Kolowa is chiefly known for the so-called "Pokot
Massacre" which occurred here in 1950, before
independence.
On the fateful day of 24th April in that year a
colonial administration force caught up with a
quasi-religious rebel group of Pokots led by Lukas
Pkech. A conflict ensued, triggered by a sequence
of events that remains debatable to this day. The
result was bloody in the extreme: four government
officers killed, including the District Officer and
O.C.P.D., and forty four Pokot people. The
number of injured can never be known with
certainty.
Subsequently, of the 48 arrested, 14 were hanged
and the remainder imprisoned. Pkech himself was
killed in the massacre by machine gun bullets.
The fine of 2600 head of cattle that was later
imposed on the 4 Pokot locations by the
government was a further savage blow to the
Pokot community --- which some would say have
never ever recovered. Actually most of the
"victims" were not from Kolowa but from
Tangulbei and Ng'inyang, which was where the
rebel "march" had started from ---- the then
locations of Korosi and Loyamorok.
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