The Orma is one of the Oromo clans in the Horn of Africa who predominantly live in Tana River County in northern Kenya and in southern Ethiopia. They share a common language and cultural heritage with other Oromo clans.^[1] First and foremost they are pastoralists and almost all are Muslims.^[2] In 2019 the Orma numbered 158,993.^[3]

The literature on the Orma, Oromo, Warra Daya, (Wardai, Waridei, and Wardeh) shows that the terminology is extremely confusing. Therefore, first a few comments concerning the terminology. In the oldest literature, the Cushitic speaking people who nowadays are identified as the Orma and Oromo speaking people were called Warra Daya. This name was used by the Somali for the Oromo or Southern Galla living in Jubaland. In white colonial literature these people are called the Galla. The Oromo never called themselves Galla as they considered the name offensive.^[4] In the middle of the twentieth century, following the principle that the name a people use for themselves is to be taken in for official and scientific use, the name Galla was slowly replaced by Oromo.^[5] There exist no agreed-upon etymology for this name and both Orma and Oromo are used, although the spelling Oromo is preferred since the second half of the twentieth century. For the group of people discussed here the name Orma is used as this is their self-chosen name. The name Orma forms enough contrast to other tribes in the area, but if we want to distinguish them from other Orma and Oromo and want to prevent confusion, we should specify them as the Tana Orma.^[6]

The Somali still call the Tana Orma Wardey or Warra-Daya. However, the Tana Orma restrict the name Wardey to back-migrants who had lived as serfs under the Somali and who were descendants of Orma captives.^[7]

Early population figures of the Tana Orma are scanty. The colonial government estimated the number in 1926 at 2,394.^[17] In 1932 they were estimated at 5,000. This increase was due to the return of Wardey. The first full count of the Orma took place in 1962. Their number was counted as 15,985 of which 96% lived in Tana River District, 2% in other Coast districts and 1.5% in Garissa. The remaining 0.5% lived scattered over Kenya. In 1979 they were estimated at 32,000.^[18] Between 1969 and 1979 their increase was 96%, whereas other ethnical groups as the Pokomo in Tana River County had only a population increase of 12%. This large increase was again due to the back-migration and Somali disguised as Wardey. This ‘back-migration’ has continued since.^[19] In 2009 the Orma were counted as 74,146.^[20] In 2019 their number was 158,993. For the first time the category Wardey was available under the main category Orma and 65,965 of the Orma categorized themselves as Wardey.^[21]

The Tana Orma converted relatively recently to the Islam and primarily after the 1920s and en masse in the 1930s and 1940 and since then almost all are Islamic.^[22]

Both sexes are circumcised (genitally mutilated, in terms of the girls) but female genital mutilation (FGM) has been a practice of controversy in the recent past and many elders are preaching against the act of (FGM) The Tana Orma strictly adhere to marrying outside their moiety, a universally practised custom by all Oromo speaking people.^[23]

Although originally the Orma were pastoralists, they have now become increasingly sedentary and economically diversified. The majority, however, is still pastoralist. The Orma pattern of seasonal livestock movement is based on alternating use of riverine floodplain pastures in the dry season and more arid pastures with scattered wells and ponds in the wet season.^[24]

Especially since the collapse of the Somali state in the nineties, regularly there were conflicts between the Orma, Wardey and Somali in Tana River County. In 2012-13 serious conflicts broke out between the Pokomo and Orma resulting in almost 200 dead people.^[25] The cause of the conflicts were Orma people encroaching on the Pokomo agricultural area. Two factors have contributed to the transformation of the previous fairly harmonious relationship of the two into very antagonistic conflicts.^[26] First the population increase has caused pressure on the limited resources. Secondly the Orma have been pushed southwards by Wardey and Somali people. Since these groups are often better armed, the Orma did not have an alternative but to move southwards, which brought them into conflict with the Pokomo.^[27]