The district had only one local authority: Mount Elgon county council.
In the 1970s, some 600 Mosop families who lived in the forests around Mount Elgon were resettled in Chebyuk to make way for a game reserve.
Over the decades, other ethnicities moved into the Chebyuk settlement, which complicated the land situation.
A violent conflict began in December 2006 in the district between the Soy and Mosop subethnicities of the Sabaot ethnic group over allegations of unfair land allocation.
The Sabaot Land Defense Force was formed, which led to a number of killings in the region.