Ogiek Ecological Zones

A long time ago, the Ogiek hunters and gatherers could move searching for food and settlement in different zones depending on seasonal climatic conditions. One day the whole community decided to embark on a journey to find a good place to settle in the forest.

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The first zone they came across was known as Tirik. There were so many elephants and other animals, Women felt it was the best zone to settle due to the presence of animals to hunt but men opposed the idea justifying that the place was too hot and dangerous for children. They got an animal, slaughtered ate and continued with the journey.

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The community found a place named Orogwo. The positive side of this place was the stream of rogrogwet with sparkling clean water and traditional liquor lugumek, while the negative part is that it was extremely cold for children to survive This extreme cold weather was known as tolilet. They quenched their thirst and moved to another zone.

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On arriving to Mosop, the community discovered it had fair weather and favourable climatic conditions, being neither too hot nor too cold. The surrounding environment had so many advantages. There were places like Eloiwek where they could collect herbal medicine and prepare honey, while locations such as Sisiwet and Tira were abundant with flowers that supported pollination, beneficial for honey production. But the Ogiek Peoples did not settle here because of the thick forest which made the place too dark even during the day.

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The neighbouring zone was Tuimasat today famously known as Marioshoni. On reaching this zone they were all in agreement to settle. The zone was very fertile, it had favourable weather conditions, there was the presence of forest for food, medicine and both religious and traditional activities.

Following the journey that day the Ogiek Peoples organized how they would benefit from all the ecological zones as follow;

• Hunting will take place at Tirik and will be exclusively done by men.

• Women will collect water and traditional liquor from Orogwo.

• Both men and women will collect herbal medicine and prepare honey at Mosop.