IS KOSHELLEI'S PROPHESY COMING TO PASS?

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By Thomas Chemelil


Mzee Koshellei Rianakow Kasikowit of Kitarian , Kapsaniak in Marakwet East (God rest his soul in peace), cut an enigmatic figure even in his sunset years. He was tall and had a lithe, athletic figure. His purely white hair and shiny, dangling ornaments suspended on his pierced earlobes gave him the image of an extraterrestrial being. His high cheekbones and his shiny, active eyes gave him a macho image. 

When he spoke, a staff firmly held in his big palms, his guttural voice would always pull the attention of his or her listeners. 

He passed on at roughly 110 years of age in 1990. This age was arrived at because of his explanations that he participated in the construction of the Kenya-Uganda railway. This assertion was lend credence by the copper ornaments dangling on his extended earlobes. All his peers never had such ornaments. 

For him to have participated in the construction of the railway, he must have been over 16-20 years old.

Mzee Koshellei Rianakow was a wise man whose counsel was sought for from near and far. He had a foresight unmatched to date. 

As a young man, I had the rare privilege to interact with him. He would occasionally narrate to me tales from his generation. 

"Grandson," he would tell me in my native Marakwet tongue," when it will reach the age set of 'Maina', things will be thick. People will be jumping over corpses and the birds of prey will be eating bodies."


"We pray that during such times we will be above watching the happenings from safety," he would add with a forlorn look on his wrinkled face. 

At that point, he would remove his snuff-horn, tap it hard on his bony knee, pour the content into his large palm, pinch a little of it and methodically sniff the stuff as if to let his heavy words sink into my little head. 

As I follow the happenings in Italy and Europe over the Covid-19 crisis, the words of Mzee Rianakow Koshellei reverberate in my mind.

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