According to traditions captured by MacDonald (1899), the Samburu were one of the three principal groupings that formed following fragmentation of the Loikop society. The Samburu historians interviewed by Straight et al. (2016) note that the Burkineji was one of the communities that arose from the separation. They do note that the 'Samburi Loiborkineji separated from the other Maa-speakers' in the wake of the 1830s mutai. This was just after the Lkipiku generation had been initiated. This separation is said to have occurred at a river;
