Kisii Meaning & Name Origin: How Mwanyagetinge Community Was Renamed by British Colonial Masters

Kisii meaning & name origin is a source of controversy among tribesmen considering that the name is not fetched from the local language. Reports indicate the name was first used during the British colonial period.

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Gusii Highland natives brag about additional names such as Mwanyagetinge.

Kisii meaning & name origin

What does Kisii mean? The terms Kisii or Gusii are Swahili names given to the locals during the colonial periods.

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Reports indicate that the white man used the word upon the locals for ease of pronunciation. Its variations are as tabulated below;

Name	Meaning
Kisii/Gusii	The Kisii region
Kisii/Omogusii	A Kisii person
Kisii/Abagusii	Kisii people
Ekegusii	Kisii language

Kisii people occupy Kisii County and Nyamira Counties within the former Nyanza Province.

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What is the population of the Kisii tribe in Kenya? A breakdown from the 2019 census report is as follows.

County	Males	Female	Intersex	Population
Kisii	605,784	661,038	38	1,266,860
Nyamira	290,907	314,656	13	605,576

From the above stats, there were at least 2 million Abagusii people in Kenya as of 2019.

Researchers estimate the worldwide population of Kisii people at 3 million given that there are hundreds of thousands in the diaspora.

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Kisii meaning and name origin remain a mystery among natives whose identity was highly corroded during the colonial period.