Kikuyu

Member of the dominant ethnic group in Kenya, numbering about 3 million. The Kikuyu are primarily cultivators of millet, although many have entered the professions. Their language belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo family.

The basic unit of Kikuyu society is the large family group, which lives on its own plot of land originally acquired by clearing part of the forest. Outright sale of land is practised, a rare phenomenon in Africa, and land grievances played a large part in the relations of the Kikuyu and Europeans which culminated in the Mau Mau uprising.

The Kikuyu have no traditional centralized political organization. Clan elders exercise considerable authority within their own clan, and political authority generally is in the hands of local councils of elders. The Kikuyu played an important part in the formation of the KANU political party. Up to 2,000 were killed and 50,000made homeless 1991–94 in attacks by Masai and Kalenjin peoples attempting to oust them from the Rift Valley.