He is noted for the prophesies he made and is famous for being the father of Koitalel Arap Samoei, the leader of the Nandi Resistance.
The Nandi then defeated the remnants of the Uasin Gishu at a battle in the Kipkaren Valley, as the Maasai had tried to re-assert their claim to the plateau.
Shortly after, the Laikipiak were defeated by the Naivasha such that the latter were left as the only military power strong enough to contest the grazing rights to the Uasin Gishu plateau with the rising Nandi.
Several inconclusive skirmishes took place between the two until eventually, the Naivasha were routed at Ziwa and chased back into the Rift Valley.
[2] Trouble began for Kimnyole in the late 1880s, starting about 1888, when disaster struck the Nandi in the form of rinderpest cattle disease which was spreading round Kenya at this time.