page_title: Kipsigis people
section_title: Origin
hierarchical_section_title: Kipsigis people / Origin and establishment / Origin
caption_attribution_description: English: Omo River seen of Karo village of Doose, Ethiopia Français&#160;: Le fleuve Omo vu du village Karo de Doose en Éthiopie
context_page_description: The Kipsigis, are a SouthEastern Nilotic people who live in Kenya and Tanzania and are a par of the Kalenjin-speaking group of peoples who alongside other Highland Nilotes of the African Great Lakes Region make up the Kalenjin ethnic group. They live in close relation and association with the Nandi. They are structurally heterogeneous with an amalgamation of 'ortinwek' from Nandi, Okieik, Maasai, Kisii, Luo and aboriginal ethnicities of Kenya. The Kipsigis people speak the Kipsigis language; Nilotic language which falls under the Nandi-Markweta cluster of the Kalenjin languages.
  In the late 19th century AD, the Kipsigis were eponymised as the Lumbwa; a name which is of Maasai origin, but was adopted by the European colonial government for administrative purpose.
  The Kipsigis together with other linguistically and culturally related peoples now identify as Kalenjin, an identity they have been collectively using since the 1950s.
context_section_description: The Kipsigis was initially a single group and identity with the Nandi until 1800 when the Nandi community was separated by a wedge of Uas Nkishu Maasai in Kipchorian River (River Nyando); the resulting community south of Nandi hills (Kipkelion) became Kipsgis.
  ...the Kipsigis and the Nandi moved to Rongai area. The Kipsigs and the Nandi are said to have lived as a united group for about a century, but eventually were forced to separate due to antagonistic environmental. Some of these were droughts and invasion of the Maasai from Uasin Gishu.
  — C. Chesaina, 1991
  The Nandi account is that the ancestors of Nandi migrated from Mount Elgon under the leadership of Kakipoch. It is observed from the Nandi oral traditions that Lumbwa clans
  joined them later thus implying that the Nandi adopted groups of people probably perhaps either the Sirikwa (from Sebei, it connotes Oropom people but among Kipsigis and Nandi, Sirikwa can mean the Iraqw), Datooga or Tugen; the later is the most probable as original Kipsigis clans such as Kipasisek are found among the Tugen people. The Nandi portray and illustrate though their 'ortinwek' formations, peculiarities and oral traditions that the Kipsigis and Nandi before and during migration to Uasin Ngishu was made up clans from a people they call Elgon who are interchangeable for Siger, Lumbwa (explicitly), Elgeyo and later on, Lo-'sekelae Maasai who are interchangeable for Siger peoples.
  To draw a reference frame, the Maliri people originally from Omo Valley in Ethiopia immigrated into Kenya and Uganda, breaking into groups in the following order: Merile and Pokotozek. Merile reverted to Southern Ethiopia. Pokotozek moved to a region between Mount Cherangany and Mount Moroto and then to Lake Baringo thus disturbing a community called Oropom (an aboriginal and indigenous community to the region)who thus dispersed in various directions (Turkwel excursion, Uasin Ngishu excursion which was likely adopted to the Maasai and Oropom,- an excursion which shrunk to a region they had already been occupying around Chemorongit hills and South of Mount Moroto hills). Pokotozek went on to defeat Lloikop Maasai at Baringo and thus Pokotozek broke into two, a community called Chok or the Suk who occupied Baringo while another branch moved west and called itself Sebei. The Chok or Suk are then known to have transformed from being farmers into pastoralists and as the two factions developed, Chok consumed Suk and the new confederation became known as Pokot. Neighbouring the Maliri descendant groups were the Lumbwa (although this community could have been confused for other groups such as Siger/Sengwer), Sekker/Siger/Sengwer and Karamojong. It is imperative to note that the Sebei came to call Oropom, Sirikwa. Kipsigis and the Nandi can very possibly be Sebei faction that moved to Uasin Ngishu, Iinteracted with peoples including Sirikwa (who could be Oropom or Datooga) and Chemwal (who interchangeably with Sirikwa could most probably be Iraqw or Datooga) and from here, they grew to occupy the regions they occupy today.
  Linguistically, the Kipsigis language is closely related to Nandi, Keiyo (Keyo, Elgeyo), South Tugen (Tuken), and Cherangany. This thus implies a common culture bed for these communities. Thus, while Pokot and Sebei are directly descendants of Maliri, the Kipsigis, Nandi, Elgeiyo and Southern factions of Tugen may have a common ancestry.
  More than any of the other sections, the Nandi and Kipsigis, in response to Maasai expansion, borrowed from the Maasai some of the traits that would distinguish them from other Kalenjin: large-scale economic dependence on herding, military organisation and aggressive cattle raiding, as well as centralised religious-political leadership. The family that established the office of Orkoiyot (warlord/diviner) among both the Nandi and Kipsigis were migrants from northern Chemwal regions. By the mid-nineteenth century, both the Nandi and Kipsigis were expanding at the expense of the Maasai. For instance, Kwavi Maasai were fought and driven away from Narok to Sang'alo by three
caption: Omo river in Omo Valley, Ethiopia, the home of Maliri people (the parent ethnicity to Sebei, Pokot and Dasaanach)
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