Breathtaking Turkana Tribe Attires (2024)

Among the many Turkana Tribe Attires, the beautiful beaded necklaces worn by the people are the most prominent. It forms a visible part of the people’s culture and identity.

The partly shaved head and the red or black dyed scalp of the women are some of the characteristics that can be used to identify a Turkana woman.

The Turkana Tribe People

The Turkana Tribe is an agro-pastoralist people densely populated in the Turkana District in Northwestern Kenya. They are one of the six tribes in the arid regions of Northern Kenya.

The Tribe people are semi-nomadic pastoralists of Nilotic origin with semi-arid land at its Eastern borders. Lake Turkana has borders with Rendille, Pokot, and Samburu in its South parts; Uganda to the west; and Ethiopian and South Sudan to the North.

Other tribes surrounding the indigenous Turkana people are the Borana, the Dassanetch, the El Molo, the Gabbra near North Horr in Kenya, the Samburu, and the Yaaku.

Lake Turkana is the world’s largest desert lake. It is an alkaline lake and forms part of the Omo-Turkana Basin which stretches into Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda.

The Lake is one of the many lakes in the Rift valley with rising water levels because its water is formed mainly by inflows and there are no outflows to compensate for that. The low levels of socioeconomic growth in the region make it extremely vulnerable to climatic changes.

The beauty of Lake Turkana is breathtaking. Its land may look inhospitable but that’s quite the contrary because Kenya is a safe country. The unique African culture of herdsmen and camels formed in an environment of land shores and dunes is literally an oasis everyone should view.

Cultures of the Turkana People

Because the Turkana Tribe people are majorly nomadic in the deserts of Northern Kenya, they make most of their income from the flesh, milk, and blood of the cattle, goats, camels, and sheep they keep.

With a series of droughts caused by climatic changes in the region, the pasture and grazing lands become even more scarce and hard to work on. This causes the Turkanas to become suspicious and wary of other tribes in Northern Kenya, tourists, and visitors in their lands.

Having a good interpreter makes it easier to relate with a Turkana person.