Population movement, settlement and the construction of society to the east of Lake Victoria in precolonial times: the western Kenyan case

International audienceThe communities’ in Nyanza and Western Kenya situated to the east of Lake Victoria have come from various directions to their present day settlements. They encompass two linguistic families the Bantu and the Nilotic. These communities came from different directions but interacted with each other and borrowed extensively from each other. The Abaluhya sub-groups which moved to western Kenya from eastern Uganda are likely to have been the earliest settlers in the lake region. According to some scholars it could be inferred that the Abaluhya and Gusii people represent the spearhead of migration in this region. The Gusii and Luhya settlers to the Lake Victoria are the descendants of possibly the earliest Bantu groups to have arrived in Kenya, and are believed to have introduced iron smelting and the use of iron tools to the region. The period between 1500 and 1850 saw the migration of many Bantu clans and families from eastern Uganda into western Kenya and the emergence of the present day Abaluyia, Abagusii, and Abakuria communities. The formation of the Abaluyia entailed the fusion of the pre-1500 inhabitants of western province with those Bantu groups that arrived in the region in the 16th century and 18th centuries. While the Bantu who lived to the north of Lake Victoria evolved into a single community (the Abaluyia) the Bantu to the south of Winam Gulf evolved into three distinct societies the Abagusii, Abakuria and Abasuba. Similarly the Luo from the Sudan traversed Uganda which was the centre of their encounter with the Bantu. As they moved on the interactions between them persisted right into their settlements in the region. They continue to interact extensively in modern western Kenya. But each group has a history that should be detailed because as these people groups interacted with each other they did it as smaller entities, for instance as clans and their immediate neighbours. It was occasional that several clans combined to fight the Bantu or other neighbours.The territorial maneuvering by the three groups was not always peaceful as war over the land often erupted. However the interethnic relations between the Bantu and the Nilotes were not confined to confrontation. The Luo, Luhya and the Gusii shared much. Their economic systems were adapted to the same environments and their common words for domestic crops and tools indicate an intimate contact. Moreover between 1870 and 1900 they had fixed markets where all groups exchanged their products of different environments. These groups did not live in isolation from each other they had various levels of interaction thus practicing convergence and conversion.This paper has examined the movement, settlement and the construction of society to the east of Lake Victoria among the Bantu Gusii and the Luhya and the Nilotic Luo on the eve of colonial rule