Luhya people

The Luhya people are a cluster of closely related Bantu peoples of the African Great Lakes region whose core homeland lies in western Kenya along the border with Uganda. As of the 2019 Kenya census, 6,823,482 Kenyans – about 14 percent of the national population – identified as Luhya, making them the second largest ethnic group in the country after the Kikuyu. Luhya communities are also found in eastern Uganda and, to a lesser extent, northern Tanzania.
The Luhya are not a single tribe in the narrow sense but an ethnolinguistic constellation of more than twenty subgroups, including the Bukusu, Maragoli, Wanga, Samia, Kabras, Tachoni, Banyore and others, each with its own dialect and clan system but sharing many cultural institutions and a sense of common identity. Their speech forms belong to the Luhya languages branch of Great Lakes Bantu.
Historically, most Luhya were smallholder farmers who grew sorghum, millet and later maize, kept cattle, goats and chickens and participated in extensive cross border trade and labor migration. Since independence, Luhya individuals have been prominent in Kenyan national life, producing several vice presidents, speakers of parliament, cabinet ministers, judges, academics, church leaders and elite sportspeople, as well as musicians, journalists and other cultural figures.

Etymology and identity

The autonym Abaluhya or Abaluyia is commonly glossed as "people of the same hearth" or "people of the north" in several Luhya varieties, from the root -luhya/-luyia and the plural prefix aba- meaning "people of". Individuals are OmuLuyia, the people are AbaLuyia, the language cluster OluLuyia and the imagined homeland EbuLuyia.
The term "Luhya" gained political salience in the 1940s and 1950s when colonial administrators, African politicians and mission educated elites began to group a number of western Kenyan Bantu communities together for representation in new colonial institutions. Earlier labels such as "North Kavirondo" and "Kavirondo Bantu" gave way to a more unified "Baluhya" identity in the decade before Kenyan independence.
Within this broad identity, people usually self identify first by subtribe and then by clan. Luhya identity has nonetheless become important in Kenyan party politics, especially since the reintroduction of multiparty competition in the 1990s.

History

Precolonial period

Archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence links Luhya origins to the wider Bantu expansion from west central Africa into the Great Lakes region between roughly three and five millennia ago. By the second millennium CE, Bantu speaking communities closely related to contemporary Luhya were established on the northern and western slopes of Mount Elgon, along the middle Nzoia River and in the lowlands around present day Kakamega, Vihiga and Busia.
Precolonial Luhya societies were politically decentralized. Most groups lived in small clan based polities headed by councils of elders, ritual specialists and lineage leaders. The exception was the Wanga, whose kingdom under the Nabongo developed a more centralized court and tributary system that interacted with neighboring Luo, Nandi and Maasai communities and later with Arab and Swahili traders.
Economically, Luhya groups combined shifting cultivation of sorghum, finger millet, cowpeas and bananas with livestock herding and hunting. Iron working and pottery were well developed, and households engaged in regional exchange networks that linked the highlands to Lake Victoria and, through caravan trade, to the coast.

Nineteenth century and first European contact

From the early nineteenth century, intensified long distance trade, cattle raiding and population movements reshaped western Kenya. Maasai and Kalenjin cattle raiding occasionally reached Luhya areas, while Luo groups expanded along the Nzoia and Yala rivers. The Wanga kingdom under Nabongo Mumia consolidated its influence through alliances, warfare and control of trade routes linking Buganda, Busoga, Kavirondo and the coast.
Arab and Swahili traders reached Wanga and Samia areas in the mid nineteenth century, exchanging cloth, beads and guns for ivory and other products. British explorers such as Henry Morton Stanley and Joseph Thomson encountered Luhya communities while passing around Lake Victoria in the 1870s and 1880s, describing the region in terms that later fed into British colonial mapping.

Colonial rule (1895 to 1963)

With the creation of the East Africa Protectorate in 1895 and later the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Luhya territory was incorporated into the North Kavirondo and Elgon Nyanza districts. Colonial rule introduced new administrative boundaries, taxation, Christian missions and cash crop production.
The Wanga kingdom became an early ally of the British. Nabongo Mumia was confirmed as a paramount chief, and Wanga elders assisted in collecting taxes and labor, a relationship that brought both advantage and controversy among neighboring groups. Elsewhere, Luhya communities experienced land alienation in parts of what became the White Highlands, forced labor on European farms and the recruitment of young men into the King's African Rifles and settler estates.
Christian missions, especially the Friends Africa Mission, the Church of God, the Anglicans and the Roman Catholic Church established schools and churches in Kaimosi, Bunyore, Mumias and other centers from the first decade of the twentieth century. Conversion to Christianity intersected with existing beliefs in Nyasaye/Were, ancestral spirits and ritual specialists.
Luhya soldiers fought for the British in both world wars, and many veterans brought back new political ideas and experiences. In the 1940s and 1950s, the Dini ya Msambwa religious movement led by Elijah Masinde among the Bukusu combined Christian and traditional elements with anti colonial protest and was repressed by the colonial state.

