How many ethnic groups are there in Kenya? And what is an “ethnic group”? The Oxford Dictionary gives a concise definition as “a community or population made up of people who share a common cultural background or descent.”

Depending on the source of information, the answer varies on how many ethnic groups there are. I will mention 3 sources here:

1/ Portraits of Africa – The Peoples of Kenya presents 39 ethnic groups and 6 other smaller ethnic groups. The ethnic group Mijikenda is made up of “nine tribes of the coastal hinterland”, making a total of 54 groups.

2/ The Kenya Year Book talks of 42 distinctive cultural/linguistic communities. I like the term “linguistic communities”.

3/ The East Africa Living Encyclopedia says that there are over 70 distinct ethnic groups in Kenya, ranging in size from over seven million Kikuyu to below 500 El Molo who live on the shore of Lake Turkana. (Writing in 2021, I’ve been told that pure blood El Molo are now extinct.) While no ethnic group constitutes a majority of Kenya’s citizens, the largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu, makes up only 20% of the nation’s total population. The five largest – Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Kamba and Kalenjin- account for 70%. 97.58% of Kenya’s citizens are affiliated with its 32 major indigenous groups. 

The ethnic groups in Kenya are classified by languages. The languages are divided  into three distinct genetic families :

1. The Bantu of the Niger-Kordofanian family,
2. The Nilotic of the Nilo Saharan family and
3. The Cushitic of the Hamito-Semitic family with Afro-Asiatic origins.

My brief notes will only mention the ethnic groups of the people I have painted so far :

• Maasai & Shampoli Maasai
• Pokot (previously called Suk)
• Rendille
• Samburu
• Turkana

Here is a map that shows where these people are to be found in Kenya.

“My” ethnic groups Kenya

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My blogs give more information on the people I have met.

I am not an anthropologist and what I write is from notes on my own observations, other research work and notes from various books (listed on the Links & Events page).