Lembus is one of the sub tribes of kalenjin people. Lembus group is sub-divided into Pokor, Keben, Bogor, Kakimor, Kamaruso, Somek, Murkaptuk, Agiekablembus, Chepkero, Kapkosom and Emom. They settled in Emom, Chepkero, ElKamaruso, Kakimor, Keben, Bogor, Lembus Mosop, Lembus Soin, Lembus Kongasis(east), Lembus Kiptuiya(west). Other areas are Keiyo and Laikipia. Etc[citation needed].

The Lembus people are perceived to be Tugen people, but this assertion has been rejected by the Lembus themselves, and their Lembus Council of Elders based on migration history, cultural practice and language[citation needed] Members of the Lembus community insist that Tugen is just a name coined in the 1960s to unite the small communities living in Baringo. In 2019 the lembus people moved to court demanding to be recognized as a distinct ethnic group and not as a sub-tribe of the Tugen[citation needed]

Lembus Council of Elders with Mzee Kenyatta when they visited him in his Gatundu home

The Lembus and Nandi peoples

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Lembus People have had close relationship with the Nandi dating back to precolonial period. It is also notable that Lembus People and the Nandi share a lot of cultural, language and religious similarities. In the 1890s, the Lembus People resisted the British entry into Lembus territories and especially the Lembus Forest. The resistance by the Lembus also coincided with the Nandi Resistance to the British in the late 1890s to 1906.[1] The British administrators in Eldama Ravine also accused the Lembus People of collusion with their Nandi brothers and cousins to fight the British.

References

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  1. ^ Pavitt, N. Kenya: The First Explorers, Aurum Press, 1989, p. 121