Kipsigis people (section)

=== Colonial history ===
The Kipsigis had an initial contact with the British in 1889 and within 17 years, the British had established their rule over the tribe.<ref name=":0" />  The British initially started to expropriate the tribal Kipsigis land to create a buffer zone between the mutually antagonistic Gusii and Kipsigis; but it was clear from the beginning that an underlying tenet of the British policy towards the Kipsigis was the ultimate conversion of the tribe from a predominantly semi-pastoral economy to one of peasant cultivation.<ref name=":0" />

==== Lumbwa Treaty ====
{{See also|Lumbwa Treaty}}

==== Sotik Massacre ====
{{See also|Sotik Massacre}}

Originally not part of the White Highlands, Sotik District was a Y-shaped strip of land about 50 miles and in some places not more than three miles wide, carved out of the Native Reserve. Sotik was Abugusii and Maasai territory before 1800 but, under a treaty promulgated by Menya Araap Kisiara, the Maasai were pushed to Trans-Mara. Following the arrival of the British, the Kipsigis rallied alongside the Nandis to fight against the building of the [[Uganda Railway|Kenya-Uganda Railway]].

Seeing the long-drawn-out resistance of the Nandi led by [[Koitalel Arap Samoei|Koitalel Araap Samoei]], the intelligence officer [[Richard Meinertzhagen]], vowed to break the impasse. In the middle of 1905, a punitive raid led by Major [[Richard Pope-Hennessy]] killed 1,850 men, women, and children who were rounded up and fired upon indiscriminately with a [[Maxim gun]] and other weapons. The massacre was ostensibly in retaliation against the refusal by the Sotik people to heed an ultimatum by the British government to return cattle raided from the Maasai. It is noted that medal of honours were awarded to officers who took part in these operations around the same time.<ref>{{Cite book |title=War medals and their history |publisher=Read Books |year=2008 |isbn=9781408697122 |pages=258}}</ref>

Some months later on 19 October 1905, Richard Meinertzhagen tricked Koitalel into what was effectively an ambush and shot him at point-blank range, killing him on the spot and the rest of his entourage. With Koitalel dead, the Nandi resistance was neutralized, and the British proceeded to evict the Kipsigis and Nandi from their land and sent them to areas that were largely unfit for human habitation. The Sotik massacre and the assassination of Koitalel were directly linked to the setting aside of Sotik for European settlement and the colonial system of forced labour, punitive taxes for Africans, economic, and racial segregation. It is disingenuous to argue that it was a buffer zone to keep warring African tribes apart.<ref>{{Cite web|last=January 28, 2022|first=Friday|date=2022-01-27|title=How Sotik massacre, Koitalel killing opened area to white settlers|url=https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/lifestyle/society/how-sotik-massacre-koitalel-area-to-white-settlers-3696378|access-date=2022-02-23|website=Business Daily|language=en|archive-date=23 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220223074202/https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/lifestyle/society/how-sotik-massacre-koitalel-area-to-white-settlers-3696378|url-status=live}}</ref>

In August 2020, following the [[Murder of George Floyd|murder of Gerge Floyd]], [[Claudia Webbe]], [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Leicester East (UK Parliament constituency)|Leicester East]] wrote in a letter addressed to UK's Secretary of State for Education, [[Gavin Williamson]], about Sotik Massacre and asked that the massacre should be taught in British schools.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-08-07|title=Include the Sotik Massacre in the National Curriculum.|url=https://claudiawebbe.org/include-the-sotik-massacre-in-the-national-curriculum/|access-date=2022-02-23|website=Claudia Webbe|language=en-GB|archive-date=23 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220223115749/https://claudiawebbe.org/include-the-sotik-massacre-in-the-national-curriculum/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== World War I ====
[[World War I]] is inferred among the Kipsigis as '<nowiki/>''Boriet ap Talianek''' - literally 'Italian War' and it's an inflection point among the Kipsigis coming out of which, integration into modernity. Some men were drafted or volunteered to fight and it is remarked how the Empire they fought for did not recognize them or keep any records or accounts of African soldiers.[[File:The Big Game of Africa (1910) - Lioness Sotik Plains 1909.png|thumb|264x264px|Big game in Sotik plains in 1910]]

==== Nandi Protest of 1923 ====
A number of factors taking place in the early 1920s led to what has come to be termed the Nandi Protest or Uprisings of 1923. It was the first expression of organized resistance by the Nandi since the [[Nandi Resistance|wars of 1905–06]].

