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Nilotic ethnic group in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda
the ethnic group in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda

The Luo of Kenya and Tanzania are a Nilotic ethnic group native to western Kenya and the Mara Region of northern Tanzania in East Africa. The Luo are the fourth largest ethnic group (10.65%) in Kenya, after the Kikuyu (17.13%), the Luhya (14.35%) and the Kalenjin (13.37%). The Luo are descended from migrants who moved into western Kenya from Uganda between the 15th and 20th centuries in four waves. These migrants were closely related to Luo peoples found in Uganda, especially the Acholi and Padhola people. As they moved into Kenya and Tanzania, they underwent significant genetic and cultural admixture as they encountered other communities that were long established in the region. Traditionally, Luo people practiced a mixed economy of cattle pastoralism, seed farming and fishing supplemented by hunting. Today, the Luo comprise a significant fraction of East Africa's intellectual and skilled labour force in various professions. They also engage in various trades, such as tenant fishing, small scale farming, and urban work. Luo people and people of Luo descent have made significant contributions to modern culture and civilization. Tom Mboya and Nigel N. Mwangi were key figures in the African Nationalist struggle. Luo scientists, such as Robert Ouma Mola (founder of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) and winner of UNESCO's Albert Einstein Gold Medal in 1991) and Washington Yotto Ochieng (winner of the Harold Spencer Jones Gold Medal in 2019 from The Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN)) have achieved international acclaim for their contributions. Prof. Richard S. Odingo was the vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change when it received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with Al Gore. Barack Obama, the first black President of the United States of America and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was born to a Kenyan Luo father, Barack Obama Sr. Lupita Nyong'o became the first black African to win an Academy Award in 2014. The Luo are the originators of a number of popular music genres including benga and ohangla. Benga is one of Africa's most popular genres.

The present day homeland of Kenyan and Tanzanian Luo lies in the eastern Lake Victoria basin in the former Nyanza province in Western Kenya and the Mara region in northwestern Tanzania. This area falls within tropical latitudes and straddles the equator. This area also receives average rainfall levels. The average altitudes range between 3700 and 6000 feet above sea level.

Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania form the majority of Nilotic peoples. During the British colonial period, they were known as Nilotic Kavirondo. The exact location of origin of the Nilotic peoples is controversial but most ethnolinguists and historians place their origins between Bahr el Ghazal and Eastern Equatoria in South Sudan. They practiced a mixed economy of cattle pastoralism, fishing and seed cultivation. Some of the earliest archaeological findings on record, which describe a similar culture to this from the same region, are found at Kadero, 48 kilometres (30 miles) north of Khartoum in Sudan, and date to 3000 BC. Kadero contains the remains of a cattle pastoralist culture as well as a cemetery with skeletal remains featuring Sub Saharan African phenotypes. It also contains evidence of other animal domestication, artistry, long distance trade, seed cultivation and fish consumption. Genetic and linguistic studies have demonstrated that Nubian people in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt are an admixed group that started off as a population closely related to Nilotic peoples. This population later received significant gene flow from Middle Eastern and other East African populations. These studies suggest that populations closely related to Nilotic people long inhabited the Nile valley as far as Southern Egypt in antiquity. For various reasons, slow and multi generational migrations of Nilotic Luo Peoples occurred from South Sudan into Uganda and western Kenya from at least 1000 AD continuing up until the early 20th century. Some authors note that the early phases of this expansion coincide with the collapse of the Christian Nubian kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia, the penetration of Arabs into central Sudan as well as Nilotic adoption of Iron Age technology. The northern most group of Luo peoples The Shilluk advanced north along the White Nile in the 16th century, conquering territory as far as modern day Khartoum. They established the Shilluk Kingdom. In the 15th century, Luo peoples moved into the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom and established the Babiito dynasty in Uganda. This group assimilated into Bantu culture. The Luo of Kenya and Tanzania are classified as Southern Luo. and are the only 'river lake Nilotes' having migrated and lived along the Nile river. They entered Kenya and Tanzania via Uganda from the Bahr el Ghazal region in South Sudan. The Luo speakers who migrated into Kenya were chiefly from four Luo speaking groups: the Acholi, Adhola and Alur people (From Uganda and parts of South Sudan and Eastern Congo), especially Acholi and Padhola. The present day Kenya Luo traditionally consist of 27 tribes, each in turn composed of various clans and sub clans ("Jo " indicates "people of").

