By the late-19th century, the term as an identity was largely out of use, but had taken on pejorative connotations of those who had abandoned pastoralism and war culture in exchange for agricultural lifestyle.
The journals, letters and published articles of the first three missionaries of the Church Missionary Society in East Africa (Johann Ludwig Krapf, Johannes Rebmann and Jakob Erhardt), written during the 1840s and 1850s, contain the earliest references to the Lumbwa;[1] Krapf arrived on the East African coast in December 1843, and made his first trip into the interior in January 1844.
In an early account, Thomas Wakefield described the "poor Wakwavi ... [who,] having long since been robbed of their cattle by the Maasai, were compelled to turn their attention to agricultural pursuits".
James Last (who was stationed at Mamboia in central Tanzania during the 1880s) concluded – like Krapf – that "Humba" was an equivalent term for "Kwavi", and both peoples were pastoralists.
This in turn would appear to reflect the growth of economic interdependence between peoples who lived in a mountain forest and those who herded livestock on an arid plain.
Fosbrooke (who interviewed many Maasai in East Africa from 1938 to 1948) noted that his subjects repeatedly told him that they shared a common pastoralist origin with the "Lumbwa", who had adopted agriculture only recently.
According to Fadiman's account, the traditions emerging from the period of the 'Mukuruma, Michubu and subsequent age-sets (1730s-1860s)' are told from the perspective of 'single clans, as they advanced upward into the forests or across the Tigania plain'.
The final group drifted south sometime in the 1880s eventually entering that part of the Mwimbi region that lies adjacent to modern Muthambi, seizing this area from the early Cuka.
[12] The directions of dispersal and order in which they are narrated bear similarity to the extent/grazing grounds of the 'Wakuafi' whom Krapf writes about in 1854, stating that; ...the main strength of the Wakuafi is concentrated around the Oldoinio eibor in a country called Kaputei, whence (they) proceed to the North, North-East, West and South... Krapf states further on that "regarding Oldoinio eibor it is necessary to remark that by this term is meant the Kirénia or Endurkenia, or simply Kenia, as the Wakamba call it..."[13] He does however specifically reference a community referred to as Lumbwa present in the general Laikipia region about the mid-19th century when he notes that: "To the North-East of the Neiwasha are the tribes Sukku, Sodeki, Walúmbua, Nganassa, Ndoizo, Lekipia, whence there is a journey of 24 days to Barawa on the Somali-coast...".
[14] Narratives recorded by MacDonald (1899) regarding the Iloikop wars state that at the time of fragmentation of the Loikop peoples, there was a certain internal jealousy that gradually developed into open conflict.
After some initial defeats, the Masai detached the Sambur of Lykipia from the hostile alliance and then crushed the Guash Ngishu so utterly that the latter could no longer hold their own against the dispossessed Nandi and their kindred, and ceased to exist as a tribe.
Stigand (1913) also made note of the decision and intention of the Laikipiak to "attack and completely overwhelm the southern Masai...that they might cease to exist as a tribe".
[17] Thompson later recounts a trek past 'Giligili' where he noticed "an ernomous Masai kraal, which could not have held less than 3000 warriors, and then some distance beyond appeared another of equal, if not larger dimensions."
It was primarily adopted by the colonial government for administrative purpose and in reference to the region occupied by the Kipsigis who had since abandoned pastoralism culture and embraced agricultural lifestyle.
[20] Eliot (1905), giving an 'account of the British East African Protectorate', stated that the inhabitants of the Lumbwa region "are closely allied to the Nandi, and speak almost the same language.".
[21] The Kipsigis traditions recorded by Orchadson concur on a united identity, and also give the early nineteenth century as the date of fragmentation.