Country: Kenya

Group: Luhya/Baluhy/Abaluhya/Baluhya/Abaluyia

Date Finalized: 3/15/2020

Team: Aracely Esquer (lead), Gabriel Cardenas, Ray Gerard Regorgo

The Luhya people are an ethnic group that live in the Western Provinces of Kenya and comprise about fourteen percent of Kenya’s indigenous population (The Luhya Tribe of Kenya, n.d.). In 1992, land disputes ensued an attack on the Luhya by the Kalenjin people, resulting in 60 killed and over 2,000 displaced (Minorities at Risk Project, 2004). The 2007 election between two political parties, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and Party of National Unity (PNU), had heavy support of the ODM from Luhya people. A high number of voter participation and opinion polls showed a lead for the ODM, but corruption from the PNU’s Mwai Kibaki party resulted in his presidency. This generated anger and violence along with the death of 1,000 and the displacement of 500,000 residents (The Crisis in Kenya, n.d.; Kagwanja 2009). With a strong partisan divide and political unrest among Kenya’s different ethnic groups, targeted killings occurred between political parties and subsequently between ethnic groups. The violence and killings were later found to be organized by politicians and community leaders while the police were responsible for approximately 40% of deaths (The Crisis in Kenya, n.d.). Although a number of credible sources were found about the killings, the data quality for the ethnically targeted violence towards the Luhya would be ranked a 2/3 as it was unclear how the Luhya were involved or exactly how many were affected.

Sources

  1. Kagwanja, P. (2009). Courting genocide: Populism, ethno-nationalism and the informalisation of violence in Kenya’s 2008 post-election crisis. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 27(3), 365-387.
  2. Minorities at Risk Project, Chronology for Luhya in Kenya. (2004). Refworld. Retrieved from https://www.refworld.org/docid/469f38aec.html 
  3. The Crisis in Kenya. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/index.php/crises/crisis-in-kenya
  4. The Luhya Tribe of Kenya: Their History and Culture. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.kenya-information-guide.com/luhya-tribe.html