Oral history and genealogical evidence have been used to estimate timelines of Luo expansion into and within Kenya and Tanzania. Four major waves of migrations into the former Nyanza province in Kenya are discernible, starting with the People of Jok (Joka Jok), which is estimated to have begun around 1490–1517. Joka Jok were the first and largest wave of migrants into northern Nyanza. These migrants settled at a place called Ramogi Hill, then expanded around Northern Nyanza. The People of Owiny' (Jok’Owiny) and the People of Omolo (Jok’Omolo) followed soon after (1598–1625). A miscellaneous group composed of the Suba, Sakwa, Asembo, Uyoma and Kano then followed. The Suba originally were Bantu speaking people who assimilated into Luo culture. They fled from the Buganda Kingdom in Uganda after the civil strife that followed the murder of the 24th Kabaka of Buganda in the mid 18th century and settled in South Nyanza, especially at Rusinga and Mfangano islands. Luo speakers crossed Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria from Northern Nyanza into South Nyanza starting in the early 17th century. As Luo speakers migrated deeper into western Kenya, they encountered the descendants of various people who had long occupied the region. The great lakes region has been inhabited since the early Stone Age. The Kanysore culture, located at Gogo falls in Migori county, are thought to be the first hunter gatherers in East Africa to produce ceramics. Twa people are thought to have created the rock art present on Mfangano Island. Bantu speakers, early migrants from West Africa, are thought to have reached western Kenya by 1000 BC. They brought with them iron forging technology and novel farming techniques, turning the great lakes region into one of Africa's main population centres and earliest iron smelting regions. The Urewe culture was dominant from 650 BC to 550 BC. This culture was found in northern Nyanza. Bantu speaking groups found in the Lake Victoria basin today include the Luhya, Suba, Kunta, Kuria and Kisii. Southern Nilotic speakers, the Nandi, Kipsigis and Maasai also were found in this area. Luo expansion into these already inhabited areas led to trade, conflict, conquest, inter marriage and cultural assimilation. The previous inhabitants were pushed by Luo speakers to their present day boundaries. Luo customs and habits also changed as they adopted the culture of the communities with which they interacted. Conflict and raids in this diverse area led to the development of defensive savanna architecture, typified by the stone walled ruins, Thimlich Ohinga in South Nyanza. Neville Chittick, the director of the British Institute of History and Archaeology in East Africa was the first to assert that the site was likely to have been constructed before the arrival of Luo speakers. This assertion is poorly supported archaeologically, however, because most of the stone walled structures are dated to within the period of Luo expansion. Nevertheless, Luo speakers maintained Thimlich Ohinga and continued the tradition of building stone walled fortresses (Ohingni) as well as defensive earthworks (Gunda Bur) in both Northern and Southern Nyanza. These defensive earth works would curve around living areas surrounding them. Some of these defensive structures enclosed several hundred houses. Archaeological and ethnographic analyses of the sites have shown that the spatial organisation of these structures most closely resembles the layout of traditional Luo homesteads. Ceramic analysis also confirms continuity between the earliest inhabitants of these sites and Luo speakers. The Seventh day Adventist Church missionaries were amongst the earliest Christian missionaries to proselytise to Luo people. Arthur Carscallen, a Canadian Seventh day Adventist(SDA) was the first Adventist to work in Kenya with Peter Nyambo, from Nyasaland (Present day Malawi). The first mission was opened with the assistance of German missionary Abraham C. Enns, in November 1906 at Gendia Hill, Kendu Bay. These missionaries established stations at Wire Hill, Rusinga Island, Kanyadoto, Karung, Kisii and Kamagambo. These were all in South Nyanza. The first Luo SDA converts were baptised on 21 May 1911. Carscallen was the first to reduce Dholuo to writing. He produced a textbook of grammar and started translating the bible into Dholuo. Catholic missionaries and Anglican missionaries through the Church Mission