ABSTRACT
The portion of East Africa that included the Mukogodo area became part of the British East Africa Protectorate, later renamed Kenya Colony. The Mumonyot started in the late nineteenth century as a remnant of the once powerful Laikipiak Maasai, who were dispersed following their defeat by other Maasai groups. A key indicator of a particular family's subsistence practices during the transitional period was whether they lived in a rockshelter. Initially, British authorities were at a loss for what to do with Kenya and, most important, how to make it pay for its own administration. The information on the Ilng'wesi, Mumonyot, and Digirri is from the author interviews with people from those groups and the work of Urs Herren, a Swiss anthropologist who has studied the non-Mukogodo peoples of Mukogodo Division. Non-Mukogodo men made attractive sons-in-law in part because they were able to offer livestock as bridewealth, while most Mukogodo men could offer only the traditional beehive bridewealth.
