Pokot People

Pokot People

The Pokot people (commonly spelled Pökoot, live in the West Pokot District and Baringo District of Kenya and in Pokot District of eastern Karamoja region in Uganda. They speak Pökoot, language of the Southern Nilotic language family which is close to the Marakwet, Nandi, Tuken and other members of the Kalanjen grouping. Kenya's 2009 census puts the total number of Pokot speakers at about 620,000 in Kenya. In addition, there are close to 100,000 Pokot speakers in Uganda. According to the census, there were 133,000 Pokot speakers in Baringo county and close to 500,000 in West Pokot county. A fair estimate indicates that there are close to 700,000 Pokot speakers in Kenya and Uganda.

Based on areal and cultural differences, the Pokot people can be divided into two groups (Rottland 1982): the Hill Pökoot and the Plains Pokot . The Hill Pokot live in the rainy highlands in the west and in the central south of the Pokot area and are both farmers and pastoralists. The Plains Pokot live in the dry and infertile plains, herding cows, goats and sheep.

Many Pokot people from the present eastern part of the Pokot area claim that they come from the hilly areas of northern Cherengani (Bollig 1990). Halfway through the nineteenth century, they seem to have expanded their territory rapidly into the lowlands of the Kenyan Rift Valley, mainly at the expense of the Laikipia Maasai people.