Kenya: Are you Chikuyu or Ruo? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“Are you Chikuyu or Ruo?,” asks Proud Kikuyu Woman: “Lakini [lakini means “but” in Swahili] the one that initially used to surprise me is when I tell someone I’m Kenyan and they go , “Chikuyu or Ruo”. The letter K is often pronounced as ‘Ch’ in Luganda (and the G as ‘J’ hence ‘Mijingo’-but not Ujanda). Like us Agikuyu, many Baganda (and I think Banyankole, too) replace the L with the R in many words. I haven’t come across an R in Luganda, and there is no L in Gikuyu.”