Kalenjin people

The Kalenjin are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting the Rift Valley Province in Kenya. They are estimated to number a little over 4.9 million individuals as per the Kenyan 2009 census.

History

Main Article: Kalenjin prehistory

Origins

Main Article: Nilotic peoples

Linguistic evidence points to the eastern Middle Nile Basin south of the Abbai River, as the ancient homelands of the Kalenjin. That is to say south-east of present day Khartoum. They were not a distinct group of people at this time but part of a wider society today referred to as Nilotic peoples.

The Nilotic point of unity is thought to have occurred sometime between 3000 and 2000 B.C. though the form that this unity took and much of their way of life at this time still remains unclear.

Beginning in the second millennium B.C., particular Nilotic communities began to move southward into present day South Sudan where most settled. However the societies today referred to as the Southern Nilotes pushed further on, reaching what is present day north-eastern Uganda by 1000 B.C.