Their territory stretched north and west of Mount Kenya, and south to Naivasha across the Kaputei plains as far as and possibly past Kilimanjaro.
[5] These societies shared a number of cultural aspects, most notably, similar learning systems designed to train young men into a fighting force known as moran/muren and later elders who would guide the community.
[9] Just as the Iloikop wars ended and conflict with neighboring communities started, two instances of epizootics broke out among Loikop herds in quick succession.
Their log-terraced gardens, irrigated by the carved “bridge of water” leading from the cool mountain streams, always produced enough grain to supplement the milk, blood and meat of their large herd of cattle and goats.
"... there arose a wizard among the Suk who prepared a charm in the form of a stick, which he placed in the Loikop cattle kraals, with the result that they all died."
After the dying (from epizootics) stopped, desperate strangers began to roam the land, checking the homes of relatives, friends and cattle associates, where they may have been keeping stock, in the hope that some had survived.
Then, as the threat of starvation increased, bands of thieves began to steal and eat more fortunate men’s animals, murdering the owners if necessary.
Which however, were deserted, owing to recent raids of Wa-kamba, who of late have begun to assume the offensive and make reprisals in cattle-lifting in the heart of the enemy's country.
According to Pokot traditions, the victory came when "... there arose a wizard among the Suk who prepared a charm in the form of a stick, which he placed in the Loikop cattle kraals, with the result that they all died."
The aim and ambition of every agricultural Chok became to amass enough cattle to move into the Kerio Valley and join their pastoral kin.
[28] The sum of traditions of these communities indicate that the Iloikop wars were followed by conflict with neighboring societies after which the Loikop disintegrated and settled by clans in specific territories.
[30] Thompson (1883) in journey through Masai land, came upon 'Masai' warriors that "had been gorging themselves with flesh in the forest for some time, preparatory to going off on a great cattle-raid to the Suk country, north of Baringo".
[31] Following his Juba expedition, MacDonald (1899) wrote of the Sambur – who had been 'weakened by the civil war' and had been attacked 'by the (Pokotozek) who lived on the southern portion of the Karamojo plateau'.
[32] MacDonald (1899) noted that the Pokotozek incursion and subsequent conquest at Enginyang 'practically cut off the Sambur of Njemps from those of (Lake Turkana)'.
The Sambur of Lykipia, weakened by war and isolation and impoverished by cattle plague, were in turn subject to attacks by the Rendile and are now almost, if not quite destroyed'.
The battle at Blood Hill coincided with attacks by mounted Ilturjo from the north, and the wars on both fronts wiped out a singular Sambur identity.
[35] The Iloikop wars saw the routing of the Uasin Gishu by a combined force of the Naivasha and Laikipia sections of Loikop society.
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.
The combined effects of the Aoyate drought and the epizootics led to near total loss of their herds, their primary means of livelihood.
The British, hampered by a lack of money and troops, were unable to risk antagonising the Maasai who controlled their lines of communication.
With the completion of the railway the British no longer feared their lines of communication being disrupted, taxation was introduced in the Protectorate providing the government a regular source of income, and a permanent military force was instituted in 1902.
For the Maasai, the end of the War of Morijo resulted in greater stability within their community, and cattle herds had largely been replenished.
The government passed a series of measures signalling the end of their arrangement with the Maasai tribe, including forbidding unofficial looting, discontinuing the policy of raising levies and issuing a strict code of conduct for punitive expeditions.