By David K. Kay
Walking down the Elgeyo Escarpment through Kacheseker village is always a tricky endeavour, as you head lower and lower the houses and fields become fewer, and the thorny scrub that much denser. The heat and flies also increase, with the simmering haze of the valley floor far below seeming to radiate the intense sunlight back up at you. Before long, the grassy swards and cool forests of the Cherangani hilltops seem like a distant, and much desired, memory. The Marakwet residents of Kacheseker rarely undertake this journey nowadays, though as little as 30-40 years ago it was a common activity, as people carried honey, dried meat and grain to the markets in the Kerio Valley, and led their cattle down to much-needed natural salt licks every three months or so. The new road network, and the availability of commercial salt, has more-or-less negated the need for these journeys, with once-busy footpaths slowly dissolving back into the shifting sediments of the Escarpment. Modern Kacheseker clusters on the Escarpment-top at Embobut, where the best agricultural land, infrastructure and, importantly, other people, are to be found. Over many sweaty weeks of hiking, however, my surveys revealed a pattern of settlement rather different to this modern scene.
Marakwet Heritage 