# Western Kenya: Wanga, Luhya, Gusii, gold, sugar and Mount Elgon

Western Kenya is more than Nyanza: Wanga alliance, Bukusu and Gusii resistance, Kavirondo reserve labour, Kakamega gold, Dini ya Msambwa, Mumias sugar, Mount Elgon settlement failures and Sabaot violence.

*This story part of: Kenya: from the Swahili coast to the republic*
*This story parallel: The colonial map of Kenya: neglected regions and regional inequality*
*This story continues: The peoples of western Kenya: Luhya, Gusii, and the Wanga kingdom*
*This story parallel: The extraction of western Kenya: gold, tea, and labour*
*This story parallel: Kitale and Trans-Nzoia: settler granary, railhead, and land grievance*

## c. 1600 — Founding of the Wanga kingdom and the Abashitsetse dynasty

The Wanga built the rare thing among Kenyan peoples: a centralised kingdom with a hereditary king, the Nabongo, drawn from the Abashitsetse clan. Tradition names Wanga as the founding ancestor and traces a long line of Nabongos ruling from the Mumias area. The exact chronology and the dynasty's early kings are reconstructed from oral king-lists and remain debated among historians.

*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. 1600 — The Luhya take shape as a cluster of many sub-groups

The people now called Luhya (Abaluyia) are not one ancient tribe but a cluster of roughly eighteen related sub-groups, among them the Bukusu, Maragoli, Wanga, Idakho, Isukha, Bunyore, Tiriki and Marama. Each has its own dialect and settlement history, and the collective name itself was coined only in the twentieth century. Their sub-groups settled the ridges of western Kenya over centuries, arriving from several directions rather than a single homeland.

*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. 1882 — Nabongo Mumia rules the Wanga from his capital at Mumias

Nabongo Mumia took the Wanga throne around 1882 and made his capital, Elureko, a hub on the caravan route where Swahili-Arab traders bought ivory and slaves and hired his warriors. His kingdom's central authority, backed by allied Maasai mercenaries, made it unusually strong for the region. Mumias town still carries his name.

*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*

> Alliance was a weapon of conquest. The Wanga case shows how indirect rule rewarded some local authorities.

## c. 1894 — Nabongo Mumia allies with the British

As Britain pushed inland, Mumia chose alliance over resistance, giving the Imperial British East Africa Company and later the colonial government a friendly base at Mumias and troops for their campaigns against neighbouring peoples. In return the British recognised him and in 1909 named him paramount chief over a wide area, an authority far larger than any precolonial Nabongo had held. The alliance preserved his throne but tied Wanga power to the colonial order that would later sideline it.

*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. August 1895 — Bukusu resistance at the Lumboka and Chetambe forts

When British forces under Charles Hobley moved to subdue the Bukusu (then called Kitosh), the people took refuge in their walled forts at Lumboka and Chetambe. In 1895 the British stormed the forts with Maxim guns and allied levies, and the assault on Chetambe's fort killed hundreds who had no answer to automatic fire. The defeat broke organised Bukusu resistance and stands as one of the sharpest early collisions between western Kenya and colonial power.

*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. 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*

## 1904 — The Gusii Resistance and the 1904 Expedition

When the British first pushed into the Gusii highlands in 1904, a military force met resistance, killed many people, and raised the Union Jack over the district. The Gusii, or Abagusii, a Bantu farming people ringed by pastoralist neighbours, had a reputation for independence and would not submit quietly. The 1904 violence opened a period of raids and reprisals that ran on for years.

*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*

## 1908 — Otenyo, Moraa and the 1908 Gusii Rising

The young warrior Otenyo Nyamaterere, urged on by the prophetess Moraa wa Ng'iti, speared the British administrator Northcote, who survived, and sparked a rising that took a month to put down. A punitive expedition raided the cattle enclosures of Kitutu and seized several thousand head, and Otenyo was captured and shot by firing squad. Gusii tradition holds that his head was taken to Britain, and to this day elders campaign for its return, though the details rest on oral accounts.

*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. 1908 — Nyanza and the west become the colony's labour reservoir

The densely populated Luo, Luhya, and Gusii districts of Nyanza and western Kenya became the main source of workers for settler farms, the Mombasa port, the railway, and the growing towns. Men left home for months to work far away and returned to reserves that stayed poor. The region supplied hands rather than keeping the value of their work.

*Source: History of the Southern Luo*

*Source: Nyanza: The Odinga dynasty and beyond*

*Source: Not Yet Uhuru*

*Source: Assassination and Political Unity: Kenya*

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

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

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

*Source: Transitional Justice*

## 1930 — The Kakamega Gold Rush Breaks the Reserve Pledge

When gold was found at Kakamega in the Luhya reserve around 1930, the government rushed to amend the Native Lands Trust Ordinance so prospectors and mining companies could enter land that had been promised to Africans for good. The change stripped the so-called protection of the reserves the moment that land became valuable to Europeans. It exposed the hollowness of colonial guarantees and stands as a plain case of one law for the settler and another for the African.

*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. 1931 — Gold is found in the North Kavirondo native reserve

Prospectors confirm workable gold deposits near Kakamega, inside the North Kavirondo reserve that had just been set aside for the Luhya. Word spread quickly through the colony and beyond. The find sat on land that the 1930 ordinance had supposedly placed off limits to outsiders.

*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. 1933 — Luhya families are displaced and given token compensation

Luhya families whose land fell inside the mining area were moved aside so prospecting and mining could go ahead. Compensation was small and set by the administration, not by the people who lost the use of their land. The reserve had been redrawn around European interests, and its residents had little say in the outcome.

*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*

## 1971 — Mumias Sugar turns western Kenya into an outgrower factory zone

The 1971 Mumias Sugar Company sessional paper turned sugar into a state-backed regional development project. Western Kenya was organized around cane, an industrial mill, roads, credit, outgrowers and deductions. The model promised local income, but it also tied farmers to a single buyer and a political economy of factory control.

*Source: Sessional paper no. 1 of 1971. The Mumias Sugar Company Ltd*

*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*

## 1971 — The Chebyuk scheme tries and fails to settle the land question

In 1971 the government set up the Chebyuk settlement scheme to resettle the Mosop, a forest-dwelling Sabaot group also called Ndorobo, out of the upper reaches of Mount Elgon. Successive phases redrew who got land, and the third phase from the mid 2000s split plots between the Mosop and the larger Soy group on a fifty-fifty basis. Many Soy families felt cheated of land they saw as theirs, and the disputes turned violent.

*Source: "All the Men Have Gone": War Crimes in Kenya's Mt. Elgon Conflict*

*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*

## March 2008 — Operation Okoa Maisha crushes the militia amid abuse claims

In March 2008 the Kenyan military and police launched Operation Okoa Maisha, meaning save lives, to break the Sabaot Land Defence Force. Commander Matakwei was killed in May 2008 and the militia was largely destroyed by mid year. Human rights groups documented grave abuses on both sides, including killings and widespread torture of Mount Elgon residents by the security forces.

*Source: "All the Men Have Gone": War Crimes in Kenya's Mt. Elgon Conflict*

*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*