THE UNIVERSITY OF LEIPZIG

education and a majority of social services in some of these areas, a fact which has seen rapid
economic, political and social transformation. 650
This same revelation is well collaborated by Günter Wagner who researched about the social
institutions of the Bantu of Northern Kavirondo. The Author made several trips to northern
Nyanza between 1938 and 1942 (by then this area was known as Kavirondo). He amassed a
great deal of data on the twenty two tribes of the current Western Province. Much of Günter’s
data dealt at length with the Maragori, Kisa, Bukusu and Tiriki sub-tribes. He noted that the
flexibility in the social institutions in terms of organization, rule enforcement, place and value
of power at the time, were a manifestation of social and political change, a revelation he said
was a product of extensive British administration and innovations. 651
Sources of customary law in Kakamega District
The ability of individuals and communities to preserve natural resource elements within their
environs stems from historical and sociological institutionalism. The proponents of these
institutionalisms, be it formal or informal, argue that it is the rules and procedures that
structure the conduct of the communities and individuals as well as their relationship with the
diverse resource species in any given resource environment. However, organizational
institutionalists recognize that informal rules such as customary law which we take for
granted, are the major framework scripts that form the cognitive struts for the formal rules. 652
But all this said, one question remains important; what are the sources of this influential
customary law in Kakamega? This question will be answered in the light of the Luhya people
living around Kakamega Forest. During the study, it was widely ascertained that customary
law in Kakamega dates as far back as the history of the Abaluhya people. This customary law
has its roots in the many achievements and the many tribulations that the tribes encountered,
right from their cradle land to the arrival in their present day homeland. Like many other
Bantu East African tribes, the Luhya are greatly attached to the far past or remote past kahale
and present future imbeli.
Historical occurrences have a great impact on the lives of the Abaluhya and such happenings
have a way they shape (d) and structure (d) the local or customary law that is followed by the
Luhya sub-tribes. It is by looking at the distant past that the people and more precisely the
council of elders interprets, or finds an explanation for the present occurrences. The
explanation from these occurrences constitutes an abstraction of myths and prohibitions that
later turn into emergence of knowledge, beliefs, customs and eventual customary law. 653
These historical landmarks are transformed, compacted and scaled down into traditions that
are handed down from one generation to another.
650 Sangaree, W. 1966. Age, Prayer and Politics in Tiriki, Kenya. London: Oxford University Press.
651 Wagner, G. 1949. The Bantu of North Kavirondo. London: Oxford University Press.
652 March, J.G and J.P, Olson. 1984. The New Institutionalism: Organisational Factors for Political Life.
American Political Science Review 78(3):734-749.
653 Vanisina, J. 1985. Oral Tradition as a History. Nairobi: Heinemann.
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