Editing Demographics of Kenya (section)

==Ethnic groups==
Kenya has a very diverse population that includes most major ethnic, racial and linguistic groups found in Africa. [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]], [[Cushitic-speaking peoples|Cushitic]] and [[Nilotic peoples|Nilotic]] populations together constitute around 99% of the nation's inhabitants.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Asongu |first1= J. J.|last2=Marr |first2= Marvee|title=Doing Business Abroad: A Handbook for Expatriates|year=2007|publisher=Greenview Publishing Co.|isbn=978-0-9797976-3-7|pages=12 & 112}}</ref> People from Asian or European heritage living in Kenya are estimated at around 0.3% of the population.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-23 |title=Kenya National Bureau of Statistics - Kenya's Top Data Site |url=https://www.knbs.or.ke/?wpdmpro=2019-kenya-population-and-housing-census-volume-iv-distribution-of-population-by-socio-economic-characteristics&wpdmdl=5730&ind=7HRl6KateNzKXCJaxxaHSh1qe6C1M6VHznmVmKGBKgO5qIMXjby1XHM2u_swXdiR |access-date=2024-10-13 |language=en-US}}</ref>

Bantus are the single largest population division in Kenya. Most Bantu are farmers. Some of the prominent Bantu groups in Kenya include the [[Kikuyu people|Kikuyu]], the [[Kamba people|Kamba]], the [[Luhya people|Luhya]], the [[Kisii people|Kisii]], the [[Meru people|Meru]], and the [[Mijikenda peoples|Mijikenda]].

In Kenya's last colonial census of 1962, population groups residing in the territory included European, African and Asian individuals.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.waikato.ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/117476/Kenya-1962-en.pdf|title=Kenya Population Census 1962, Appendix 1|website=Kenya National Bureau of Statistics|publisher=Government of Kenya|access-date=31 July 2017}}</ref> According to the [[Kenya National Bureau of Statistics]], Kenya had a population of 47,564,296 by 2019. The largest native ethnic groups were the [[Kikuyu people|Kikuyu]] (8,148,668), [[Luhya people|Luhya]] (6,820,000), [[Kalenjin people|Kalenjin]] (6,358,113), [[Luo people|Luo]] (5,066,966), [[Kamba people|Kamba]] (4,663,910), [[Somalis]] (2,780,502), [[Kisii people|Kisii]] (2,703,235), [[Mijikenda peoples|Mijikenda]] (2,488,691), [[Meru people|Meru]] (1,975,869), [[Maasai people|Maasai]] (1,189,522), and [[Turkana people|Turkana]] (1,016,174). Foreign-rooted populations included [[Indians in Kenya|Asians]] (90,527), [[White people in Kenya|Europeans]] (42,868) with Kenyan citizenship, 26,753 without, and Kenyan Arabs (59,021).<!--the latter populations are designated with a ''Kenyan'' prefix in latest 2019 census; this is a holdover from the last colonial census of 1962, when the population groups residing in the territory included European, Arab, Somali, African and Asian individuals ("European, Arab, Somali or African, etc. Asians must write Indian or Pakistan" [http://www.waikato.ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/117476/Kenya-1962-en.pdf]) --><ref name =Census2019b>{{cite web|url=https://www.knbs.or.ke/?wpdmpro=2019-kenya-population-and-housing-census-volume-iv-distribution-of-population-by-socio-economic-characteristics&wpdmdl=5730&ind=7HRl6KateNzKXCJaxxaHSh1qe6C1M6VHznmVmKGBKgO5qIMXjby1XHM2u_swXdiR |title=2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census Volume IV: Distribution of Population by Socio-Economic Characteristics |access-date=24 March 2020 |website=Kenya National Bureau of Statistics}}</ref> The number of ethnic categories and sub-categories recorded in the census has changed significantly over time, expanding from 42 in 1969 to more than 120 in 2019.<ref name="Balaton-Chrimes2020">{{cite journal|last1=Balaton-Chrimes|first1=Samantha|title=Who are Kenya's 42(+) tribes? The census and the political utility of magical uncertainty|journal=Journal of Eastern African Studies|year=2020|volume=15|pages=43–62 |doi=10.1080/17531055.2020.1863642| issn=1753-1055|s2cid=231681524|doi-access=free}}</ref>

===Bantu peoples===
{{main|Bantu peoples}}
Bantus are the single largest population division in Kenya. The term ''Bantu'' denotes widely dispersed but related peoples that speak south-central [[Niger–Congo languages]]. Originally from Cameroon-Nigeria border regions, Bantus began a millennium-long series of migrations referred to as the [[Bantu expansion]] that first brought them south into [[East Africa]] about 2,000 years ago.

