In their oral traditions, they designate themselves the people of the grey bull, after the Zebu, the domestication of which played an important role in their history.

[4] The establishment of the Turkana people developed as a distinct group which expanded southwards conquering ethnic nations south of its borders.

The Turkana people easily conquered groups it came in contact with by employing superior tactics, weapons, and military organization.

[citation needed] Subsequently, there was a period of relative peace among the indigenous ethnic communities of the region, which lasted until the onset of the European colonization of Africa.

There were, however, sporadic skirmishes between the Turkana and Arab, Swahili, and Abyssinian slave raiders and ivory traders.

[citation needed] During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the British Empire gradually expanded across East Africa, coming into conflict with the Turkana.

[5] During the First and Second World Wars, Turkana recruits enlisted in the King's African Rifles (KAR), a British colonial regiment.

[6] Traditionally, both men and women wear wraps made of rectangular woven materials and animal skins.

Traditionally leather wraps covered with ostrich eggshell beads were the norm for women's undergarments, though these are now uncommon in many areas.

When the rivers dry up, open-pit wells are dug in the riverbed; these are used for providing water to the livestock and also for human consumption.

Goats, camels, donkeys and zebu are the primary herd stock utilized by the Turkana people.

In this society, livestock functions not only as a milk and meat producer but as a form of currency used for bride-price negotiations and dowries.

It is not uncommon for Turkana men to lead polygynous lifestyles since livestock wealth will determine the number of wives each can negotiate for and support.

Houses are constructed over a wooden framework of domed saplings on which fronds of the doum palm (Hyphaene thebaica), hides or skins, are thatched and lashed on.

Each day, one must seek to find the blessings of life—water, food, livestock and children—in a manner that appeases the ancestral spirits and is in harmony with the peace within the community.

There is also a belief in the existence of ancestors, ngipean or ngikaram, yet these are seen to be malevolent, requiring animal sacrifices to be appeased when angry.

Turkana religious specialists, ngimurok, continue to act as intermediaries between living people and ancestors and also help in problem-solving in communities.

Ngimurok help to identify both the source of evil, sickness, or other problems that present themselves and the solution or specific cure or sacrifice that needs to take place in order to restore abundant life in the family and the community.

There are also hidden evil specialists, ngikasubak, who use objects in secret to work against people in the community, and ngikapilak, who specialize in pronouncing very strong curses employing the use of body parts from those recently deceased, but these are not included in the term emuron.

Ngimurok are the people that Akuj and the Fathers speak to in dreams; they are also the ones who can communicate with the ancestors to discern what sort of animal sacrifice is needed to restore peace, bring rain, find a remedy for a child's illness, or who can properly bless the families at a wedding.

Apart from the ngimurok, there are also important clan rituals in Turkana that represent the acknowledgment and transitions of life force.