History of the Kalenjin people

The Kalenjin people are an ethnolinguistic group indigenous to East Africa, with a presence, as dated by archaeology and linguistics, that goes back many centuries. Their history is therefore deeply interwoven with those of their neighboring communities as well as with the histories of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Ethiopia.

The Kalenjin trace their heritage to two ancestral populations, a Nilotic people and an Eastern Cushitic speaking community with whom they had significant cultural interaction.