Editing Kipsigis people (section)

===Origin===
{{Main|Lumbwa people|Sirikwa people|Ethnogenesis of the Turkana}}
[[File:Omo River 01.jpg|thumb|226x226px|[[Omo river]] in [[Omo Valley]], [[Ethiopia]]; [[Maliri people|Maliri people's]] point of origin]][[File:Koitobos.jpg|thumb|140x140px|[[Mount Elgon]], the cradleland of Kalenjin tribes|alt=]]
The Kipsigis trace their ancestry to a fusion of two traditions: the [[Lumbwa people|Lumbwa]], an iron age Kalenjin speaking population reported in areas of southern Kenya, northern Tanzania, and the Mount Kenya region, and migrating [[Ateker peoples|Ateker]] clans—part of a larger Eastern Nilotic movement that also helped shape neighboring communities such as the [[Nandi people|Nandi]].

The "Lumbwa" (also known as Lumbua, Umpua, or Ilumbwa) were known for their cattle-keeping lifestyle, braided hairstyles, and perhaps the use of sunken livestock enclosures on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Meru oral traditions recall the Lumbwa as one of the early peoples encountered on the mountain, which the Kalenjin remember as Koilege—meaning “dappled rock”. Fadiman (1994) reported of " pits located along a line that runs roughly along the zone at 7,000–7,500 feet which delineates the lowest edge of the forest from the highest point in the star-grass (populated) zone [which] form an irregular line that can be followed from ridge to ridge, along a region that is largely farmland, but which two hundred years ago must have been thickly forested. The largest pits average 16 to 24 feet across." Certain traditions he collected recall that they may have been used to contain Umpua (or Agumba) herds.<ref name=fadiman >{{cite book |last=Fadiman |first=Jeffrey |date=1994 |title=When We Began There Were Witchmen |url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft8199p24c;chunk.id=0;doc.view=print |location=California |publisher=University of California Press |page=84-88}}</ref> Most traditions however recall the Agumba, a people who lived in association with the Lumbwa, as hunters.

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Ateker-related groups migrated southward from the north-eastern Rift Valley, bringing with them new clan systems, ritual practices, and military organization. The recently formed Ateker, calling themselves [[Loikop people|Loikop]] (loosely - owners of the land) swept down from a base east of Lake Turkana and in short order took most of the best grazing plains in East Africa from their previous inhabitants (who included among them the Lumbwa). The Uasin Gishu, Laikipia, Mau, Amboseli and Serengeti plains all came under the sway of this new polity. However, written accounts as well as the oral traditions of the Nandi and Kipsigis record the 'reconquest' of the Uasin Gishu plateau, Narok and Bomet, a process that included the assimilation of the 'Maasai' that had latterly occupied them. This fusion gave rise to new identities—including the Kipsigis and Nandi—who nonetheless retained deep Lumbwa roots. Both communities maintain clan traditions linking them to both Lumbwa heritage and Ateker ancestry.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/cbarchive_102057_remarksuponthehistoryofthenand1927|title=Remarks upon the history of the Nandi till 1850|first=G. W. B.|last=Huntingford|date=26 October 2018|publisher=The East Africa Natural History Society|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> 

In the 19th century, the term "Lumbwa" was used widely by neighboring Maasai and Bantu-speaking communities to refer to both Kalenjin-speaking and Loikop-related pastoralists. As the identity fused, it came to refer especially to the Kipsigis, who had began to shift from pastoralism toward an agro-pastoral way of life. Among the Maasai, “Ilumbwa” (meaning "well-diggers") eventually gained pejorative undertones, reflecting cultural differences around land use and livelihood.

By the mid-19th century, the term "Lumbwa" had become closely associated with the Kipsigis, though it was gradually dropped due to its pejorative connotation in Maa-speaking contexts.