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The Nandi political life was ordered around 'bororiet' which is distictly different from oreet (clan) but is probably an expanded form of the advanced order of the 'kokwet' or village system. As explained earlier, people of the same oreet were not necessarily restricted to one bororiet. However, some families were advised, perhaps to avoid recurrent catastrophes, not to live in certain bororiet. A case in point is the long-standing banning of Kap Matelong (and all Kipkenda?) from inhabiting Chesumei which is populated by the relatively obscure but conservative borioriosiek of Cheptol, Kapno and Tibingot.

The Nandi bororiet may be taken as a 'primitive' (not intended to offend, but purely for lack of a better word) model of multipartyism. For it was largely around one's bororiet that vexing, bethrotals and circumcission ceremony attendance were based. It might sound alien to the reader that competition among bororiosiek was more intense than among oratinwek. It would seem, therefore, that with the advent of christianity and the consequential thinking that what was traditional was backward, the disappearance of bororiet became inevitable. The recent resurgence of Nandi nationalism has brought to the fore the social tenets and socio-cultural-political organisational strata. Among these are the realisation that the current level of complacency, laziness and pedestrian attitude to life that is prevalent among the youth has been inspired by a lack of cementing social identities like the bororiet system. Was bororiet, then, a form of a political system? Hence, could we safely albeit without provoking a sense of unjustified pride, say that the bororiosiek were actually a system akin to the modern day multi-party system?

 

Bororiet	Subgroups	Kawaalet	Churisiet	Geographical distribution
Kap Chepkendi (Liberal democrats hence Chep oo lool, 'big bag'!)	Chep Oo Lool			Lelmokwo/ Location 4
	Muruto Kaplolo			??
	Chebirir Katuut/ Mwechi go	Chepkendikab arap Koisamoo	Mwechi go ak arap Maanga	Sirwa
	Sigilai	che bo arap Kerebei		Ol'Lesoos
Kamelilo (The Orkoiyot lived in this Bororiet at Chebarus hence their ownership of the instruments of power, 'gotab ndasimiet')	Che bo Tap Tengelei/ Che bo Chemogoch chaang Keiyeek	Tamelil ak Kendi/ Ki boo kolonget ab arap Chemenjo ne ngosiir kenyeleet ko soonen/ Kiroop soi kou kurees	Tulegei saa sita	Tindiret/ Kabiyet/ Eldama Ravine
Kabooch (Very conservative, conservatives)	Kosachnyim	Kosachnyimbet got ko les		Kilibwoni/ Location 5
	Cheboing’ong’ ak Leelwek	Cheboing’ong’ ak lelwek		Tindiret
Kap Talam	Kap Chepsir ak Tulon	Che loklokkionu ak gariik/ Ma kii kop ko somok		Kabirirsang/ Kaplamai/ Ndurio/ Location 7 and 14
Kaptumois (elitist and catholic)	Kapsabit			Kapsabet/Chemundu/ Location 9
	Kaptumo			Location 10/ Kaptumo
Koilegei (educated, rich, fairly conservative)	che bo arap Maleel	Koilegei che bo Chemuigut	Koilegei che ki siree siriik Tabolwa	Kosirai ak Rongit
Kabianga (Mostly the Terik)				Aldai and Chepkunyuk in Nandi
Kapsile (the origin of Matelong family, very conservative and loosely allied to Kamelilo in bororiet tussles)				Kap Keben
Kapno (Chesumeiyek, conservative and successful with Kapno Farmers Co-op)				Kiborgok/ Kapkangani
Cheptol  (Chesumeiyek, conservative)				Chesumei
Tibingot (conservative)				Kapsisiwo (mainly inhabited by the Talai clan, Orkoik) Location 25, 26
Murkaptuk (Kipng'oroor and Aldai and Chesumei)				Location 1  Chepterwai

The influence of the bororiet system would be appreciated if one considered the importance it played in determining which bororiet married another bororiet's daughters. A case in point is a man from the Kabooch clan who lived among the Kamelilo but gave his daughters to fellow Kabooch. This irked the host clan and the man was haunted out to his native clan. The clan determined the order of entry to Kapkoros or sanctuary while the Kamelilo clan was reputed as the bororiet with the instruments of power for the Orkoiyot (Gootab ndasimieet).

It is also important to note that the nandi community's inter-tribal rivalry was not premised on the family-family but rather the bororitet-bororiet feuds. In this regard, it was safe for each bororiet to treat each other with suspicion.

Another point to note is that people changed bororiet without necessarily changing their oreet. This is where I consider bororiet as a form of a political party. For example, if one's family lived in one bororiet but was haunted by repetitive deaths that pointed to a curse, a ceremony reminiscent of 'Kap Kiyai' was performed to allow the family to change their bororiet by 'crossing a river' in the context of 'ma yaitoos miat aino' which literally means that death does not cross a river (body of water). This elaborate ceremony was called 'raret' (rar means trim or cut off). If you find a family with a name Kirorei then you probably have a family case of bororiet change which came about as a result of 'rareet' (chopping off). People changed bororiet as a result of migration to another koreet, emeet (region). This seems common for some bororiosiek and not others, however. For example an individual who moved to Kabooch could retain the unique identity, leading perhaps derogatively, to the reference of skin rashes that develop on kids heads as 'Kaboochek'. This was understood to mean that the rashes did not infect and blanket the whole head but developed in isolated but closely related colonies! The Matelong family, originally of KapSile, changed their bororiet because of a calamity which has been discussed elsewhere in this blog.

Another instance of change of bororiet is a shameful perhaps spiteful defection 'martaet' which means somebody deserts his bororiet for another. This brings to mind names such as Kimarta.

I would like to imagine a bororiet as a form of what we now know as multipartyism. How much do, dear reader know about this bororiet system?

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