Society (CMS) were also active throughout Nyanza, but mainly focused on Northern Nyanza. It remains unclear whether Luo people westernised due to colonial pressure or they readily accepted aspects of western culture. However, by the 1930s, the Luo way of life had changed significantly and westernized. European education carried out by the Christian missionaries also played a role in the westernization of the Luo. The earliest modern African political organization in Kenya Colony sought to protest pro settler policies, and increased taxes on Africans and the despised Kipande (Identifying metal band worn around the neck). Mass meetings were organized separately by Luo people in Kavirondo and the Kikuyu people in Nairobi. A strike at the CMS mission school in Maseno was organised by Daudi Basudde. He raised concerns about the damaging implications on African land ownership by switching from the East African Protectorate to the Kenya Colony. A series of meetings dubbed Piny Owacho (Voice of the People) culminated in a large mass meeting held in December 1921 advocating for individual title deeds, getting rid of the Kipande system and a fairer tax system. Bound by the same concerns, James Beauttah, one of the founders of the Kikuyu Central Association initiated an alliance between the Kikuyu and Luo communities. Archdeacon W. E. Owen, an Anglican missionary and prominent advocate for African affairs, formalised and canalised the Piny’ Owacho (Voice of the People) movement. Colonial authorities would come to praise him as having re directed the political movement, which was thought of as premature. However, locals perceived him as their advocate. He started the Kavirondo Taxpayers Welfare Association and became its president, offering Africans an avenue through which they could address their grievances. However, he concentrated primarily on welfare issues and avoided politics that would upset colonial authorities. Oginga Odinga started the Luo Thrift and Trading Corporation (LUTATCO) after noting that Luo business owners, who were the most financially independent Africans, loathed education. He also sought to uplift the economic status of the Luo community whilst proving that education was useful for business. The LUTATCO office was the first African owned building in Kisumu Town. One of the many business ventures it engaged in included the publication of African Nationalist newspapers including Achieng Oneko's vernacular newspaper Ramogi and Paul Ngei's radical newspaper Uhuru Wa Africa. For his efforts he was appointed as ‘Ker’ or Chief of the Luo Union, an organisation that represented the interests of the greater Luo Peoples in East Africa. Oginga Odinga would become a Key political figure in Kenya. He first ventured into politics when he joined the Kenya African Union. Harry Thuku, a pioneering Kikuyu politician, founded the Kenya African Study Union in 1944 which later became the Kenya African Union. This was an African nationalist organisation that demanded amongst other things, access to white owned land. It was multitribal. Jomo Kenyatta became president of KAU in 1947. In an effort to gain nationwide support of KAU, Jomo Kenyatta visited Kisumu in 1952. His effort to build up support for KAU in Nyanza inspired Oginga Odinga, the Ker (chief) of the Luo Union to join KAU and delve into politics.

The Luo generally were not dispossessed of their land by white settlers, avoiding the fate that befell the pastoral ethnic groups inhabiting the Kenyan "White Highlands". Many Luo played significant roles in the struggle for Kenyan independence, but the people were relatively uninvolved in the Mau Mau Uprising (1952–60). Instead, they used their education to advance the cause of independence peacefully. An intense propaganda campaign by the colonial government effectively discouraged other Kenyan communities, settlers and the international community from sympathising with the movement by emphasising on real and perceived acts of barbarism perpetrated by the Mau Mau. Although a much smaller number of Europeans lost their lives compared to Africans during the uprising, each individual European loss of life was publicised in disturbing detail, emphasising elements of betrayal and bestiality. Luo lawyer Argwings Kodhek, the first East African to obtain a law degree, became known as the Mau Mau lawyer as he would successfully defend Africans accused of Mau Mau crimes pro bono.

