The pokot people are categorized under the larger Kalenjin tribes grouping of Kenyan Nilotic speakers because they have oral traditions of a similar origin. They speak the pokot language.

The pokot people live in the Baringo and Western pokot districts of Kenya and also in the Eastern Karamoja region of Uganda. They are dived into two main sub-groups depending of their location and way of life. The Hill pokot who practice both farming and pastoralism, live in the rainy highlands in the west and in the central south.

The farmers mainly grow corn. The second group consisting of the plain’s pokot herd cows, goats and sheep, but do not cultivate cereal because they live in dry, infertile plains.