Early Migrations

As civilization developed and evolved during the New Stone Age, Kenya became a major migratory route for groups in search of fertile land for food production and grazing. As far back as 2000 BC, evidence indicates that early tribal groups began experimenting with agriculture and the tending of cattle. The highlands and Rift Valley regions of southern Kenya are especially rich in this early history of human evolution.

The first migrants to arrive were pastoral nomads from Ethiopia who moved south to Kenya in search of fertile land to graze their flocks. These Cushites were eventually forced south into central Tanzania as the Kenyan climate changed over the centuries and water became scarce.

The Yaaku, or Eastern Cushites, followed a thousand years later and settled in the central region of Kenya. This second wave of nomads marked the beginning of an ongoing influx of different tribal groups drawn to the region's fertile land. In fact, by 100 AD there may have been 1,400 pastoral communities living in the Rift Valley region. Even into the early part of this century, there was much movement within Kenya as competition over land rights dominated the largely agrarian society.

As tribes migrated throughout the valley during this period, they exchanged and developed cultures that are still identifiable in modern tribes today. When trade routes were established in the seventeenth century, European explorers discovered four basic population groups that continue to exist today: the Hamitic, Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, and Bantu. Many of these tribal groups continue to maintain their distinct social structures and traditions despite pressure in modern society to "westernize."

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