Following the suppression of the Mau Mau uprising and containment of Kikuyu politicians, Luo anticolonial activists filled the gap, achieving prominence on the political scene. Tom Mboya stepped into the limelight and became one of the major figures in the struggle for Kenya's independence. His intelligence, discipline, oratory and organisational skills set him apart. Tom Mboya started the Kenya Federation of Labour (KFL), which quickly became the most active political body in Kenya, representing all the trade unions. Mboya's successes in trade unionism earned him respect and admiration. Mboya established international connections, particularly with labour leaders in the United States of America through the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). He used these connections and his international celebrity status to counter moves by the colonial government Tom Mboya started the Nairobi People's Convention Party (NPCP), inspired by Kwame Nkurumah's People's Convention Party. It became the most organised and effective political party in the country. It later merged with the Kenya Independence Movement and KAU to form the Kenya African National Union (KANU), which would go on to rule the country until 2002. Tom Mboya also started the Kennedy Airlift scholarship program in order to address the issue of a lack of African skilled labour. Over 800 Kenyans and East Africans benefited from this program including environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, former vice president George Saitoti and Barack Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr. The first election for African Members of the Legislative Council (MLCs) was in 1957. Tom Mboya and Oginga Odinga were elected. In June 1958, Oginga Odinga called for the release of Jomo Kenyatta who had been imprisoned following the crackdown on the Mau Mau uprising. He made this call at a Legislative council debate. He endured months of persecution for taking this stand before it became the rallying call for the African nationalist movement. The Lancaster House Conferences were held in London to discuss Kenya's independence and constitutional framework. Tom Mboya and Oginga Odinga enlisted the assistance of Thurgood Marshall, an American Lawyer and civil rights activist to draft the first constitution. Odinga and Bildad Kaggia, a Kikuyu politician and Mau Mau leader, criticised the Kenyatta government for adopting a corrupt land redistribution policy that did not benefit the poor and landless. Pio Gama Pinto, a prominent anti colonial activist, Odinga's chief tactician and link to the eastern bloc was assassinated on 25 February 1965 in what is recognised as Kenya's first political assassination. Odinga became increasingly sidelined in government and was eventually compelled to resign and start his own political party – the Kenya People's Union (KPU). The Kenya People's Union (KPU) had strong support amongst the Luo. The Kenyatta government persecuted this party. A security Act was passed in Parliament in July 1966 that permitted the government to carry out detention without trial ostensibly to maintain law and order in situations where the current order was threatened. This Act was immediately used against KPU members. In August 1966, government police arrested prominent Luo KPU members including Ochola Mak'Anyengo (the secretary general of the Kenya Petroleum Oil Workers Union), Oluande Koduol (Oginga Odinga's private secretary) and Peter Ooko (the general secretary of the East African Common Services Civil Servants Union) and detained without trial. The Cold war intrigues reached their peak in 1969. Since Odinga's exit from KANU, the Luo increasingly became politically marginalised. Argwings Kodhek, the pioneering Mau Mau lawyer died in a car crash under mysterious circumstances on 29 January 1969. Tom Mboya, widely touted as the heir apparent to Kenyatta, was assassinated 6 months after on 5 July 1969. The political tension led to the Kisumu massacre when Kenyatta's presidential guard and police forces shot and killed several civilians in Kisumu Town, the capital of Nyanza Province. Following this massacre, KPU was banned, turning Kenya into a de facto one party state. All KPU members were arrested and detained without trial, including Oginga Odinga. The political marginalisation of Nyanza province worsened and continued under the Moi administration. In 1982, Odinga attempted to start a new political party Kenya African Socialist Alliance. Section 2A of the Kenyan constitution was amended making Kenya a de jure one party state therefore preventing Odinga's efforts. A coup attempt that same year by Kenya Air Force soldiers