For sixteen years, the Nandi people of the western highlands resisted British colonial rule under the leadership of their spiritual and military leader, Koitalel Arap Samoei. He predicted the coming of a long black snake that would breathe fire and eat the land, a prophecy many believe referred to the Uganda Railway. He refused to allow the railway to cross Nandi land without a fight. The British eventually invited him to a peace meeting in 1905. It was a trap. He was shot dead under a flag of truce. The Nandi resistance died with him but his name lives as one of Kenya's greatest heroes.