CULTURAL VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF KENYAN LIFE

The largest of these is the Kikuyu, who come from the central highlands and account for more than 20 per cent of the total population. Other main tribes are the Luo (from close to

Lake Victoria), the Kamba (from Eastern Province), the Kalenjin (pastoralists from the Rift

Valley) and the Luhya (from Western Province).Traditionally, each community has its own

culture and language or dialect but in modern times many of these outward differences have disappeared as more and more people have become urbanized or have migrated to Nairobi or Mombasa.

Nevertheless, each Kenyan – nominally at least – retains a strong affinity with his or her tribe; although this is less apparent among the more sophisticated and well educated.

Some tribes, notably the Maasai and Samburu, have been less willing to become urbanized and to leave their homelands and traditional way of life and have remained pastoralists or

even nomads. Each community has interacted with others through East Africa’s lingua franca, Swahili, and over the past 100 years or so English has also been spoken. Today, it is not uncommon for Kenyans to speak three languages fluently – not only Swahili and English but also their tribal language. Many others can speak a fourth or even fifth local language