Nilotic Languages — Kenya & East Africa
Dholuo
Archive.
Who speaks it
The Luo of Kenya are a Nilotic ethnic group and the fourth-largest community in Kenya (~10.6% or over 5 million people), primarily residing in the Lake Victoria basin of Western Kenya.
Luo Lakeside Script
Between 2009 and 2012, Kefa Ombewa and Paul Sidandi created the Luo Lakeside Script to write Luo languages. Written left-to-right, it captures the tonal structure of Dholuo more accurately than the Latin alphabet.
Digitization of the Luo Lakeside Script is imminent, with implementation of an accepted Unicode proposal anticipated in 2027.
The number one thing we can do to preserve scripts is actively use them. Until Unicode adoption, anyone curious to try the script can use the keyboard available through Keyman ↗. If you care about projects like this and want to see languages like Dholuo represented on the web, in media, or in AI systems, consider reaching out.
Dholuo in action
Illustrations showing the Dholuo language and Luo Lakeside Script in action — capturing the tongue-in-cheek, idiomatic qualities of Dholuo while demonstrating how the script can function visually and digitally.
"Anguro ichielo gi more"
A pig is fried in its own fat.
"Yuak ogwal ok mon dhok modho"
The croak of a frog doesn't prevent cattle from drinking.
People behind the work
Featured
Michael Nyawino
Executive Director of CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION–KENYA (COHECF-KENYA) and a native Dholuo speaker.
Instrumental in Binary Tree Language Initiative's early successes teaching in Kenya and deeply involved in our current language preservation work.
Michael has devoted his life to equal access to education and healthcare — a pillar of the communities we've touched.