There are no 42 tribes in kenya

[KenyanPlato]

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No official list exists of the most quoted number of 42+ tribe. It is a shame how quickly we accept these myths. Domeone did research and they couldnt find an official record of these tribes
https://www.theelephant.info/features/2021/03/05/who-are-kenyas-42-tribes-and-should-we-be-asking/

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

42 or 43 is the generally accepted number.  Which is very small, compared to neighboring countries. 

[KenyanPlato]

42 or 43 is the generally accepted number.  Which is very small, compared to neighboring countries.

The reality is that we have no prove there are 42 tribes. It is a number plucked out of thi. Air with no prove

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

42 or 43 is the generally accepted number.  Which is very small, compared to neighboring countries.

The reality is that we have no prove there are 42 tribes. It is a number plucked out of thi. Air with no prove

I doubt that.  Can there be questions about how certain groups are categorized?  Absolutely.  Given Kenya's relative precolonial backwardness, the mzungu did a pretty decent job being able to categorize these groups.  I am sure prior to that, you could find way over 100 self identified peoples, with most having little organization beyond being under the direction of some sort of headman.

[KenyanPlato]

Show me a list that has the 42 tribes. I actually tried to look for something like that years back and I couldnt find anything that made sense. There is nothing like that.

This is another statistical myth like the shortage of 500k units that kenya is said to exprience or the half million kibera largest slum in the world until 2010 census proved this to be a fallacy....these myths are all over the world. This guy article and research shows that the 42 tribes are a fallacy

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

Show me a list that has the 42 tribes. I actually tried to look for something like that years back and I couldnt find anything that made sense. There is nothing like that.

This is another statistical myth like the shortage of 500k units that kenya is said to exprience or the half million kibera largest slum in the world until 2010 census proved this to be a fallacy....these myths are all over the world. This guy article and research shows that the 42 tribes are a fallacy

I'd go with the latest census.  There might be questions about number of tribes, but not in any serious sense.  In fact the only doubts I can recognize as significant are about whether tribes like Luhya, Mijikenda etc constitute one tribe.  In case you break them apart, you have a handful more tribes added to the 40 something baseline.

[KenyanPlato]

Show me a list that has the 42 tribes. I actually tried to look for something like that years back and I couldnt find anything that made sense. There is nothing like that.

This is another statistical myth like the shortage of 500k units that kenya is said to exprience or the half million kibera largest slum in the world until 2010 census proved this to be a fallacy....these myths are all over the world. This guy article and research shows that the 42 tribes are a fallacy

I'd go with the latest census.  There might be questions about number of tribes, but not in any serious sense.  In fact the only doubts I can recognize as significant are about whether tribes like Luhya, Mijikenda etc constitute one tribe.  In case you break them apart, you have a handful more tribes added to the 40 something baseline.

Here is 1969 census.. It has the list but tribes are more than 42

http://statistics.knbs.or.ke/nada/index.php/catalog/64/datafile/F1/V8


In multiple interviews with various government officials I was repeatedly told there were 42+ tribes, but nobody could tell me the nature or location of the list. “Do you know?” one official asked me. Ten years earlier, I had asked members of the minority Nubian community too: “Forty-two tribes. And we will be the 43rd.” They even had a letter from a Minister declaring they would, indeed, be counted as such in the 2009 census. But I struggled to find the list. Who is on it? Does it even exist? And if so, who controls it, and how? Why does nobody know? And does it matter? In my research, this idea of “the 42” kept coming up over and over again. I have been conducting academic research in Kenya since 2009, mostly with the minority Nubian community which has long sought recognition as Kenyan, and has had considerable success in recent years in getting it. It was my first interviews with Nubian elders in 2009 that made me start wondering about this idea of “the 42”, where it comes from, why it matters.

Read more at: https://www.theelephant.info/features/2021/03/05/who-are-kenyas-42-tribes-and-should-we-be-asking/
The Elephant - Speaking truth to power.

[audacityofhope]

I haven't a clue what the debate on this thread is about. For the record, it is public knowledge that Kenya officially has 44 tribes! I have seen that list where Luhya and Kalenjin sub tribes are condensed. I Can find it online for you if you give me some time.

Asians now recognized as Kenya’s 44th tribe



Acting Internal Security Minister Fred Matiang'i with members of Kenyan Asian Community during a meeting at Office of the President where the community was recognized as the country's 44th tribe in Kenya. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA

[KenyanPlato]

I haven't a clue what the debate on this thread is about. For the record, it is public knowledge that Kenya officially has 44 tribes! I have seen that list where Luhya and Kalenjin sub tribes are condensed. I Can find it online for you if you give me some time.

Asians now recognized as Kenya’s 44th tribe



Acting Internal Security Minister Fred Matiang'i with members of Kenyan Asian Community during a meeting at Office of the President where the community was recognized as the country's 44th tribe in Kenya. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA

Waiting for your list. The debate is if there is an official list of the 42 tribes. All I have seen are statements about this number.

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

I haven't a clue what the debate on this thread is about. For the record, it is public knowledge that Kenya officially has 44 tribes! I have seen that list where Luhya and Kalenjin sub tribes are condensed. I Can find it online for you if you give me some time.

Asians now recognized as Kenya’s 44th tribe



Acting Internal Security Minister Fred Matiang'i with members of Kenyan Asian Community during a meeting at Office of the President where the community was recognized as the country's 44th tribe in Kenya. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA

In a nutsehll, the link from elephant says we don't know the number of ethnic groups in Kenya for a number of reasons.  The main one seems to be because the census has given different ethnicities at differents times.  She seems to suggest that because of this, it is not possible to establish the number of tribes.

Because of this, Plato believes the number of tribes is plucked out of thin air.  I disagree with that - I think the categories can be justified fairly straightforwardly.  I generally agree with him that the number of tribes is arguable because ethnicitiy can be a fluid idea when you put it under the microscope.  But the categories we have are generally justifiable within reason.

[RV Pundit]

Na hii

[RV Pundit]

NCIC has 42
https://www.figures.co.ke/Downloads/Tribes_Of_Kenya.html

[KenyanPlato]

NCIC has 42
https://www.figures.co.ke/Downloads/Tribes_Of_Kenya.html

Proves this writer's point. There is no Standard or official list that is consistent from one period to the other.