Turkana people

The Turkana are a Nilotic people native to the Turkana County in northwest Kenya, a semi-arid climate region bordering Lake Turkana in the east, Pokot, Rendille and Samburu people to the south, Uganda to the west, to the South Sudan ( Didinga and Toposa ) and Ethiopia to the north. According to the 2019 Kenyan census, Turkana number 1,016,174, or 2.14% of the Kenyan population, making the Turkana the third largest Nilotic ethnic group in Kenya, after the Kalenjin and the Luo, slightly more numerous than the Maasai, and the tenth largest ethnicity in all of Kenya. Although this figure was initially controversial and rejected as too large by Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya, a court ruling (February 7, 2012) by Justice Mohammed Warsame stated that the Kenyan government accepts the 2009 census figures for Turkana. They refer to themselves as ŋiTurkana (i.e. ngiTurkana, meaning the Turkana, or people of Turkan) and to their land as "Turkan". The language of the Turkana, an Eastern Nilotic language, is also called Turkana; their own name for it is ŋaTurkana or aŋajep a ŋiTurkana. The ethnic group as a whole is composed of two major divisions, each of which is composed of further territorial sections. The major divisions are the Ngimonia, divided into Ngisir and non-Ngisir sections; and the Ngichuuro, divided into the Ngilukumong, Ngiwoyakwara, Ngikamatak, Ngibilai, and Ngikebotok. They are mainly semi-nomadic pastoralists, and are noted for raising camels and weaving baskets. In their oral traditions, they designate themselves the people of the grey bull, after the Zebu, the domestication of which played an important role in their history. In recent years, development aid programs have aimed at introducing fishing among the Turkana (a taboo in some sections of The Turkana society) with very limited success. Famous Turkana include Paul Ereng, the 1988 800m Olympic Champion and 800m former indoor world record holder, supermodel Ajuma Nasenyana, and key Kenyan government officials, including: Kenyan Ambassador to Thailand, H.