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Among Kenya’s smaller ethnic groups are the Okiek, a community that lived by hunting game, gathering and trading honey, and whose language goes by the same name.
They are arguably our most famous hunter-gatherer community. They live or lived in recluse, and at the dawn of the 20th century, were found in settlements in different parts of the country.
The impending census may give us an idea of their population but there’s a problem. In past national census exercises, the community has been referred to as the Dorobo.
Maasai speakers usually call the Okiek “Il Torobbo”, a derogatory reference that they also apply to all hunters - including their own tribesmen - who have no cattle.
“Dorobo”, “Ndorobo”, “Torobbo” and “Wandorobo” are the other names used to refer to the community, and which are derived from the Maasai term.
Some anthropologists believe that the collective name “Okiek” includes over two dozen sub-communities, each with more specific names e.g., Kapchepkendi, Piik aap Oom and Kaplelach.
Then there are those who argue that the names are a source of confusion because they refer to more peoples than the Okiek.
The term “Torobbo”, for example, combines Okiek together with Maa-speaking hunting peoples found in northern Kenya around the Mathews Range, Mount Ny’iru, the Ndoto Mountains, and the Leroghi plateau.
What is clear is that most Okiek groups live in the Rift Valley highlands of west central Kenya viz. the Mau Escarpment (like these warriors photographed by Kermit Roosevelt in 1909), the Tinderet forest area, and the highlands north of Nakuru. 
This other group of warriors was described in the American Museum journal in 1900 as the Cherangany Dorobo.
Digiri and Omotik Okiek groups live on savanna plains rather than in areas of highland forest.
Until the late 1800s, Kalenjin-speaking hunters (who may have been Okiek) lived around Mount Kenya and the Aberdares. These the Agîkûyû referred to as the “Athi” or the “Ngûmba”.
They were largely absorbed or displaced by Agîkûyû adoption, inter-marriage, and “land sales.”
This is an early 1900s image of a snare with which members of the Okiek community in the Mau escarpment trapped game.
Finally, a quiver and arrows from the same community.
We also have the Il Chamus. Read more about them on en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilchamus_…
