Variation and change amongst the kitui akamba: A comparative study of two vicinages

Abstract

The study is a comprehensive analysis of aspects of the economic and social organisation of two vicinages (motui) inhabited by the Kitui Akamba, but located in different ecological niches. Kitui District, Kenya can be divided into two distinct physical regions, the highland and lowland regions. The major environmental features of the district, in particular the contrast between the climates or the lowlands and the highlands, and the occurrence of periodic drought in both regions, are described in Chapter 1, sections A,Band C. Demographic growth in the district resulted in the pouring of the Akamba from mountains and hills onto the plains and lower ground during the colonial period: the cultivator began occupying pastoral rangelands, the pastoralist wild life rangelands. The higher population densities are found in the highlands, and the lower densities in the lowlands. Population density influences the extent to which past- .r: oralism is pr-act.Ised, (Chapter 1, sections D and E.)