# The Iteso of the western border

An Eastern Nilotic people of Busia split by the colonial Kenya-Uganda boundary, farming and herding on both sides of a line drawn through them.

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

## c. 1600 — Iteso migrate south as part of the Ateker Nilotic dispersal

The Iteso speak an Eastern Nilotic language and belong to the Ateker cluster, which also includes the Turkana, Karamojong, Jie and others. Their traditions describe a long movement south from the area of present-day South Sudan, with a body of Iteso separating from the Karamojong. The timing cannot be fixed precisely and rests on oral history.

## c. 1700 — Iteso settle the plains north of Lake Victoria in what is now Busia

Iteso groups spread into the fertile plains south of Mount Elgon, the southeastern edge of a wider Iteso settlement that centred in eastern Uganda. In Kenya they became established in the Busia area, farming and keeping cattle. By the 19th century the Iteso controlled a broad stretch of territory.

## c. 1850 — Iteso organise life around age-classes and mixed farming

Iteso society combined crop farming with cattle-keeping and was ordered partly through age-classes and clan ties. Elders held authority in local affairs and ritual. Unlike some neighbours, the Iteso did not build large centralised kingdoms, governing instead through kin and community.

## c. 1902 — The colonial border splits the Iteso between Kenya and Uganda

Colonial boundary changes in the early 20th century placed most Iteso in Uganda and a smaller population in Kenya around Busia. The line cut through a single people, leaving relatives on either side. The Kenyan Iteso became a minority within the colony and later within independent Kenya.

## c. 2010 — Kenyan Iteso remain a cross-border minority in Busia County

Today the Iteso in Kenya number in the hundreds of thousands and live mainly in the Teso North and Teso South areas of Busia County. They speak Ateso and keep close ties with the larger Iteso community across the border in Uganda. Many are bilingual with neighbouring Luhya and other languages.