The Kikuyu are the largest ethnic group in Kenya. They speak the Bantu Gĩkũyũ language as a mother tongue. The term Kikuyu is the Swahili form of the proper name and pronunciation of Gĩkũyũ , although group members refer to themselves as the Agĩkũyũ. Gĩkũyũ literally means a huge sycamore tree and Agĩkũyũ thus literally refers to the children of the huge sycamore. According to the 2009 Kenya Population & Housing Census, there are an estimated 6,622,576 Gĩkũyũ people in Kenya, about 16.9% of the country’s total population. According to the CIA World Factbook, as of 2014 there are approximately 9,902,212 Gĩkũyũ people in Kenya, comprising about 22% of the country’s population.
