The Gikuyu tribe is a fairly recent creation, a conglomeration of different people who arrived in the present day Nyeri Valley from different directions at different times.

Professor Godfrey Muriuki writes of several migration waves:

(i) One of the earliest, from the Coast, up the Tana and Athi, the Thagicu wave, traceable to present day Tanga in Tanzania.

(iii) One coming from the Kamba, the Ithanga wave, traceable to Mwing/Kitui area.

(iii) A more recent one from the Meru/Embu, the Meru/Mbeere wave, which created the Ndia (Kirinyaga) sub community.

(iv) A yet more recent wave (if you can call it that) is the massive migration of Laikipiak Masai into Northern Gikuyuland which followed the decimation of that clan in the Murijo civil war. Many Nyeri people have Gikuyunised Masai names as a result.

It is hard to argue for the Ndia/Kirinyaga as a separate tribe, except in the perpetual effort to splinter the massive Gema vote for political reasons. But then we hear similar arguments made about the Luyia and the Kalejin, mostly from people who have too much time on their hands.

This too shall pass.

When Agikuyu left Mt Kilimanjaro perhaps around 1300 AD , they left behind a small group who are now know as Sonjo. There are 30,000 of them. Their language bears similarities to Gikuyu language.

Listen

The benefits from ethnic fragmentation are so slim as to be virtually worthless. Before you can convince anyone that Kirinyagans are a minority deserving of special consideration, you would have to jump so many hoops as to be dizzy.

The better bet is the exact opposite strategy. Swelling the population of Kirinyaga County, by encouraging migration from elsewhere (the only demographic boosting option available in Central). Then you can demand all sorts of special considerations.

the most interesting thing that i noticed is that people think a group of people were "moving" in like large numbers and going somewhere. no... it's very similar to what people in mashambani do now... encroaching on others territory a family at a time. maybe wars, hunger and diseases speed up movement but generally - it's a family at a time deciding to live on the edge of where others live and their kids move further e.t.c. slowly over 10s, hundreds of years a new group shows up somewhere further. an influential person has a lisp and his children think thats how words are pronounced. a guy is unable to pronounce 'batu' but says 'watu' and newer kids think that's how it's pronounced. small changes over time accumulate to create a new group of people.

South Sudan? Who are the Bantus there?