The Bajuni people (Swahili: Wabajuni) are a Bantu ethnic group who live primarily in the city of Mombasa in Kenya.

Many relocated from southern Somalia to Kenya due to war with the Oromo clan Orma, who drove them out from their ancestral territory.

[4][5] The population's members trace their origins to diverse groups; primarily coastal Bantu peoples along the Swahili coast and Somalis from the mainland.

Many settled around the northern Kenyan coast and offshore islands, where they discovered Lamu Archipelago residents living in cities with coral-built houses.

Along the whole coastline, Bajuni culture and language were and still are relatively consistent, thanks to continual mobility of people between communities and a common way of life centered on the twin poles of fishing and cultivation.

Prior to the arrival of the Orma, the Bajuni were forced to move south from Somalia to Kenya, or to the Somali offshore islands, or were slaughtered.

Prior to the Orma invasion, the main Bajuni homeland and the majority of the inhabitants were in southern Somalia; after that, it relocated south to Kenya.

[10] Despite the fact that additional Swahili settlers arrived from the north and Bajuni fishermen had traditionally used the Kenyan coast as a seasonal fishing ground, Watamu was a small, minor community until the 1960s.

Somali attacks led many people to migrate to the outlying islands, a migratory trend that appears to have been a characteristic of Bajuni life for several centuries.

Although very few people were killed, the continuous razing of dwellings, robbery of animals, burning of crops, and general terror campaign discouraged mainland Bajuni to the point where they evacuated en masse, either to the islands or further away.

Wage labor, on the other hand, is a source of income that many Swahili equate with slavery, and most immediately quit or were fired.

One official record, dated Jun 24 – Jul 30 1971 documents a discussion of traditionally Bajuni lands (Lamu, Kenya) and dissenting opinions as to ownership.

All of these, as well as lengthy oral traditions known to the majority of the community's elder male members, typically refer to events that occurred around and before the Orma advance.

Because oral recollections of events before the sixteenth century, whether official or impromptu, accord in basic outline but differ in detail, what follows is a recap of the areas of agreement.

[13] Bajuni men wear kikoy, a Swahili blanket wrapped around the waist like a shirt, and rubber thongs on their feet.

A woman would traditionally wear a ring through the center of her nose, a gold disk through one pierced nostril, and numerous earrings through the tops of her ears.