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A Raft of Factors Hinder the Passing On of Kenya’s Vernaculars

By SG Editor·
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Kenya is a multilingual nation with dozens of Indigenous languages. But it risks losing this language diversity unless Kenyan children are taught them at school. Around 4 million people speak Luo in the East African nation, mainly in the west. Other Luo speakers live in Uganda and Tanzania. Luo, also known as Dholuo, is one of the most widely spoken of Kenya’s 42 Indigenous languages — although some estimates put the number as high as 60 or 70. All of the country’s Indigenous languages are minority languages. The largest, Kikuya, is only spoken by 17% of Kenyans, while others, such as Turkana or Borana, are spoken by less than 1% of the population. Kenya’s linguistic “diversity” and the “development and use of Indigenous languages” is even protected in its constitution.

SOURCE: DW

A Raft of Factors Hinder the Passing On of Kenya’s Vernaculars | africa.com