The Kipsigis Community of Kenya

From Sudan to the Rift Valley

The Kipsigis originated from the South Sudan region, and by the 19th century, they had settled in the Rift Valley.

Traditionally they lived in Bomet and Kericho Counties. This terrain is known for its steep ridges, numerous rivers and streams, with hills and grasslands.

Farming tool

This blade (morut) is made of iron and was used to cultivate the fields.

Cattle are kept for food

This strap (kotiek) is made from dried cow hide and used when bleeding cattle.

A symbolic club

A black wooden club (rungut) carved by men, who used it as a hand stick. It was used for walking around, when addressing a meeting, and as a symbol of authority.

Childhood to adulthood

This is a special ceremonial headdress (nariet) with cowries stitched onto cowhide. It is topped with a circle of bead-decorated leather fringed with goat hair. It was made by a specialist and would have been worn by girls when they emerged from seclusion, following circumcision.

Circumcision was an important rite of passage in the Kipsigis community, marking the transition from childhood to adulthood.

Exogamous marriages

This headband is made of four strings of beads with aluminium spacers, the beads on the aluminium pendant are suspended by six lengths of brass chains. The headband was made and worn by women and girls, particularly for marriage ceremonies.

Marriage was an important custom in Kipsigis society, and they practiced exogamous marriages (marriage outside the social group).

Roles of men and women

These three baskets (kerebet) were made by women and used for storage of flour and porridge, and to keep food ready for their husbands. Flour was poured into the baskets to conserve it from spoiling.

Kipsigis men traditionally built houses, repaired fences, cleared land for cultivation, hunted and took care of livestock, while the women prepared meals, collected water and firewood, tended the gardens, grew small millet and sorghum, and took care of children.

Belief in magic

The Kipsigis revered their ancestral spirits (oik) and magic. They believed the spirits of the deceased, may either become hyenas or go underground, from where they would re-emerge to torment the living.

Thus, when a man was ill, the oik were usually accused of tricking him into leaving his body. Eleusine grain would be scattered from the man’s bed to the door, through chanting. The oik were then believed to follow the grain and depart from the body.

If the spirit was wicked, the services of a magician had to be solicited. The magician was meant to discover the cause of the illness – whether it was a spirit, black magic or a curse cast upon the man.

Bad blood caused sickness

This bleeding horn lalek was made by medicine man and used by all members of the community to cure aches, faintness and sickness.

A cut would be made on the aching part, the horn placed over the cut, and sucked to drain blood until the horn was full. The drained blood (considered bad and the cause of sickness) was then poured on the ground.

Pleasant flute tunes

This flute is constructed out of a thick hollow wood, curved into shape using a knife. It consists of five carefully crafted holes, shaped to help direct the passage of air. The shape and design of the flute must accommodate the sound waves moving through air in order to produce notes.

Young men in the community played the flute to create pleasing sounds.

A traditional lyre

This eight wire stringed lyre is covered with cow skin. The resonator is made of an old tin, wood from leldongeiyett tree and the stings of twisted sinews obtained from the cow's back.

This musical instrument was used by the community to accompany singing and dance during marriage or circumcision ceremony (named ketuba chaburecha).