It is spoken as the primary lingua franca in the provinces of Kongo Central, Kwango and Kwilu and to a lesser extent in Kinshasa, Mai-Ndombe and Kasai.

Kituba is spoken in the southern of the Republic of Congo, in regions of Kouilou, Pointe-Noire, Niari, Bouenza, Lékoumou and in the capital Brazzaville.

Kituba is also spoken in the northern part of Angola, since modern nations cut across the lines of tribal areas and ancient kingdoms, and northern Angola borders the Kwango Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo which is a strong Kituba-speaking area.

One theory claims that it had already evolved at the time of the Kongo Kingdom as a simplified interdialectal trade language, which the European colonists subsequently took into use for regional administration.

Another theory claims that a simplified trade language called Kifyoti was developed at the Portuguese coastal trading 18 post and it was later spread upstream by the Christian missionaries to the region between the Kwango and the Kasai rivers where it evolved further (hence the name Kikwango).

Yet another theory emphasizes the construction of the Matadi-Kinshasa railroad at the end of the 1800s, which involved forced labour from West Africa, lower Congo, and the neighbouring Bandundu region.

He traced the development of Kituba back to the 1800's or earlier, necessitated by the inter-tribal needs of the Congolese themselves, and later, their relationship with slave traders.

Then in the early 1900's, the Belgian and French colonization of the area brought further need for a convenient language of communication with the Congolese.

He notes that many today have grown up knowing Kituba as their mother tongue, and at the same time, it has reached some complexity of grammar unusual to pidgin languages.

He notes that there is an increasing tendency, particularly in the western Kituba-speaking region, to borrow words from French, adding Kituba prefixes and suffixes for everyday usage.

Some examples of differences between Kikongo (Kisikongo, Kizombo, Kisolongo, Iwoyo, Kiyombe, Kisingombe, Kintandu, Kimanianga, Kindibu, Civili, Tsiladi (Lari), etc.)

Other Bantu languages have influenced it as well, including Kiyaka, Kimbala, Kisongo, Kiyansi, Lingala, and Swahili.

[33] These include: Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights translates to: In 2018, a book (Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela: Mbandu ya luzingu by Protais Yumbi) written in Kikongo ya Leta was nominated for the Grand Prix of Literary Associations.

[34][35] A hymnbook, Bankunga ya Kintwadi (Songs of Fellowship) was published in 1988 by the Mennonite Brethren Mission.

These include articles on Christian education, Bible lessons for children and youth, teacher training, health, and a variety of other topics.