The Sirikwa were an ethnic group in the Western Highlands of Kenya, being most prominent from 12th to 15th century.[1]
The area inhabited by Sirikwa expanded to today's Sotik, Nakuru, Cherangani Hills, Mount Elgon and Eldoret.[2] The Sirikwa were primarily cattle herders, but they also carried out small scale cultivation and gathering of fruits and other wild plants.[1]
The Sirikwa disappeared as an ethnic group in the 17th and 18th century by amalgating to new communities in the area, such as Maasai and Kalenjins. Their language may have contributed to the Kalenjin languages.[2] Sirikwa are also sometimes identified with the Oropom.[3]
Although not ethnically closely related and despite different lifestyles, the Sirikwa had a close economical and cultural relationship with the hunter-gatherer tribe of Ogiek. They also shared linguistic similarities.[2] The Sengwer community living in the Cherangani Hills claim descendance from the Sirikwa, though assimilated to the Pokot since colonial times until the change of government in 2002.
Sirikwa were possibly linked to the Engaruka in Tanzania's crater highlands [3] and related to the Iraqw (Mbulu) people who still live nearby and speak a distinct South Cushitic language.
The Sirikwa culture is still seen as the Sirikwa Holes, which were round depressions having a diameter 10–20 metres and average depth of 2.4 metres which were built on hillsides. They were surrounded by stone walls or wooden fences. Sirikwa holes occur as clusters, with usually 5 to 50 holes at a site, but sometimes over one hundred. Nowadays these holes are often covered by grass and bushes. The Sirikwa kept their cattle inside these fenced enclosures, but built their houses outside them. The holes itself were built for guarding purposes. Sirikwa holes were semi-permanent, after several years they were abandoned and the communities moved to build new pens elsewhere.[3]
Sirikwa territory ran from Lake Turkana in the north to Lake Eyasi in the South. Its crossection ran from the eastern escarpment of the Great Rift Valley to foot of Mount Elgon. Some of the localities include Cherengany, Kapcherop, Sabwani, Sirende, Wehoya,Moi's Bridge, Hyrax Hill, Lanet, Deloraine (Rongai), Tambach, Moiben,Soy, Turbo,Ainabkoi, Timboroa, Kabyoyon, Namgoi and Chemangel (Sotik).[3]
The holes became inefficient due to increasing cattle raiding, particularly by the Galla and Borana and later the Maasai and Nandi. This forced the Sirikwa to disintegrate in various directions. Those who took the easterly route settled among the Kikuyu, Meru, Embu, Pokomo and even the Mijikenda in Shungwaya. Those who went down south founded such nationalities like the Kuria and Sonjo. Thamlich Ohinga on the south eastern shores of Lake Victoria was a settlement of Sirikwa. The group that went west via northern Mount Elgon ended up in the Kingdoms of Bunyoro, Buganda, Busoga and the majority were bantuized on the western side of Mount Elgon or eastern Buganda to form the Abaluyia and Abagusii Bantu groups. The Babukusu sub nationality of the Abaluyia is 80 per cent Sirikwa.