Homeland
The Iteso live in Teso North and Teso South in Busia County, and the far larger part of the community lives in eastern Uganda. The 2019 census counted 417,670 Iteso in Kenya.
Language
The Iteso speak Ateso, an Eastern Nilotic language of the Ateker group, which also includes the Turkana and the Karimojong and Jie of Uganda.
Origins
Iteso tradition describes a migration south from Sudan through Karamoja over several centuries. Unlike their Ateker kin, they became settled farmers.
Society
Traditionally the Iteso are organized in exogamous clans, with neighborhood assemblies called etem. The Iteso do not circumcise.
Livelihood and food
Finger millet, cassava and sorghum are the staples. Millet beer (ajon), drunk through long reed straws from a shared pot, is the heart of social life.
Today
Ivan Karp's Fields of Change among the Iteso of Kenya (1978) is the standard ethnography. Like most Kenyans, many Iteso today are Christian and speak Swahili and English as well as Ateso.
Further reading
- Fields of Change among the Iteso of Kenya, Ivan Karp, 1978
Sources
- The Kenya Times: tribes that share roots in Uganda and Kenya
- Talk Africa: census distribution of Kenya's ethnic communities
From The Peoples of Kenya: An Ethnographic Reference (Kenya Experience, November 2026), a synthesis of published sources. Practices described as traditional are historical baselines; today most Kenyans are Christian or Muslim, live in or near towns and speak Swahili and English. Spot something to correct? Write to kibetck@kenyaexperience.org.