Toward independence (about 1900 to 1963)

From the 1930s, mission schooling produced an emerging Luhya educated class that participated in nationalist politics and colonial advisory bodies. Leaders such as Masinde Muliro and Moses Mudavadi were active in the Kenya African Union and other organizations that demanded land rights, better wages and representation.
The name "Luhya" was increasingly used in the 1940s and 1950s as a political category for representation in the Legislative Council and in African district associations. By the time of independence in 1963, a sense of being Luhya sat alongside strong loyalties to local subgroups such as Bukusu, Maragoli, Wanga, Banyore, Samia and others.

After independence (1963 to 2010)

At independence, most of the Luhya population fell within the new Western Province and small parts of Rift Valley Province. Western Province became associated in popular commentary with high population density, smallholder sugarcane and maize farming, and extensive out migration to Nairobi, Mombasa and other towns.
Luhya leaders played important roles in postcolonial governments. Masinde Muliro and Moses Mudavadi served as ministers in the administrations of Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi. Later, Musalia Mudavadi, Michael Wamalwa Kijana and Moody Awori all held the office of vice president or deputy prime minister at different moments, helping entrench the idea of the "Luhya vote" as a significant electoral bloc.
Political competition in western Kenya was often shaped by national party alignments rather than a single regional party. Luhya politicians appeared across the ideological spectrum in parties such as KANU, FORD Kenya, NARC, ODM and later Kenya Kwanza and Azimio formations.

Devolution and contemporary politics (2010 to present)

The 2010 Constitution of Kenya introduced a devolved system of 47 counties. Luhya populations now form majorities in the counties of Kakamega, Bungoma, Vihiga and Busia, and large pluralities in parts of Trans Nzoia and Nandi.
County governors, senators and members of county assemblies from these areas have become significant power brokers in national coalitions. Wycliffe Oparanya served two terms as governor of Kakamega and was chair of the Council of Governors, while Moses Wetang'ula became Speaker of the National Assembly in 2022 and Musalia Mudavadi was appointed Prime Cabinet Secretary in the same year.
Analysts often describe the "Luhya vote" as numerically important but politically fragmented, with different subregions and leaders backing competing coalitions in the 2007, 2013, 2017 and 2022 general elections.

Demographics and distribution

Most Luhya people live in the western Kenyan highlands between Mount Elgon and the northern shores of Lake Victoria, a region of relatively high rainfall and fertile soils. Western Province, which existed from 1963 to 2013, historically grouped many Luhya districts. With devolution, the population is now counted primarily at county level.
Significant rural Luhya populations are found in:

Kakamega County
Bungoma County
Vihiga County
Busia County
Trans Nzoia County
parts of Nandi County, Uasin Gishu County and Nairobi County through urban migration.

Luhya communities in Uganda live mainly in Eastern Uganda, especially in Tororo District, Mbale District and Busia District, where closely related Basamia, Banyole and Gisu populations reside.

Counties and regions

The table below summarizes Kenyan counties with substantial Luhya populations, based primarily on the 2019 census and secondary syntheses. Percentages are approximate and may vary by sub location.

County	Former Province	Main Luhya subgroups	Administrative centre	Notes
Kakamega County	Western	Idakho, Isukha, Kabras, Marama, Tsotso, parts of Wanga, Banyore	Kakamega	Considered the demographic and political centre of Luhya country, with dense settlement and sugarcane, maize and tea farming.
Bungoma County	Western/Rift Valley	Bukusu, Tachoni	Bungoma	Large scale maize and sugarcane zone; Bukusu are among the largest single Luhya subgroups.
Vihiga County	Western	Maragoli, Tiriki, Bunyore	Mbale	Highly fragmented landholdings, significant tea production and commuter ties to Kisumu and Kakamega.
Busia County	Western	Samia, Khayo, Marachi, Nyala, parts of Wanga	Busia	Cross border trading hub linking Kenya and Uganda, with mixed fishing and agriculture along Lake Victoria and the Sio River.
Trans Nzoia County	Rift Valley	Bukusu, Tachoni and other Luhya migrants	Kitale	High potential maize zone; Luhya populations expanded here after the redistribution of former settler farms following independence.