PRONUNCIATION: LOO-ee-ah ALTERNATE NAMES: Luyia, Abaluhya LOCATION: Western Kenya POPULATION: 3 million LANGUAGE: Several Bantu dialects RELIGION: Christianity (Catholicism, Protestantism); Islam; some indigenous beliefs 1 • INTRODUCTION The Luhya, Luyia, or Abaluhya, as they are interchangeably called, are the second-largest ethnic group in Kenya, after the Kikuyu. The Luhya belong to the larger linguistic stock known as the Bantu. The Luhya comprise several subgroups with different but mutually understood linguistic dialects. Some of these subgroups are Ababukusu, Abanyala, Abatachoni, Avalogoli, Abamarama, Abaidakho, Abaisukha, Abatiriki, Abakisa, Abamarachi, and Abasamia. Migration to their present western Kenya location dates back to as early as the second half of the fifteenth century. Immigrants into present-day Luhyaland came mainly from eastern and western Uganda and trace their ancestry mainly to several Bantu groups, and to other non...
