Any man can be a Tiriki; a cow and a cut can get you a lineage

The Tiriki are one of the Luhya sub-tribes that reside east of Vihiga County in Hamisi Constituency at the border of Nandi County. 

It is believed that the Tiriki lived in Asembo on the shores of Lake Victoria. As the Luo came into the area, they pushed out the Tiriki to present-day Maseno. One group under Wanga moved west to Matungu and formed the Wanga kingdom as others moved east and became Tirikis.  

Chiseinya, the Tiriki patriarch had a son called Nanunda. Nanunda had a large family from where the first five clans of the Tiriki originated; Abalukhoba, Abikhaba, Abalukhombe, Abamumbo, and Abashitsutsa. When Chisienya moved East, he found the Terik, a Nilotic group that is believed to have moved south from Mt Elgon.

The British referred to the Terik as Nyang’ori, a term they picked from the Luo. A Terik elder called Diligin invited the Bantus (later Luhyas) to be circumcised into Terik age groups in what Tirikis came to call itumi.

This is how the Bantu adopted the secretive and intrigue-filled culture. This could be the reason why other Bantu groups began to call their kinsmen who adopted Terik rites – Abaterik which later became Tiriki.

Soon, other Bantu breakaway groups began to move into the area and a rule was instituted that the patriarch of the family had to be assimilated into the Tiriki rites. If he had already been circumcised, he was taken through the rites but he became a second-class citizen because he could not get an age group. His children upon going through the rites became full Tirikis and enjoyed full citizenship of the clan. 

A man who wanted to become a Tiriki informed a Tiriki elder who would then submit his request to the council of elders. The council looked into his background to determine if he was a man of good standing.

The elders would then ask him whether he would like to be, naturalised or assimilated. Naturalisation involved paying a cow and beer for the elders, and then promise to abide by Tiriki culture and take his sons to be circumcised the Tiriki way.

Such a Tiriki was called javusekeni. His sons were not allowed to reveal the secrets of the rites they underwent.

The second level is assimilation. Elders would be sent to find out whether he is circumcised. If he is already circumcised, they would recast it the Tiriki way. If this could not happen then he paid a cow that elders would eat before being taken down a river valley and a rite called shikong’o is administered.

The initiate becomes a Tiriki but does not enjoy elder status so cannot conduct Tiriki rites. The third option is when the applicant is not circumcised his manhood can be recast the Tiriki way. He will be taken into the full rites of initiation and become a Tiriki. Here he will enjoy all the rites that accrue to being a Tiriki and can be invited into rites and participate in them.

Immigrants become Tirikis once they have resided in Tiriki for more than one generation. If the new members found members of their former clan in Tiriki they joined them and became assimilated. If there were none then they would be adopted into an existing clan - tsimbamba.

So any man can become a Tiriki and make way for his lineage to be Tiriki.