Kikuyu

The Kikuyu, or Gikuyu, are the largest ethnic group in Kenya, a Bantu-speaking people traditionally settled as agriculturalists on the fertile highlands around Mount Kenya, organized in precolonial times through an age-set system and councils of elders rather than a centralized chieftaincy. Extensive Kikuyu land was alienated to European settlers under British colonial rule, a grievance that fed directly into the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s, in which Kikuyu fighters and detainees bore the heaviest cost. Since Kenyan independence in 1963 the Kikuyu have remained economically and politically prominent, producing several of the country's presidents, including its first, Jomo Kenyatta.