The Mursik Community

The Nilotic people are people indigenous to the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. They inhabit South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, DR. Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Among these are the Burun speaking peoples, Karo peoples, Luo peoples, Ateker peoples, Kalenjin peoples, Datooga, Dinka, Nuer, Atwot, Lotuko and the Maa-speaking people.

After the Bantu people, they constitute the second-most numerous group of people inhabiting the African Great Lakes region around the Eastern Great Rift. In East Africa, the Nilotes are subdivided into three general groups:

 The Plain Nilotes: they speak  Maa languages  and include the  Maasai ,  Samburu  and  Turkana 

The River Lake Nilotes: the  Joluo  (Kenyan Luo), who are part of the larger Luo group.

The Highland Nilotes: subdivided into two groups, the  Kalenjin  and the  Datoog a.

The Kalenjin are a group of Southern Nilotic people indigenous to East Africa, residing mainly in what was formerly the Rift Valley,Kenya. 

They are divided into 11 culturally and linguistically related tribes:  Kipsigis ,  Nandi ,  Keiyo ,  Marakwet ,  Sabaot ,  Pokots ,  Tugen ,  Terik ,  Sengwer ,  Lembus ,and  Ogiek . They speak  Kalenjin languages , which belong to the  Nilotic language 

 family 

Are Kalenjin-speaking group of people who alongside other Highland Nilotes of the African Great Lakes Region make up the group.

The Kipsigis people live predominantly in a region politically known as South Rift Region and includes areas of Bomet, Kericho,Nakuru,Laikipia and Narok Counties. 

The Nandi ethnic group live in and with close association and relation with the Kipsigis ethnic group. They traditionally have lived and still form the majority in the highland areas of the former Rift Valley,Kenya, in what is today Nandi county.

They speak the Nandi dialect, Kalenjin-speaking people who inhabit the western part of the highlands of Kenya of the Kalenjin language.

Ogiek are southern Nilotic speakers who live in Kenya’s Mau and Elgon forests. Today they are mainly farmers and beekeepers, and have a unique way of life well adapted to the forest.

The Ogieks have practiced beekeeping as an economic activity for thousands of years. The building of beehives, harvesting, and collecting of honey was traditionally considered a man’s activity. Honey is a staple food and has great symbolic value to the Ogieks. Honey was eaten, used to brew traditional beer (rotikap gomek), and traded with neighboring communities. 

Other Kalenjin subtribes include:

4. Keiyo

5. Pokot

6. Tugen

7. Marakwet

8. Sabaot

9. Terik

10. Sengwer

11. Lembus

Map Tour of Kalenjin Subtribes in Kenya created by Edwin Koskei

The Kalenjin have a common staple diet: Kimyet (ugali),a paste of cooked maize or millet flour sometimes mixed with sorghum flour, native vegetables and mursik,sour milk mixed with ashes of specific trees popular as itet.

Kalenjin people raise cattle, sheep and goats and cultivate maize, sorghum and pearl millet as their main economic activity, but, with time they have diversify their economic activities, they now does agribusiness as one of their source of livelihoods.

Many Kalenjin people have excel in long and middle-distance running . Sporting prowess is related to their exceptional running economy, a function of slim body morphology and slender legs.

The Kalenjin are generally not well known for their handicrafts however, though women do make and locally sell decorated calabashes made from gourds.

These gourd calabashes known as sotet are rubbed with oil and adorned with small colored beads and are essentially the same type of calabashes that are used for storing mursik.

Mursik is a traditional fermented milk variant of the Kalenjin culture, Kenya. It can be made from milk and is fermented in a specially made calabash gourd locally known as a sotet. The gourd is lined with soot from specific trees known itet which add flavor to the fermented milk. It is normally consumed with ugali or on its own.

Mursik is sour milk with a sharp almost bitter taste popular among the Kalenjin community. To the newbies mursik may look “dirty” until they get a good taste of the beverage.

Kalenjin religion is based upon the belief in a supreme god, Asis,or Cheptalel, represented in the form of the sun (asista), although the sun itself was not considered to be God, beneath Asis is Elat, who controls thunder and lightning. In the contemporary world, the mention of Asis, Cheptalel or Chebongolo has been overtaken by Jeiso, Jehovah, Kiptayat and Mungu

An individual is given a personal name at birth and this is determined by the circumstance of their birth. For most Kalenjin speaking communities, masculine names are often prefixed with Kip- or Ki- though there are exceptions to the rule e.g cheruiyot,Chepkwony,Chelangat etc.

Feminine names in turn are often prefixed with Chep- or Che- though among the Tugen and Keiyo, the prefix Kip- may in some cases denote both males and females. The personal name would thus be derived through adding the relevant prefix to the description of the circumstance of birth, for example a child born in the evening (lagat) might be called Kiplagat or Chelagat.

Traditionally an individual acquired their father's name after their initiation. Females took on their father's name e.g Cheptoo Lagat being the daughter of Lagat and Cheptoo Kiplagat being the daughter of Kiplagat while males took on just the descriptor portion of the father's name such that the Kiprono son of Kiplagat would become Kiprono arap Lagat.

Is patronym meaning son of. It was traditionally given following the labetab eun (kelab eun) ceremony and all initiates would after the ceremony acquire their fathers name e.g Toroitich son of Kimoi and Kipkirui son of Kiprotich would after the ceremony be Toroitich arap Moi and Kipkirui arap Rotich.