Most Bantu are farmers. Some of the prominent Bantu groups in Kenya include the [[Kikuyu people|Kikuyu]], the [[Kamba people|Kamba]], the [[Luhya people|Luhya]], the [[Kisii people|Kisii]], the [[Meru people|Meru]], and the [[Mijikenda peoples|Mijikenda]]. The [[Swahili people]] are descended from Wangozi Bantu peoples that intermarried with Arab immigrants.<ref name="Okothndaloh">A. Okoth & A. Ndaloh, ''Peak Revision K.C.P.E. Social Studies'', (East African Publishers), p.60-61.</ref><ref name="SSSTD">S. Wandibba et al, Social Studies STD 6, (East African Publishers), p.45-47.</ref>

The Kikuyu, who are one of the biggest tribes in Kenya, seem to have assimilated a significant number of Cushitic speakers. Evidence from their Y DNA shows that 18% of Kikuyu carry the E1b1b Y DNA.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Henn |first1=Brenna M. |last2=Gignoux |first2=Christopher |last3=Lin |first3=Alice A. |last4=Oefner |first4=Peter J. |last5=Shen |first5=Peidong |last6=Scozzari |first6=Rosaria |last7=Cruciani |first7=Fulvio |last8=Tishkoff |first8=Sarah A. |last9=Mountain |first9=Joanna L. |last10=Underhill |first10=Peter A. |title=Y-chromosomal evidence of a pastoralist migration through Tanzania to southern Africa |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=2008-08-05 |volume=105 |issue=31 |pages=10693–10698 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0801184105 |pmid=18678889 |pmc=2504844 |bibcode=2008PNAS..10510693H |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Nilotic peoples===
[[File:Kenyan man 2.jpg|thumb|A [[Maasai people|Maasai]]]]
{{main|Nilotic peoples}}
Nilotes are the second-largest group of peoples in Kenya. They speak [[Nilo-Saharan languages]] and went south into  [[East Africa]] from [[Western Asia]] and [[North Africa]] by way of [[South Sudan]].<ref name="Okothndaloh"/> Most Nilotes in Kenya are historically [[Pastoralism|pastoralists]]. The Nilotes are divided into the river lake Nilotes and the highland nilotes. These divisions are related to where they occupied after they relocated to Kenya. Where the Luo are affiliated with the river lake occupancy as they can be found near Lake Victoria. The Kalenjin along others are affiliated with the highland occupancy as they are found around the highland areas of the country. The most prominent of these groups include the [[Luo peoples|Luo]], the Maasai, the [[Samburu people|Samburu]], the Iteso, the Turkana, and the Kalenjin.<ref name="Okothndaloh"/> Similar to the Bantu, some Nilotic systems of governance (such as Ibinda of the Nandi<ref>{{Cite journal|last=WOODWARD|first=P.|date=1999-04-01|title=Conflict, Age and Power in North East Africa: Age systems in transition|journal=African Affairs|volume=98|issue=391|pages=286–287|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a008035 }}</ref>) bear similarities with those of their Cushitic neighbors (such as the Gada system<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Abdurahman|first=Abdulahi|date=2019-05-01|title=The Gada system and the Oromo's (Ethiopia) culture of peace|journal=Skhid|volume=2|issue=160|pages=45–51|doi=10.21847/1728-9343.2019.2(160).164984 |doi-access=free}}</ref> of the Oromo).<ref name="Collins">Robert O. Collins, ''The southern Sudan in historical perspective'', (Transaction Publishers: 2006), p.9-10.</ref>

===Cushitic people===
{{main|Cushitic peoples}}
The [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]] people form a small minority of Kenya's population. They speak languages belonging to the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]] family and originally came from [[Ethiopia]] and [[Somalia]]. However, some large ethnic Somali clans are native to the area that used be known as NFD in Kenya. These people are not from Somalia but share the same ethnicity as the majority in Somalia. Most of them are herdsmen and have almost entirely adopted [[Islam]].<ref name="Wandi">S. Wandibba et al, p.19-20.</ref> Cushites are concentrated in the northernmost [[North Eastern Province, Kenya|North Eastern Province]], which borders Somalia.<ref name="Godfrey">Godfrey Mwakikagile, ''Kenya: identity of a nation'', (Godfrey Mwakikagile: 2007), p.99-102.</ref>

The Cushitic people are divided into two groups: the Southern Cushites and the Eastern Cushites.

*The Southern Cushites were the second-earliest inhabitants of Kenya after the indigenous hunter-gatherer groups,<ref name="Ayot">H. Okello Ayot, ''Topics in East African history, 1000–1970'' ([[East African Literature Bureau]]: 1976), p.13.</ref> and the first of the Cushitic-speaking peoples to migrate from their homeland in the [[Horn of Africa]] about 2,000 years ago.<ref name="Wandi"/> They were progressively displaced in a southerly direction or absorbed, or both, by the incoming Nilotic and Bantu groups until they wound up in [[Tanzania]].<ref name="Wandi"/> There are no Southern Cushites left in Kenya. (The [[Dahalo language|Dahalo]] were originally pre-Cushitic peoples who adopted the language of their dominant Southern Cushitic neighbors sometime toward the last millennium BC.<ref name="HCCCTIEAC">Randall L. Pouwels, ''Horn and Crescent: Cultural Change and Traditional Islam on the East African Coast, 800–1900'', Volume 53 of ''African Studies'', (Cambridge University Press: 2002), p.9.</ref>).
*The Eastern Cushites include the [[Oromo people|Oromo]] and the [[Somalis in Kenya|Somali]]. After the Northern Frontier District (North Eastern Province) was handed over to Kenyan nationalists at the end of British colonial rule in Kenya, Somalis in the region fought the [[Shifta War]] against Kenyan troops to join their kin in the Somali Republic to the north. Although the war ended in a cease-fire, [[Somali people|Somalis]] in the region still identify and maintain close ties with their kin in Somalia and see themselves as one people, since like most borders in Africa and Asia, national borders were arbitrarily drawn in colonial European countries, especially during the [[Scramble for Africa]]<ref>Mwakikagile, p.79.</ref>