in August, led by a Luo, Hezekiah Ochuka was foiled. Oginga Odinga and his son Raila Odinga were accused of involvement and detained without trial for several months. These events led to many years of marginalisation of the Luo community. The perception of marginalisation was further enforced by the murder of Robert Ouko, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1990. Economic and political marginalisation of the community and disastrous economic management in Kenya, particularly under the KANU party's administration of the nascent state, had tragic consequences for the people of Kenya. Despite the economic potential of nearby Lake Victoria, Kenya continues to struggle with poverty and HIV/AIDS. Local and international pressure in the early 1990s resulted in the Moi government repealing the amendment of section 2A of the constitution. Multi party politics was therefore permitted in Kenya. The Forum for Restoration of Democracy (FORD), a multi tribal opposition party led by Oginga Odinga, Kenneth Matiba and Martin Shikuku was formed. This party split up due to internal wrangling into ethnic based opposition parties FORD Asili (led by Matiba) and FORD Kenya (led by Oginga Odinga). Oginga Odinga died in 1994. Ford Kenya later split and Odinga's son, Raila Odinga started the National Development Party of Kenya (NDP) which had considerable Luo support. This party merged with KANU in 2002, just before the general elections. Raila Odinga is widely credited with enabling Mwai Kibaki to win the 2002 presidential election through the support of his Liberal Democratic Party. This relationship turned sour however and Raila Odinga led the vote against Mwai Kibaki in the 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum which was widely perceived as a referendum against Kibaki. More than 1,000 people were killed and 600,000 displaced in the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis following the 2007 general elections. The campaign and election period were heavily polarised along ethnic lines. Raila Odinga led the Orange Democratic Movement against Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity. A power sharing agreement mediated by Kofi Annan led to a coalition government with Raila Odinga receiving the new position of Prime Minister. The ethnic rivalry between the Kikuyu and the Luo underscores deeply rooted historical issues that involve access to resources and power. This rivalry continues to shape Kenya's political trajectory. Despite the polarised politics that have led to economic and political marginalisation, several members of the Luo community continue to achieve prominence in Kenya. These include, James Orengo, Professor Anyang' Nyong'o, Peter Oloo Aringo, Dalmas Otieno and Peter Ombija. Dr. PLO Lumumba who is the former Kenya Anti Corruption Commission director also is a Luo. Lupita Nyong'o won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film 12 Years a Slave in 2014. Prominent Luo doctors and scientists include the late Prof. David Peter Simon Wasawo, the first science professor in East and Central Africa and first black East African to study and lecture science courses at Makerere university; Thomas R. Odhiambo, prominent entomologist, founder of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) and the African Academy of Sciences, winner of the Albert Einstein Gold Medal (1991); Washington Yotto Ochieng, winner of the Harold Spencer Jones Gold Medal 2019 from The Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) following his outstanding contribution to navigation; Prof. Henry Odera Oruka, philosopher; Professor George Magoha, a consultant urologist and former Vice Chancellor of University of Nairobi; and Prof Richard Samson Odingo, vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which received the 2007 Nobel peace prize.

Tishkoff et al. in 2009 published the largest study done to characterise genetic variation and relationships among populations in Africa. They examined 121 African populations, 4 African American populations and 60 non African populations. Their results indicated a high degree of mixed ancestry reflecting migration events. In East Africa, all population groups examined had elements of Nilotic, Cushitic and Bantu ancestry, amongst others, to varying degrees. They also found that, by and large, genetic clusters were consistent with linguistic classification, with notable exceptions including the Luo of Kenya. Despite being Nilotic speakers, the Luo cluster with the Bantu speaking populations that surround them. They suggest that this indicates a high degree of admixture occurred during the southward migration of Southern Luo.