Primary contributing factors were the land alienation of 1920 and a steep increase in taxation, taxation tripled between 1909 and 1920 and because of a change in collection date, two taxes were collected in 1921. The Kipsigis and Nandi refused to pay and this amount was deferred to 1922. Further, due to fears of a spread of [[rinderpest]] following an outbreak, a stock quarantine was imposed on the Nandi Reserve between 1921 and 1923. The Nandi, prevented from selling stock outside the Reserve, had no cash, and taxes had to go unpaid. Normally, grain shortages in Nandi were met by selling stock and buying grain. The quarantine made this impossible. The labour conscription that took place under the Northey Circulars only added to the bitterness against the [[Kenya Colony|colonial government]].

All these things contributed to a buildup of antagonism and unrest toward the government between 1920 and 1923. In 1923, the ''saget ab eito'' (sacrifice of the ox), a historically significant ceremony where leadership of the community was transferred between generations, was to take place. This ceremony had always been followed by an increased rate of cattle raiding as the now formally recognized warrior age-set sought to prove its prowess. The approach to a saget ab eito thus witnessed expressions of military fervor and for the ceremony all Nandi males would gather in one place.

Alarmed at the prospect and as there was also organized protest among the [[Kikuyu people|Kikuyu]] and [[Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania|Luo]] at that time, the colonial government came to believe that the [[Orkoiyot]] was planning to use the occasion of the ''Saget ab eito'' of 1923 as a cover under which to gather forces for a massive military uprising. On 16 October 1923, several days before the scheduled date for the ''saget ab eito'', the Orkoiyot [[Barsirian Arap Manyei]] and four other elders were arrested and deported to Meru. Permission to hold the ceremony was withdrawn and it did not take place, nor has it ever taken place since. The Orkoiyot [[Barsirian Arap Manyei]] would spend the next forty years in political detention, becoming Kenya's, and possibly Africa's, longest-serving political prisoner.

<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bill Rutto and Kipng'etich Maritim |title=Kipsigis Heritage and Origin of Clans |publisher=Spotlight Publishers (EA) Limited |isbn=996657019-5 |pages=144}}</ref> One of the foremost Kipsigis colonial Chiefs was Cheborge Arap Tengecha. Although he was sometimes fondly referred to as “Kiprany-tich,” meaning he stood up to colonial excesses, this nom de guerre was countermanded by his alleged heavy-handedness and “unbridled” obsequiousness towards the colonial authorities. Nevertheless, Arap Tengecha can be credited with some positive deeds that helped transform the Kipsigis society in a changed world of colonial domination. First, the man, born about 1892, embraced literacy by accepting to go to school, unlike his peers. His capacity to read and write earned him a place in the colonial law courts and civil service as an interpreter based at the Kericho District Commissioner’s office. He served under District Commissioners, Cecil M. Dobbs, Sydney Hubert La Fontaine, George Henry C. Boulderson, T. H. Hinkinson, among others. 
As an acknowledgement of his prowess as an interpreter, Arap Tengecha was sent to Kerendei in Maasailand (Narok) in 1921 to continue his work there, having mastered the Maa language and other languages such as Kisii, Luo and Swahili. In 1934, he was appointed to the exalted position of Chief of Bomet Location where he excelled in his new position as an administrator and enforcer of colonial policies. When the district administration was reorganised by District Commissioner Henry G. Gregory-Smith in 1946, Chief Tengecha, now a top favourite of the colonial government, was appointed the Chief of Bureti Location where he served until his retirement in 1961. In recognition of his “illustrious career” at his retirement, Queen Elizabeth II of England conferred on Chief Tengecha the coveted OBE (Order of the British Empire).

==== World War II ====
With the German, Italian and Japanese threat at the borders of the British Empire, many people were dragged into military service during [[World War II]]. In East Africa, a huge number of Kenyans were recruited to serve in the Burma and Ethiopian Campaigns. Known to the Kipsigis as '<nowiki/>''Boriet ap Jeromaan''', literally German war, the world event marks a period of time and denotes a generation where some of its youthful men either volunteered or were drafted into the [[King's African Rifles]] forces. In August 1914, during the First World War, KAR soldiers were dispatched to fight German forces between what is Kenya-Tanzania border today, moreso in Taita-Tavetta. During the Second World War in 1944, some were deployed to join the fight in Burma Campaign against the Imperial Japanese Army. After the war, African soldiers were forgotten and hardly any records of them and their accounts were kept.