Join us as partners, volunteers or members and learn more about Lakeside – the Luo people, with all our uniqueness and diversity. The Luo tribe is Nilotic tribe descended from pastoral nomads who migrated south from Southern Sudan to the land around Lake Victoria near the end of the 15th Century. They migrated in at least five waves starting approximately 1500 AD. The Luo gradually displaced the Bantu-speaking tribes living in the region that were the ancestors of the modern Luhya and Kisii (Gusii) tribes. By the 1840s the Luo had formed a tight-knit society with ruodhi or regional chiefs or kings.
According to the last national population census, the Luo number over 3 million people, or about 13 per cent of Kenya’s total population.
Along with the Luhya, the Luo are the second largest ethnic group in the country, behind the Gikuyu.
Most Luo live in western Kenya in the Western province or in the adjacent Nyanza province, two of the eight provinces in Kenya. Some Luo live to the south of Kenya in Tanzania.
Many Luo also live in Nairobi. Most Luo maintain strong economic, cultural, and social links to western Kenya, which they consider home.
Over the past 500 years, the Luo have migrated slowly from Sudan to their present location around the eastern shore of Lake Victoria.
