Maa is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken by the Maasai and Samburu peoples across the savanna grasslands of southern and northern Kenya. Per the 2019 census, the Maasai alone numbered approximately 1.19 million in Kenya; together with the Samburu (~180,000) and Chamus/Njemps (~45,000), total Maa speakers in Kenya exceed 1.3 million. The principal Kenyan Maasai sections are the Purko (the largest, centrally located in Narok County), Keekonyokie, Matapato, and Kaputiei — all in Narok and Kajiado counties. The Samburu, who speak the closely related Sampur variety of Maa, are concentrated in Samburu County to the north. The Chamus (Njemps/Ilchamus), living along the southern and south-eastern shores of Lake Baringo in Baringo County, speak a northern Maa variety with 89–94% lexical similarity to Samburu; together, Samburu and Chamus form the northern division of the Maa language cluster. Maa is notable for its rich cattle terminology, nominal case marking, tonal system, and a large body of oral praise poetry. The Ilchamus are distinctive among Maa speakers for having developed irrigation agriculture and fishing alongside pastoralism — a result of their ecological setting on Lake Baringo — though their language remains firmly within the Maa family rather than constituting a Maa-Cushitic contact variety.