XII 
THE KAVIRONHOS—THE NATIVES OF THE KAVIRONHO 
COUNTRY 
The natives of tlie Kisuniu Province are of great 
interest. This province was formerly included in the 
Uganda Protectorate ; it has a total area of* nearly 
22,000 square miles and a population approaching one 
and a half millions. The Uganda Eailway traverses 
the country between the M.au Plateau and Lake 
Victoria, known as the Kavirondo plains, and it is ex¬ 
tremely fertile. The mountains inhabited by the war¬ 
like Nandi tribe lies to the north-east, and the natural 
boundary, known as the Nandi escarpment, sharply 
divides the Nandi and Kavirondos from each other. 
The Nandi were very troublesome, but a punitive 
expedition sent into their country in 1906 has had 
good consequences and made them peaceable neigh¬ 
bours ; it also allowed officers who accompanied the 
expedition to make some useful ethnographic observa¬ 
tions. The Nandi were a perpetual menace to the 
Kavirondos. This helps to explain the mud, and in 
some instances, stone walls around Kavirondo villages. 
On one occasion, during the construction of the Uganda 
Railway, the surveyors wished to make arrangements 
for buying up a Kavirondo village that lay in the way 
of the railway. During the negotiations the Nandi 
saved the surveyors this trouble by wiping out the 
village. 
The natives of the Kisumu province are very varied, 
but those frequently seen along the railway in this part 
J 40 
