Saniak(g) in Kerio Valley

Mzee. Thomas Kigongo, a Saniak and the people of Kabulwo market, Keiyo

Saniak is one of the clans and an identity of a people that add to others to form the North Rift regional block. These counties are Turkana, West Pokot,  Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Elgeyo Marakwet and Baringo. Of them, Nandi, Uasin Gishu and Baringo lack oral stories of prior settlements only with present continuing settling and integration of Saniak people from neighbour areas.

Keiyo region, and Keiyo valley specifically do inhabit Saniak (/k/ pronounced as /g/) with various places called kapsaniak, separated from another by several ridges. These areas are at Tambach, Chaptebo and Kabulwo.

Amongst the Keiyo clans, the Saniak have their share of the ridges, vertically accessing the cool hills rising to 3600m above sea level to the depth of the life giving Kerio river. The hills are a source of brooks and rivulets. Their undergrowths preserve succulency deep in the dry season for the reared livestock - cows, sheep and goats.

Land is communal with clans separating from another by a trench, often dry during non-rainy times that also run up-down. Later times  with increased population have lead to fencing and individual ownership of the said parcels. Cattle no longer roam the thorny ridges and goats no longer graze afar. Things have changed and equally remained the same, Saniak at the places can attest.

In one of the interviews done at Kabulwo, off Biretwo, a distance of about 22 kilometers on Iten-Kabarnet, Mzee Thomas Kagongo, a Saniak, 86 years old now did trace the family's origin from Mogil near Chesongoch. Kabulwo is East of Kapcherop, separated from one another by steepy hills that increase distance and land. Thomas is the son of Komen, Komen the son of Chelang'a. Chelang'a the son of Kisogok. Kisogok the son of Chesir. And like many other elders (elders in Keiyo are very few) tracing genealogies is a herculean task.

The totem for Saniak is a monkey though there is another, people of a bee. The bee totem people are also thought to be in Kericho county among the Kipsigis. Not that they are a different sect but in asking it was as if the bee totemed are as a result of sharing saniaga blood as of maternal identity other than paternal genes. This is tentative  to further research.

Clans as Kimoi, different from Saniak, can intermarry. This is as a result of keeping distance with kins. Their totem is the buffalo. A man can marry from the clan and allow his son to ("as long as the family is not near to the maternal " - so said one of the ones who were listening to the interview) marry from it. Kimoi clan is interesting and a deeper look at it may shed more light. Such happening would be witnessed among the Saniaga of Maragoli had it not, by mere refusal to amplify subclans, refused to adopt secondary identities.

Living with other clans is as of old, from years ago. Saniak at Kabulwo are near the Rimoi National Park that has a large number of elephants among other wildlife. In the past, an elephant was killed once after some time. They were 'reared' just as goats. And the killer clan, due to mass, would skin and cut off the upper part. And call upon the neighboring clans(s) to come for the remaining meat, to turn over the carcass and cut.

When a person died, he would be buried within a day. A corpse was wrapped in a hide and in a shallow grave laid. A man, head facing the East, was laid on his right hand, head rest. For his woman, she would face him, lying on the left, on a grave beside.

-/With Thanks
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