ABSTRACT
The Kamba of Kenya offer an example of a fairly typical rural community, developing at an even pace and without any sudden social upheavals. 1 Theirs is a quiet revolution in which a number of different influences are making a gradual impact. The Kamba number just over one million, the second largest ethnic group in Kenya and one tenth of the country's total population. They are Bantu-speaking. Ukambani, their homeland, is situated in Kenya's Eastern Province and lies at an almost equal distance between Mount Kenya in the north and Mount Kilimanjaro, across the Tanzanian border, in the south. In size it is twice as big as Holland and about one fifth the size of Great Britain. To the north-west lies the country of the Kikuyu; in the north, the lands of the Embu, Tharaka and Meru. On the eastern side are the Galla; while the Nyika and Taveta occupy the territory to the south. In the south-west Ukambani marches with Masai-land. Machakos and Kitui are the centres of the two districts into which Ukambani is divided. Machakos District on the western side is fairly hilly. In the northern part of the district, in the vicinity of the Iveti Hills, the country is fertile and developed. Below Machakos town are the Mbooni and Kilungu Hills, which are forest areas recently planted with coniferous trees, but the rest of the district is bushland with stony, sandy soil, until recently infected with the tsetse fly. The Athi River flows in a wide curve around the northern end of the district and then sweeps south to become the boundary with the neighbouring district of Kitui.
