Kutchi is an Indo-Aryan language related to Sindhi, spoken by both Muslim and Hindu Kutchi communities in Mombasa, Nairobi, and other Kenyan towns, whose ancestors came from the Kutch region of Gujarat to East Africa as traders. It is distinct from Gujarati, though the two share lexical similarities and partial mutual intelligibility depending on the variety and the speaker's exposure. Muslim Kutchi sub-communities include the Ismaili Khojas and Sunni Memons; Hindu Kutchi communities, including Leva Patels and Lohanas, have maintained temples in Kenya since at least 1914. Kenyan Kutchi has absorbed significant Swahili vocabulary and is spoken in highly multilingual contexts — a contact pattern documented since the era of the Indian Ocean dhow trade. Its oral tradition includes wedding songs, merchant proverbs, and oral histories of the dhow trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Swahili coast.