As civilization developed and evolved during the New Stone Age, Kenya became a major migratory route for groups in search of fertile land for food production and grazing. The first of many genuinely human footprints to be stamped on Kenyan soil were left way back in 2000 BC by the tall, nomadic, Cushitic-speaking tribe’s people from Ethiopia. Basing themselves first at Lake Turkana and then moving south as their livestock outstripped the vegetation in search of fertile land to graze their flocks. A second group of pastoralists, the Eastern Cushitics followed them in around 1000 BC and occupied much of central Kenya (Tanzania) as the Kenyan climate changed over the centuries and water became scarce. This second wave of nomads marked the beginning of an ongoing influx of different tribal groups drawn to the region's fertile land.


In fact, by 100 AD there may have been 1,400 pastoral communities living in the Rift Valley region. Even into the early part of this century, there was much movement within Kenya as competition over land rights dominated the largely agrarian society. As tribes migrated throughout the valley during this period, they exchanged and developed cultures that are still identifiable in modern tribes today.

The ancestors of most of the tribes that occupy Kenya today arrived from all over Africa from around AD 1000. The Bantu-speaking people (who gave rise to the Gusii, Kikuyu, Akamba and Meru amongst other tribes) arrived from West Africa to occupy much of southern and western Kenya by the end of the 15th century. While the Nilotic speakers (Maasai, Luo, Samburu and Turkana) came from the Nile Valley in southern Sudan at the end of the 16th century. Although these were the biggest migrations, tribes continued to move into and out of Kenya right up to the beginning of the 20th century. As tribes migrated throughout the interior, Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula and Shirazis from Persia (now Iran) settled along the East African coast from the 8th century AD onwards.