He returned in 1907 as the areas first administrator, and was on his way back from a punitive expedition when he was attacked by Otenyo with a spear after shooting dead Okwengu K'Akala at Got Ong'ong'o presently Got Ka'Nyakworo around Ruga Market Centre.
In 1905, British officers from the King's African Rifles (K.A.R) arrived in Gusiiland where they met resistance from the Gusii warriors whom they attacked with machine guns and killed quite a number.
The British and their Nubian porters forcefully settled in the present day Kisii town which was known as Getare at the time, but not without tensions from the Kitutu region which was known to be the militaristic centre of the whole Gusiiland.
The Gusii elders encouraged young men who had gone through the initiation ceremony to marry fearing a whole generation would be wiped out, citing prophet Sakawa's foresights of the coming of the white man before his death in 1902.
Though armed with inferior weapons, the Gusii warriors managed to lay an ambush on the British and recovered many livestock which they led towards the Manga escarpment.
The name of the British colonial officer who beheaded warrior Otenyo was Geoffrey Alexander Northcote who was 27 years old at the time and was better known to the locals as "Mr. Nyarigoti".
He was leading the British invasion at the time and there was corroborating evidence from the Nubian soldiers in Bosongo where he was stationed, of his unbounded pride in having beheaded a Gusii warrior.
Gusii warriors from Kitutu who died protecting Gusiiland and their livestock are remembered through songs and stories depicting their bravery in the different wars they fought.