The Turkana are a Nilotic people native to the Turkana District in northwest Kenya, a semi-arid climate region bordering Lake Turkana in the east, Pokot, Rendille and Samburu people to the south, Uganda to the west, and South Sudan and Ethiopia to the north. They refer to their land as Turkan.
According to the 2009 Kenyan census, Turkana number 855,399, or 2.5% of the Kenyan population, making the Turkana the third largest Nilotic ethnic group in Kenya, after the Kalenjin and the Luo, slightly more numerous than the Maasai, and the tenth largest ethnicity in all of Kenya. Although this figure was initially controversial and rejected as too large by Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya, a court ruling (Feb 7, 2012) by Justice Mohammed Warsame (judge) stated that the Kenyan government accepts the 2009 census figures for Turkana.[1]
The language of the Turkana, an Eastern Nilotic language, is also called Turkana; their own name for it is ŋaTurkana or aŋajep a ŋaTurkana.
The Turkana people call themselves ŋiTurkana (The Turkana). The name means the people of Turkan. They are mainly semi-nomadic pastoralists.
The Turkana are noted for raising camels and weaving baskets. In their oral traditions, they designate themselves the people of the grey bull, after the Zebu, the domestication of which played an important role in their history. In recent years, development aid programs have aimed at introducing fishing among the Turkana (a taboo in some sections of The Turkana society) with very limited success.
Famous Turkana include Paul Ereng, the 1988 800M Olympic Champion and 800M former indoor world record holder, supermodel Ajuma Nasenyana; and key Kenyan government officials, including: Kenyan Ambassador to Thailand, H.E. Dr. Richard Titus Ekai; Minister of Labour, Hon. John Kiyonga Munyes - MP; and Hon. Ekwee Ethuro, current Speaker of the Senate and former MP for Turkana Central.
The Turkana refer to themselves as "Ngiturkan" and their land as "Eturkan". The Turkana ethnic group as a whole is composed of two major divisions, each composed of territorial sections. The major divisions are: the Ngimonia, divided into Ngissir and non-Ngissir sections; and the Ngichoro, divided into Ngilukumong, Ngiwoyakwara, Ngigamatak, Ngibelai, and Ngibotok.[