Every empire begins by pretending it brings order. The British said they were bringing “civilization” to Kenya; what they brought to Kisii in 1908 was the hut tax, whips, and the rifle. Today, when Kenyans talk about colonial resistance, the story usually jumps straight to the Mau Mau in the 1950s, or maybe the Giriama … Read more
History remembers the center. Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu — the big names, the capital cities, the ports. But history also lives at the margins, in places where borders were drawn with a ruler across grazing lands, and where clans survived by their spears, their cattle, and their suspicion of authority. On the western edge of Kenya … Read more
The Kamba, or Akamba, are one of Kenya’s largest Bantu-speaking communities, traditionally inhabiting the semi-arid plateau region of Ukambani in south-eastern Kenya. This homeland today covers Machakos, Kitui, and Makueni counties, though significant Kamba populations have migrated to Nairobi, Mombasa, and overseas. Over centuries, the Kamba earned a reputation as long-distance traders, skilled craftsmen, and … Read more
Kenya is home to one of Africa’s most diverse cultural landscapes, with forty-four officially recognized ethnic groups. From the smallest fishing community on Lake Turkana to the populous farming communities of the central highlands, each group has contributed uniquely to the country’s history, politics, and identity. These communities speak languages from three major families—Bantu, Nilotic, … Read more
On the road from Kilifi to Kaloleni, the land opens into scrub once dismissed by colonial officials as Nyika, the bush of the “primitive” tribes who lived beyond the Swahili towns. Coconut groves and maize shambas stretch where the forest used to be, but every so often the bush folds in on itself again, rising … Read more
By Purity Kiura, Acting Head of Archaeology, National Museums of Kenya The El-molo is a small community of about 700 people living around El-molo Bay on the southeastern shores of Lake Turkana. El-molo Bay is north of Loiyangalani trading centre, about 600 km northwest of Nairobi. The El-molo live in two settlements, Komote and Layeni, … Read more
Drawing on The Luyia of Kenya by John Osogo (1967) and supplementary ethnographic sources, we can identify the seventeen main sub-ethnic groups that make up the Luhya confederation. Note: some scholars list up to 19, depending on how the subgroups are classified. Here is the most widely accepted breakdown: 1. Wanga 2. Bukusu 3. Maragoli … Read more
Today, the Luhya are spoken of as one of Kenya’s largest ethnic groups, a voting bloc, a cultural community, even a linguistic group. But peel back that label, and what you find is not a single people, but a confederation of at least seventeen distinct societies — each with its own language, origin story, and … Read more
Introduction: A Throne in the Grasslands In the arid lowlands of western Kenya, where trade routes once converged between the Great Lakes and the coast, stood a rare institution in precolonial Kenya: a kingdom. It was not vast, not especially wealthy in gold or ivory, but it held what others did not — a dynasty, … Read more
Stretching across the dry expanse six hundred kilometers north of Nairobi, the Rendille are a people whose lives are woven together by camels, stars, ritual, and belief. In a landscape that rises only here and there into lava‐hardened plateaus or the occasional forested mountain, these camel‐herding nomads have forged a social cosmos entirely their own—one … Read more