About Nyamira Way Back When
Brief History of Nyamira County
Gusii or Abagusii community are the charismatic western Bantu speakers who have lived in Gusiiland, of present-day Nyamira and Kisii counties, for millennia. Today, they can be found in the contiguous areas of Kericho, Bomet, Homa Bay counties and, veritably, elsewhere in Kenya. It is said that they took their name from their founder and patriarch Mogusii. The Kisii are believed to have entered western Kenya from Uganda. They later moved from the foothills of Mount Elgon, settled for a while at the Kano Plains, then migrated to their present homeland.
At the end of the 1700s, the Bantu-speaking people were dispersed in small pockets on the northern, southern, and eastern margins of the Kisii highlands and in the Lake Victoria Basin. Around 1800, the highlands above 1,515 meters were probably uninhabited from the northern part of the Manga escarpment southward to the Kuja River. At this time, the lowland savannas were being settled by large numbers of agropastoralist tribes, ancestral to the present-day Luo and Kipsigis, dislodging the smaller Bantu groups from their territories on the savannas.
And so, the Gusii settled in the Gusii highlands or Gusiiland, as other culturally and linguistically related groups remained along the Lake Victoria Basin or settled in the lower savanna region at the Kenya-Tanzania border. Gusiiland is located in western Kenya, 50 kilometers east of Lake Victoria. Since precolonial times, abundant rainfall and very fertile soils have made Gusiiland one of the most productive agricultural areas in Kenya. The proportion of cultivable land was nearly 80%. As fate has it, they thrived in the era and years before colonial Kenya.
Kisii, as they are popularly known today, is the Swahili name that the British colonial administration used. The Kisii are divided into seven clan clusters: Kitutu (Getutu), North Mugirango, South Mugirango, Majoge, Wanjare (Nchari), Bassi, and Nyaribari. Way before modern Christianity, the Kisii believed in the existence of one God, who was the originator of the world but did not directly interfere in human affairs. It tolerably involved worship of ancestor together with their ideas about witchcraft, sorcery, and impersonal forces, into a complex of beliefs.
The ancestor spirits (ebirecha) existed both as a collective and as individual ancestors and ancestresses of the living members of a lineage. They were not propitiated until there was tangible evidence of their displeasure, such as disease or death of people and livestock or the destruction of crops. Whilst the worship of ancestors and witchcraft still exists, most Kisii today claim to be adherents of modern Christianity. The four major denominations in Gusiiland are Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, Swedish Lutheran, and Pentecostal Assemblies of God.
Precolonial Gusii exchange took place within the homesteads. Tools, weapons, crafts, livestock, and agricultural products were exchanged, and goats and cows were often used as the media of exchange. During the 19th century, regular barter between the Gusii and the Luo, conducted by women, took place at periodic border markets. Luo traders would arrive in Gusiiland on donkeys loaded with salt and pots. The network of trade connecting Gusiiland with the region continued to thrive, and in 1985 Kisii became a trade outpost with market facilities and shops.
The British colonial administration arrived in Gusiiland circa 1907. They were, as one would expect, initially met by armed resistance. Otenyo Nyamaterere, a famed warrior, led a battalion of Gusii warriors in the resistance. However, these were not sustained and ceased shortly after World War I. By the same token, it can be concluded that by 1907 Gusiiland was wholly under British rule. The upshot of their general amicableness, unlike other highlander, was that the Gusii were not subjected to land alienation. Also, the seven subdivisions of Gusiiland were converted into administrative units under government-appointed chiefs.
The first Christian missions in Gusiiland by the Catholics arrived in 1911, followed soon after by the Seventh Day Adventists in 1913. Mission activity was initially not successful, and several stations were looted. The change of heart came from 1925, with a strong feeling that British justice should transform African society. And between 1925 and 1945 the commitment to revolutionary change was replaced by more conservative ideas of gradual reform, supporting local leaders, and relying on a functional tribe-based system, or, perhaps, a strife-free mingling of both.
This strengthening of legitimate local leadership had more benefit for Gusiiland and the local community, in ways that shifted gender and generational power relations as well as, more importantly, the rights to land ownership. Off-centre to central highlands of Kenya, where resistance was chock-full and new land policy distasteful to the locals, land in Gusiiland was held corporately by lineages and clans until the 1940s. Grazing was communal, and arable land was divided into plots with strict use rights that pertained to each household. Local populations also included families belonging to other clans dwellers, but had limited tenure.
The precolonial staple crop was finger millet, which was grown together with sorghum, beans, and sweet potatoes. Cultivated-plant food was complemented by meat and milk from livestock and by wild vegetables. At the end of the 19th century, the cultivation period was two years, with a fallow of three to six years. By the 1920s, maize had overtaken finger millet as both a staple-food crop and a cash crop. Other important contemporary crops included cassava, pigeon peas, green grams, onions, bananas, potatoes, and tomatoes. Coffee farming began on a limited basis in the 1930s, and, by the 1950s, was a major export of Gusiiland.
Following independence in 1963, infrastructure and schools continued to bud throughout the area. Roads were gradually improved as was electricity, piped water, and telephones. By the 1970s, a shortage of land had begun to make farming unprofitable, and the education of children for off-farm employment became more important. To lend to the quagmire, land was previously communal, not inherited or alienated through transactions. All land was registered in individual men’s names. Men got the rights to the management and use of land.
Kisii town, the capital of Gusiiland, grew exponentially during the colonial era. After the British soldiers were forced to retreat from Lake Victoria by heavy gunfire from German franchise gun-boats during the warfares of the early 20th Century, they picked Kisii town as the District Headquarters for the larger South Nyanza and larger Kisii District. Gusiiland was named as Kisii District during this era. Nyamira remained part of Kisii District until 1989, when it was hived-off as part of the formation of new districts in Kenya between 1969 and 1989. Originally known as North-Kisii, Nyamira remains interlinked with her motherland to date.
Touring Nyamira County offers a glimpse into the natural heritage of western Kenya, and cultural encounter with the charismatic Abagusii community. At Keroka, Otenyo Cultural Group Center offers insights into their traditions and customs. Generally speaking, Nyamira County is agrarian, typified by rolling hills.
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Explore Destinations in Nyamira County
A Guide to Nyamira County
A Summa Digest of Nyamira
About Nyamira Way Back When
18 Destinations in Nyamira County, arranged as one would visit these - southeast, west then north - with aid of narratives, images, strip maps and distance chart:
Amanzi Resort, Kibugat Hill, Kipkebe Tea Estate, The Henri Boma, Eyaka Falls, Nyakwana [Keera] Falls, Kegogi Market, Nyamira Falls, Nkoora Hill, Bonyunyu Dam, Keroka, Otenyo Cultural Group Center, Manga Ridge, Otenyo Nyamaterere Shrine, Manga Hills, River Gucha, Kiabonyoru Hill, Chabera Coffee Factory, River Sondu Bridge
Know More About Nyamira County: Its Geography, Land-Use, Highlights, Population, Roads - including a distance chart, Airports, Climate & National Monuments
Nyamira is precipitous, from undulating to rolling, with flat-topped ridges alternating with bottomlands. Much of the land within Nyamira has been put under heavy cultivation.
The maximum day and minimum night temperatures are normally between 28o C and about 10oC respectively, translating to an average temperature of 19 Degrees C.
