Tugen
The Tugen — People of the Hills and the Valley
About
The Tugen are a Nilotic community and a sub-community of the Kalenjin, related to the Terik, Pokot, Nandi, Marakwet, Kipsigis, Sabaot, Ogiek, and Keiyo. They primarily occupy Baringo County and parts of Nakuru and Elgeyo Marakwet counties in the former Rift Valley Province, with a population of 197,556 recorded in the 2019 census. Their origins are unusually diverse for a single community: oral traditions trace their migration from three directions — the west (from Sumo, between Mount Elgon and the Cherangany Hills), the north (Suguta, near Lake Turkana), and the east (Koilegen, near Mount Kenya) — bringing with them non-Kalenjin speaking peoples along the way. This multi-directional heritage makes the Tugen more diverse in culture and language than other Kalenjin sub-tribes. Their most celebrated sons are former President Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, who governed Kenya from 1978 to 2002, and world marathon champion Paul Tergat
Language
Tugen is a Southern Nilotic language within the Kalenjin dialect cluster of the Nilo-Saharan family, spoken by approximately 197,556 people (2019 census) in Baringo County and parts of Nakuru and Elgeyo Marakwet counties. It is most closely related to Kipsigis and Nandi, and is divided into two main sub-groups: Arror (North Tugen), spoken in the highlands of Kabartonjo and the Kerio Valley lowlands; and Samor (South Tugen), spoken in central Baringo. The Arror dialect is notably sharper and faster in accent, and uniquely, its speakers can understand all other Kalenjin dialects with ease — a feat most other Kalenjin speakers cannot reciprocate. In recent years, the Lembus and Torois communities — previously grouped under Tugen — have asserted distinct ethnic identities and were counted separately in the 2019 census, reflecting the rich internal diversity that has always characterised this hill-and-valley people
Culture
The Tugen pray to their God Asis (the sun), and also recognise Chepapkoyo (god of harvest) and Cheptengeryan (god of love). Social life revolved around the ibindo — the age-set system — with seven age-sets (ibinwek) structuring community life, and most political action taking place in the kokwet, the council of the locality. Within each age-set, initiates were grouped into siritoik — teams of men circumcised together who shared a life-long bond of extraordinary solidarity. Men and boys were traditionally involved in farm and herding activities, while women and girls performed nearly all domestic work, and also crafted cowhide belts inlaid with cowrie shells that recorded a woman's life passage — adding a row of cowries at girlhood, motherhood, grandmotherhood, and great-grandmotherhood. The Tugen were skilled woodworkers — men carving communal food bowls (tubei) with adzes — and warriors who fashioned formidable hippopotamus-hide shields, buried in soil for three days to stiffen before being beaten into shape. Music and dance were equally valued, with young men playing a six-stringed lyre to entertain guests in the evenings, and warriors wearing anklets of colobus monkey skin at ceremonies.