By Dr. Sambu,
Among other 'crazy' theories of Weldon arap Kirui (aka Weldon oriop Kirui) is his early research work as to why it is possible the founding father of the nation was a Kipsigis and his best so far , why the Kalenjins could be the lost tribe of Israel.
Kalenjin, the Military Clan of Ancient Egyptians
Between East Africa and Egypt
The Kalenjins of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania had the role of defending Egypt,up to the time of Herodotus. When Herodotus visited Egypt during the 5th century BCE, he encountered a sub-nation of Egypt known as Sebenitus. Until the 40s, all Kalenjin were known by fourth names namely Sebei, Sabaot, Miot and Midian. Scholars from the community coined the word, Kalenjin, meaning I tell you to unite all the sub-nations of the tribe. Sebei and Sabaot now live around Mt. Elgon in Western Kenya and Eastern Uganda. It is possible that Herodotus misspelled the word, Sebenitus, which should have been either Sebei or Sabaot. Even the Bible confirms the presence of the Sebei (Kalenjin). Job 1:5 says "...and the Sabeans fell upon and took them away." Ezekiel also wrote about the Kalenjins (Sabeans), a sub-tribe of Ancient Egyptians. ze:23:42 says, "..and a voice of multitude being at ease was with her, and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness which put bracelets upon their hands and beautiful crowns upon their heads."
When Herodotus asked the Sebenitus people about where their aboriginal home was, they told him is/was a place called Nttr-the holy land of the God in the south. With the Benefit of Kalenjin language, we can learn that Ntrr was actually Tororo Hills in Eastern Uganda. Tororo means the exalted one, the high hill or even God. Hence Ntrr should be netoror-the exalted one!
According to their own accounts, the Kalenjin believe that their ancestors aboriginal home was here in Kenya at a place called Tororo Hills in Eastern Uganda. From here they migrated to Misiri or Egypt, where they stayed for thousands of years, and then migrated back again to Kenya. Some remained in Egypt. Others are in Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea and many other places around the world. However not all Old Egyptians (Kalenjin) left for Egypt. The Ogiek or Dorobo who speak Kalenjin do not recall having migrated from elsewhere. They say that they have been living in Kenya since time immemorial. In 2001, I interviewed some oldmen as to why they left Egypt. They told me that they left Egypt after being attacked by a mysterious people called Kipyayamungeen. They said these people were white. (The term, "white", is a relative term, which means lighter skin color.) They say this was during the reign of Pharaoh Kipcheum. According to Dr Sambu, about 250,000 warriors left Egypt for East Africa as a result of this invasion. This event coincides with the first Persian invasion of Egypt, which occurred about 525 BCE.
Because the Kalenjin tongue is basically a dialect of the Egyptian language, many Egyptian words and names are recognizable by the Kalenjin peoples, such as:
For thousands of years, Egypt was known to the entire ancient world as Kagypta, meaning the sanctuary of Pta. Pta, now known as Kiptaiyat in modern Kalenjin language, was the deity of Memphis. When the Greeks came to Egypt about 2500 years ago, they could not pronounce the word Kagypta. Instead, they pronounced it as Aigyptos or Aegyptus. They also referred to people of Egypt as Kiptaios (see the word Kiptaiyaat above!). The word, kmt, which the Egyptians referred to as their country, is also traceable to the Kalenjin tongue. Kemet in Kalenjin means country. Some other Egyptians called their country Khemet, which historians used to coin the word Hamites. Pharaoh in Kalenjin language means a massively built house, a leader or president. In fact, Pharaoh should be written as Parao, from the words Para (meaning big or vast) and ooh or woor, meaning the big one. Parao should mean the leader of the entire nation. I say it should be Parao because the English word Empire is derived from it. Em in Kalenjin and Ancient Egyptian means country, while para or pire means wide, big or vast. Hence, the Europeans coined the word Empire and its derivatives from the word Parao or Pharaoh! The Kalenjin people have produced some of the Egyptian Pharaohs. Pharaoh Amasis in Kalenjin may mean the one loved by God, the one who loves God, the one who eats God or the one who is eaten by God. Am in Kalenjin means eat, while Asista means the sun. There are many other examples. The Kalenjin say that upon arrival in east Africa, they circumcised their boys in two places. They circumcised their boys near Mt Elgon at a hill called tulwop Kabiniet (ie the hill of Phallus).Around 1500 CE they circumcised their boys again at a hill called Tulwop Monyiseet (ie the hill of the foreskins). It is interesting to note that like their ancestors in Egypt, the Kalenjins gave functionally descriptive names to hills where circumcision rites have been performed. Remember God telling Jushua to circumcise his boys again in the hill of the foreskins (Joshua 5;3) in Gilgal area. Again the Kalenjin say that their ancestors used to circumcise their boys in Gilgil area which is 100 km west of nairobi. Gilgil is a corruption of Gilgal, which is the military base of the Kenyan Army.
Kalenjin Dieties:
Like, Old Egyptians, Kalenjin was a monotheistic society. They believe in one God who has so many names. Asis is the deity of the Kalejin. This is Isis. Asis or Aset among the Barabaig of Tanzania was believed to be a woman. Other names we brought from Egypt include Illat-the God of Justice. Some other people later corrupted to Allah or Illay among the Somalis of Kenya and Ethiopia. Chebo-Amoni is another name of our deity which the Greeks corrupted to Amoni. The Kalenjin word osirun means to resurrect, to wake up from sleep or to cross a bridge. Apeso is also the name of our Deity, known as Apis. The Kalenjin used to refer to themselves as children of Miot or Myoot, known in Ancient Egypt as Ma-at, another deity of Old Egyptians.
Kalenjin and Moses
The Bible tells us that Moses married a lady from Midian people known as Zipporah. I am now convinced that Moses was a Kalenjin since Moso in our language means a child. Moses was said to have been a child rescued somewhere in Egypt. We have songs about Moses in kalnjin. After circumcising our girls, we sing a song called, Ndomo rireet ab Mugaika koto mokimi emoni, ie if it were not for the sea of Musaiga (Moses) we would be dead. The story about Moses crossing the sea with his people is common among many tribes in Kenya and Southern Africa. This confirms that Moses was an Egyptian. Midian is a clan of the Kalenjins of Baringo district of Kenya.
Kalenjin and Sabeans
Sebenitus also refers to the people known as Sabeans. In fact it was the Sabeans of South Arabia who established the first civilization in the Arabian peninsula-thousands of years before the emergence of the Bedouin Arabs. Through the Sabeans (Kalenjin) link, it is not difficult to explain the presence of Old Egyptians from remote antiquity, in the Malayan Peninsula, Indo-China, and the heavy concentration of Old Egyptians in India, the Angkor and Champa in Southeast Asia, the vast populations of the dark-skinned peoples in Southern China as far as Japan's Ainu people.
It can be seen in retrospect that the Kalenjins are Old Egyptians what with more information coming to this site from me. Kalenjin history should now be rewritten by its free natives (and not by the colonial powers of European academia), and its great past reconciled with that of other Old Egyptians around the world.
