Kavirondo

Kavirondo is the former name of the region surrounding the Kavirondo Gulf (now Winam Gulf) as well as the two native peoples living there under the regime of British East Africa (specifically, the "Nilotic Kavirondo" and the "Bantu Kavirondo"). Broadly, this was defined as those who dwelt in the valley of the Nzoia River on the western slopes of Mount Elgon and along the northeast coast of Victoria Nyanza.

Suggested etymologies of the name "Kavirondo" include

  • From local young warriors, armed with spears, bows, arrows, & clubs, who were observed to sit on their heels, which in Swahili is kaa virondo. Thus, the region became Kavirondo, the inhabitants pejoratively called wa-Kavirondo: "people who sit on their heels"
  • From kaba-londo: In Buganda two unusual words related to royalty were combined, kabaka, the king & namu-londo, the stool used as throne on which the king is crowned.

(Both putative origins are doubtful).

A more plausible etymological origin of the name Kavirondo is from the Kalenjin language "Kap-Kirondo" meaning "the place of Reeds" denoting the reeds by Lake Victoria. Historian Alfred T. Matson explains in fair detail the obscure origins of the name and its first usage at the dawn of British rule in East Africa.

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