An entrepreneurial community, they established themselves in the business sector, particularly in [[Eastleigh, Nairobi|Eastleigh]], Nairobi.<ref name="SomEast">{{cite web|url=http://www.afrika.no/Detailed/16696.html|title=Kenya/Somalia: Somalia community doing booming business in country|website=Afrika.no|access-date=7 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110216084305/http://www.afrika.no/Detailed/16696.html|archive-date=16 February 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Indians===
{{main|Indians in Kenya}}
Asians living in Kenya are descended from [[South Asia]]n migrants. Significant Asian migration to Kenya began between 1896 and 1901 when some 32,000 indentured labourers were recruited from [[British India]] to build the [[Kenya-Uganda Railway]].<ref name="Kahod">{{cite news|last=Evans|first=Ruth|title=Kenya's Asian heritage on display|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/762515.stm|access-date=16 December 2013|publisher=BBC|date=24 May 2000}}</ref> The majority of Kenyan Asians hail from the [[Gujarat]] and [[Punjab region|Punjab]] regions.<ref name="Herzig, Pascale 2006, page 28">Herzig, Pascale, South Asians in Kenya: Gender, Generation and Changing Identities in Diaspora, LIT Verlag Münster, 2006, page 28</ref> The community grew significantly during the colonial period, and in the 1962 census Asians made up a third of the population of Nairobi and consisted of 176,613 people across the country.<ref name="Herzig, Pascale 2006, page 28"/>

Since [[History of Kenya|Kenyan independence]] large numbers have emigrated due to racism-related tensions with the Bantu and Nilotic majority. Most Asians are concentrated in the manufacturing sector.<ref name="Godfrey"/> According to the 2019 Census, Kenyan Asians number 47,555 people, while Asians without Kenyan citizenship number 42,972 individuals.<ref name =Census2019b/> In 2017, Kenyans of Asian Heritage were officially recognised as the 44th tribe of Kenya.<ref>{{cite news |title=Kenya Government Gazette dated 2017-07-21 number 102 |url=https://gazettes.africa/akn/ke/officialGazette/government-gazette/2017-07-21/102/eng@2017-07-21 |access-date=14 September 2024 |work=The Kenya Gazette |agency=Gazettes Africa |issue=102 |publisher=Laws.Africa |date=21 July 2017}}</ref>

===Europeans===
{{main|White people in Kenya}}
Europeans in Kenya are primarily the descendants of [[British people|British]] migrants during the colonial period. There is also a significant expat population of Europeans living in Kenya. Economically, all Europeans in Kenya belong to the middle- and upper-middle-class. Nowadays, only a small minority of them are landowners (livestock and game ranchers, horticulturists and farmers), with the majority working in the tertiary sector: in air transport, finance, import, and hospitality. Apart from isolated individuals such as anthropologist and conservationist [[Richard Leakey]], [[Fellow of the Royal Society|F.R.S.]], who died in 2022, Kenyan-Europeans have completely retreated from Kenyan politics, and are no longer represented in public service and parastatals, from which the last remaining staff from colonial times retired in the 1970s.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-09-24|title=The rarity of White African Politicians' involvement in the African politics|url=https://thisisafrica.me/politics-and-society/the-rarity-of-white-african-politicians/|access-date=2021-02-14|website=This is africa|language=en-US}}</ref> According to the 2019 Census, Kenyan Europeans number 42,868 people, while Europeans without Kenyan citizenship number 26,753 individuals. 0.3% of the population of Kenya is either from Asia or Europe.<ref name =Census2019b/>

===Arabs===
[[Arab]]s form a small but historically important minority ethnic group in Kenya. They are principally concentrated along the coast in cities such as [[Mombasa]], [[Malindi]], [[Lamu]], and [[Nairobi]]. A Muslim community, they primarily came from [[Oman]] and [[Hadhramaut]] in [[Yemen]], and are engaged in trade. Arabs are locally referred to as ''Washihiri'' or, less commonly, as simply ''Shihiri'' in the Bantu [[Swahili language]], Kenya's [[lingua franca]].<ref name="Godfrey"/> According to the 2019 Census, Kenyan Arabs number 59,021 people.<ref name =Census2019b/>