Lembus people

Lembus People/Tribe is one of the sub tribe of Kalenjin People of Kenya. Lembus is a small community predominantly living in Eldama Ravine, Mogotio and Nakuru Districts. Lembus comprises Lembus Kamaruso, Lembus Murkaptuk, Lembus Somek and Ogiekab Lembus. The community also comprises other smaller groups of assimilated communities.

The Lembus People have for many years been considered to be Tugen, but this assertion has been resisted by the Lembus People themselves, and their Lembus Council of Elders. Members of the Lembus community insist that Tugen is just a name coined in the 1960s to unite the small communities living in Baringo. Lembus existed many years even before the Europeans arrived in Kenya.

Lembus Council of Elders with Mzee Kenyatta when they visited him in his Gatundu home

The Lembus and Nandi peoples

Lembus People have had close relationship with the Nandi dating back to precolonial period. It is also notable that Lembus People and the Nandi share a lot of cultural, language and religious similarities. In the 1890s, the Lembus People resisted the British entry into Lembus territories and especially the Lembus Forest. The resistance by the Lembus also coincided with the Nandi Resistance to the British in the late 1890s to 1906.[1] The British administrators in Eldama Ravine also accused the Lembus People of collusion with their Nandi brothers and cousins to fight the British.

References

  1. ↑ Pavitt, N. Kenya: The First Explorers, Aurum Press, 1989, p. 121

Further reading

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