Religion
Beliefs in God: The population is made up of 38% Protestants and 28% Roman Catholics. Twenty-six percent are animists, seven percent are Muslims, and one percent practice other faiths. Many people incorporate traditional beliefs into their Christian practice, which causes some friction between Kenyans and Christian churches, particularly on the issue of polygamy. Different ethnic groups' religious practices differ, but one thing they all have in common is a belief in a spirit world inhabited by the souls of ancestors. The Kikuyu and other groups worship the god Ngai, who is said to reside on Mount Kenya.
Religious Believers: Diviners are believed to have the ability to communicate with the spirit world and use their abilities to cure people of diseases or evil spirits in traditional religions. Diviners are also called upon to assist in the delivery of rain during times of drought. Sorcerers and witches are also thought to have supernatural abilities, but unlike diviners, they use these abilities to cause harm. It is the diviners' responsibility to counteract their evil workings.
Rituals and Holy Places: Among the Masai, the beginning of the rainy season is observed with a celebration which lasts for several days and includes singing, dancing, eating, and praying for the health of their animals. For the ritual dances, the performers die their hair red, paint black stripes on their bodies, and don ostrich-feather headdresses. The Kikuyu mark the start of the planting season with their own festivities. Their ceremonial dances are often performed by warriors wearing leopard or zebra skin robes and carrying spears and shields. The dancers dye their bodies blue, and paint them in white patterns.
Initiation ceremonies are important rites of passage, and they vary from tribe to tribe. Boys and girls undergo separate rituals, after which they are considered of marriageable age. Kikuyu boys, for example, are initiated at the age of eighteen. Their ears are pierced, their heads shaved, and their faces marked with white earth. Pokot girls are initiated at twelve years old, in a ceremony that involves singing, dancing, and decorating their bodies with ocher, red clay, and animal fat. Weddings are important occasions throughout the country, and are celebrated with up to eight days of music, dance, and special foods.
Death and the Afterlife: At death, Kenyans believe that one enters the spirit world, which has great influence in the world of the living. Many Kenyans believe in reincarnation, and children are thought to be the embodiment of the souls of a family's ancestors.
