It was split from Kisii District in 1989 and was sometimes referred to as North Kisii District.
[2] It was later split into three smaller districts of Nyamira, Manga and Borabu; then later the smaller district of Nyamira was split into Nyamira North and Nyamira South districts.
[3] As per the 2009 census, the three districts had a combined population of 486,975.
[3] In 2010, after the promulgation of the new constitution of Kenya, counties were created based on the districts of Kenya as of 1992.
This effectively led to the creation of Nyamira County.