section_path: History/18th and 19th centuries
section_name: 18th and 19th centuries
paragraph_text: 18th and 19th centuries
  
  During the 18th and 19th century C.E, the Masai people moved into central and southern Rift Valley plains of Kenya, from a region north of Lake Rudolf (now Lake Turkana). Although there were not many, they managed to conquer a great amount of land, in the plains where people did not put up much resistance. The Nandi peoples managed to oppose the Masai, while the Taveta peoples fled to the forests on the eastern edge of Mount Kilimanjaro, although they later were forced to leave the land due to the threat of smallpox. An outbreak of either rinderpest or pleuropneumonia greatly affected the Masai's cattle, while an epidemic of smallpox affected the Masai themselves. After the death of the Masai Mbatian, the chief laibon (medicine man), the Masai split into warring factions. The Masai caused much strife in the areas they conquered; however, cooperation between such groups as the Luo people, Luhya people, and Gusii people is evidenced by shared vocabulary for modern implements and similar economic regimes. Although Arab traders remained in the area, trade routes were disrupted by the hostile Masai, though there was trade in ivory between these factions. The first foreigners to successfully get past the Masai were Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann, two German missionaries who established a mission in Rabai, not too far from Mombasa. The pair were the first Europeans to sight Mount Kenya.