# The Bukusu and Dini ya Msambwa

The largest Luhya people of Mount Elgon: their forts and resistance to colonial conquest, and Elijah Masinde's Dini ya Msambwa, the prophetic movement the British banned.

*This story part of: State, law, and coercion*

## c. 1750 — Bukusu emerge as a distinct group on the slopes of Mount Elgon

The Bukusu are the largest sub-group of the Luhya, Bantu speakers who settled the southern and eastern foothills of Mount Elgon, which they call Masaba. Historians think they became distinct from the wider Luhya population only in the late 18th century, after successive waves of Bantu migration into the region. Bukusu oral tradition instead traces the people to a first ancestor, Mwambu, said to have been created at a place called Mumbo.

## c. 1850 — Bukusu build hilltop forts and mark manhood through embalu circumcision

Bukusu society was organised around clans and age-sets, with young men initiated into adulthood through the embalu circumcision ceremony, still performed today in even-numbered years. Facing raids and outside pressure, communities built earthwork and stone forts on defensible hills. These forts later became strongholds against British advance in the 1890s.

## c. 1895 — British troops storm Chetambe's Fort and kill scores of Bukusu defenders

The Bukusu resisted British incursion in the 1890s from fortified hills near Bungoma, including Lumboka and Chetambe's Fort. In 1895 a British punitive column armed with a machine gun overran Chetambe's Fort, killing many defenders who fought with spears, shields and bows. A peace agreement at Mumias afterward forced weapon surrender and acceptance of colonial rule.

*Source: Decolonization and Independence in Kenya, 1940-93*

*Source: Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, 1905-1963*

*Source: Transitional Justice*

*Source: Ballots to Bullets: Organized Political Violence and Kenya's Crisis of Governance*

## c. 1943 — Elijah Masinde founds Dini ya Msambwa among the Bukusu

Elijah Masinde, a Bukusu former footballer and prophet, founded Dini ya Msambwa, whose name means religion of the ancestors or spirits. The movement rejected Christian missions and British rule and revived traditional Luhya worship. It quickly spread beyond the Bukusu and alarmed the colonial administration.

*Source: Decolonization and Independence in Kenya, 1940-93*

*Source: Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, 1905-1963*

*Source: Transitional Justice*

*Source: Ballots to Bullets: Organized Political Violence and Kenya's Crisis of Governance*

## c. February 1948 — Malakisi affray leaves eleven dead and Dini ya Msambwa is banned

In early 1948 a clash broke out at Malakisi between followers of Dini ya Msambwa and colonial police. Police opened fire and eleven Africans were killed. The colonial government proscribed the movement and Masinde was arrested and deported to Lamu.

*Source: Decolonization and Independence in Kenya, 1940-93*

*Source: Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, 1905-1963*

*Source: Transitional Justice*

*Source: Ballots to Bullets: Organized Political Violence and Kenya's Crisis of Governance*

## c. April 1950 — Kolloa Affray: Pokot followers of Lukas Pkech are killed in Baringo

Dini ya Msambwa spread beyond the Bukusu to the Pokot, carried by the preacher Lukas Pkech after his escape from detention. On 24 April 1950 British forces confronted Pkech and his gathered followers at Kolloa in Baringo. The fighting killed Pkech, several colonial officers and a large number of Pokot, and the affray became one of the bloodiest episodes of the movement.

## 1987 — Elijah Masinde dies after decades of detention across three governments

Masinde spent much of his life in colonial and post-colonial detention. After independence the Kenyatta government held him for years on charges of stirring religious hatred, and he was released under Daniel arap Moi in 1978 before further arrests. He died in 1987 and is remembered by many as a neglected freedom fighter.