High Court Judge John Mativo has ruled that the Kalenjin sub-tribe Lembus will be enumerated in the upcoming census exercise.
This is after the community and the government entered a consent with the Kenya Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday agreeing to count them as a distinct ethnic community in the forthcoming census.
The Lembus had previously moved to court seeking autonomy from the Kalenjin within whom they were previously enumerated arguing that their culture and ancestry are different.
The community, which is linked to the Tugens in the petition claimed that they were forcefully aggregated explaining that it was a violation of their crucial rights as a different community.
Through their lawyer Dancun Okubasu, the group argued that they are over 300,000 living in the Rift Valley and that failure to recognise them as an official tribe in Kenya violates Article 45 of the Constitution.
The article mandates the State to recognise and protect the family as a fundamental rights unit of the society and the necessary basis of the social order.
In court documents the group had sued Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i alongside Attorney General Kihara Kairuki.
The community lives in Baringo County and are estimated to have about 60,000 voters.
