Kikamba (Kamba)

Kikamba is a Bantu Thagicu-group language spoken by the Akamba people of the semi-arid Eastern Province and Nairobi area. Approximately 4.7 million speakers. It is celebrated for its proverb tradition and for kilumi spirit-possession healing songs, which constitute a major body of oral performance.

The language shows a dialect split between the more conservative Kitui variety (eastern lowlands) and the Machakos variety (western, urban-influenced), with Makueni producing transitional varieties. Kikamba carries substantial loanword strata from Maasai, Arabic, and English