Homeland
The Mbeere, who call themselves Ambeere, live in the drier lowlands of Embu County that run toward the Tana River. The 2019 census counted 195,250 Mbeere.
Language
Kĩmbeere is classified as a dialect of Kĩembu, one of the partly mutually intelligible Central Bantu languages of the Mount Kenya peoples. Whether the Mbeere are a people separate from the Embu is a point scholars still discuss.
Origins and identity
Oral history says the Embu and Mbeere were once one people who split after a mock battle turned deadly, and that each side gave the other a mocking nickname. Anthropologist Jack Glazier's Land and the Uses of Tradition among the Mbeere of Kenya (1985) is the standard study.
Livelihood
In this dry country the Mbeere grow drought-tolerant millet, sorghum and green grams, keep goats and bees, and grow the stimulant crop mũgũka.
Today
Like most Kenyans today, many Mbeere are Christian and speak Swahili and English alongside Kĩmbeere.
Further reading
- Land and the Uses of Tradition among the Mbeere of Kenya, Jack Glazier (1985)
Sources
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.
