The Settlement of Nandi was the historical process by which the various communities that today make up the Nandi people of Kenya settled in Nandi County. It is captured in the folklore of the Nandi as a distinct process composed of a series of inward migrations by members from various Kalenjin ortinwek. Origins According to the Kalenjin narrative of origin, the Nandi identity formed from the separation of what had been a combined group of Kipsigis and Nandi. They had been living at Rongai near Nakuru as a united group for sometime before they were forced to separate due to antagonistic environmental factors, notably droughts and invasion of the Maasai from Uasin Gishu. Kipsigis traditions recorded by Orchadson (1927) concur that the Kipsigis and Nandi had been a united identity through to the early nineteenth century. About this time they moved southwards through country occupied by Masai, "probably the present Uasin Gishu country" where they accidentally got split in two by a wedge of Masai who Orchadson records as being "Uasin Gishu (Masai) living in Kipchoriat (Nyando) valley". Accounts from Hollis however refer to a "branch called 'L-osigella or Segelli [who] took refuge in the Nyando valley but were wiped out by the Nandi and Lumbwa...It was from them that the Nandi obtained their system of rule by medicine-men. Ortinwek origins The Nandi account of the formation of the tribe however displays a more complex pattern of settlement. The Kalenjin ortinwek that moved into and occupied the Nandi area, thus becoming the Nandi tribe, came; From Elgon & Lumbwa Kipoiis Kipamwi Kipkenda Kipiegen From Lo-'sekelae Masai Kipkoiitim (also partly from Elgon) Talai, the medicine men's clan (partly also from Kamasya) Toyoi From Elgon Kipkokos From Elgon & Elgeyo Kipsirgio Moi Sokom Kiptopkei Kamwaikei From Lumbwa Tungo Kipaa Kipasiso and Kapchemuri (Chemuri) Elgoni (Kony) Territory Settlement The traditional Nandi account is that the first settlers in their country came from Elgon and formed the Kipoiis clan; a name that possibly means 'the spirits'. They were led by a man named Kakipoch, founder of the Nandi section of the Kalenjin and are said to have settled in the emet (county) of Aldai in south-western Nandi. One of the earliest Bororiet was named after Kakipoch and the site of his grave, still shown on Chepilat hill in Aldai was marked by the stump of an ancient olive tree. The account of his burial