Kwavi people

The Kwavi people were a community commonly spoken of in the folklore of a number of Kenyan and Tanzanian communities that inhabited regions of south-central Kenya and north-central Tanzania at various points in history. The conflicts between the Uasin Gishu/Masai and Kwavi form much of the literature of what are now known as the Iloikop wars.

Later writers, writing a few decades later by which point the community had collapsed seemed to indicate that Krapf's designation was not quite accurate. None provided an alternative however. Johnston writing in 1886 for instance, noted that "'Kwavi' is supposed to be a corrupted version of 'El-oigob'"(i.e. Loikop). He also noted that the term Loikop at the time implied settled residence. In another account (1902) he states "...'Kwavi', a name that no Masai can recognise or explain, but which has been perpetuated owing to its adoption by Krapf".

Krapf (1860) recorded a reference to the Kwavi in Wanyika mythology. According to the myth, 'the Galla, Wakamba and Wakuafi had one common father whose eldest son was called Galla'. Galla is said to have raided another community's cattle upon which his brothers Mkamba and Mkuafi asked for a share of the booty but were refused by their brother Galla. Mkuafi is said to have then raided Galla following which he in turn was robbed by his brother Mkamba and vice versa. From that time arose deadly enmity between the brothers which has had no end.

Writing in 1854, Krapf portrays a previously powerful community that was under significant Maasai pressure, accounts from later writers would show that the Kwavi community was collapsing under Maasai attacks at the time Krapf was writing about them. Krapf notes that the Kwavi had previously been "the terror of the agricultural tribes of Jagga, Ukamabani, Teita, Usambara and on the sea-coast".