Kenya people. Warm and Friendly.Kenya people. They are known for their friendliness. It's just in them. They are warm and welcoming and they love to host people. The majority of the Kenyans who are native to this country are Africans. The Africans here are divided into three major groups based on the languages that they speak.
Bantu The Bantu are known to have originated from the Niger Cameroon - Congo region of Africa. As they migrated from this region, some settled in Kenya whereas others proceeded to Uganda. Most Bantu's are found in Central and Eastern Kenya. Most of them cultivate their land and engaged in iron smelting. NilotesNilotes are believed to have come from the Nile Valley in modern Sudan. They are also categorised into three groups; River Lake, Plain and Highland Nilotes.
The River Lake Nilotes, as the name suggests, settled in along the Lake and took up fishing and pastoralism as their core economic activity. They are said to have come from the Bahr al- Ghazal region of Southern Sudan. The Plain Nilotes include the Maasai, Samburu and Turkana. They are believed to have entered Kenya through Lake Turkana. Pastoralism remained their key economic activity. Lastly, the Highland Nilotes currently occupy the area around Mt. Elgon. They consist of the Kalenjin, Kipsigis, Nandi, Pokot, Tugen, Marakwet, Saboat and Terik tribes. Though they were essentially pastoralists, they settled in fertile areas. Most of them took up agriculture as a way of earning a living. CushitesThey include the following tribes - Somali, Rendile, Boran, Orma, Gabbra, Boni and Oromo. Other Great Kenya PeopleBetween the Arabs, the Europeans and the Indians, the Arabs arrived first and settled along the coast in places like Mombasa, Malindi, Watamu, Lamu and Kilifi. The Portuguese were amongst the first Europeans to arrive in Kenya and engaged in trade with the Arabs along the coast. They fought them and took over trade in that region but they were later defeated. The British followed suit, led by Johann Krapf, the first Christian missionary to arrive in 1844. He was an explorer and was the first European to see Mt Kenya. He was later joined by other missionaries, notably Johann Rebmann in 1846 and Jacob Erhardt in 1849. Rebmann was quite good in Kiswahili and he wrote the Kiswhaili - English dictionary, translated the bible into Kiswahili and produced a map of east Africa. After these missionaries, there came other Europeans who engaged in trade in the coastal region. Most notable however, is Sir William Mckinnon, a British businessman who founded the British East African Company in 1887. This company received chartership from the British government a year later and this permitted it to administer Kenya and Uganda. Due to its own internal problems, this company was not able to effectively administer this region giving way to the British government to take control from around 1905 to 1963 when Kenya regained its independence. Another group of Kenya people are the Indians. They arrived around the same time as the Europeans and they played a key role in the construction of the railway from Mombasa to Kisumu. To date, they are mainly found in urban centres and they engage primarily in trade. Read More About Famous Kenya People
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