In Politics , Academia , Sports , Entertainment and Journalism the luo seem to be more succesful than their shemejis who are more numerous . Ni kwa nini ??
Even in the national scene luo seems to be a more formidable tribe and are part of the tire one along with kikuyu and kales .even in the border regions between the two tribes you can find luhyas speaking dholuo but the reverse rarely happens .
Your first mistake is to assume Luhya as one tribe.
Wheres a Luhya can speak Dholuo, there’s 18 sub tribes in Luhya. So which one do you want them to speak. Those Luhya tribes do not share languages. For example a Maragoli barely understands Bukusu.
It was a mistake in grouping by the government, if that even has any bearing.
Basically an assimilated luo , thats brings me to my other assertion that the luo nation is bigger than the luo tribe and this enables them to punch way above their weght in the national scene . Kuna tribes like suba that would claim suba in the census lakini kwa ground are luo by all definition , including some maragoli especially in migori and the border regions of siaya and kakamega .i know a couple of otienos that are maragoli on paper but are luo culturally and linguistically
First,If you get hard facts your line of thought will not hold,I have seen Kenyans confuse who is Luo and who is Luhya, mostly they regard successful Luhyas to be Luo
however i think:
Leadership.I once attended something someplace and the trainer’s were saying Luhya leaders wanaongwa and resources and opportunities get diverted elsewhere.
Opportunity,in Kenya if your tribal chief is not at the table,most opportunities will pass to those represented
Brothers keeper (it’s said a luhya would rather have someone else succeed than his own brother,relative,villager etc)
Geography of luhyaland.those lands are like garden of Eden, making luhyas not look far or think far,however it’s said with subdivision it’s coming to an end that’s why nowadays you find them everywhere)
Colonial political foundation.In Rift valley it caused a good number of groups become politically active,same to Luo Nyanza and central Kenya.In western Kenya actions of colonialists were not that forcing,also,that part was added to Kenya later
They got 18 subtribes competing against each other.Bukusus being the largest believe they ought to lead,Margolis being the second largest and having first embraced western religion and education think they are the best… Thus no unity
All in all I don’t think Luhyas are badly off as you want to portray them, most doctors I heard of during Corona deaths were Luhyas,again I have been with people I thought were something else only to learn later they are Luhyas,it seems it’s like a cultural thing not to show off
I know luhyas are doing just fine but I just happen to think that luos ouperform them in the national scene and i wanted to know why. BTW i could be wrong and am ready to be corrected
We share names…i know that also confuses you. So many still dont know that the late professors hillary ojiambo, calestous juma or even odhiambo are luhyias. The rugby and football teams will also shock you…most luhyia players have luo sounding names. Daniel Adongo the former NFL trialist is luhyia but many assume hes luo.
My name is also very luo. And note that we don’t have a tribe called luhyia
He wont mention the fact that mboya and jaramogi airlifted many to study abroad. Also many fled political persecutions of the 70s…and once abroad they buried themselves in books…thats why their visibility was so high in the 90s…but sai other tribes have caught up.
One thing i admire is how these two great tribes have managed to co exist peacefully . There seems to be pure genuinely love between the two . A luhya would feel totally at home in lakeland