Portal:Kenya

Introduction

Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya (Swahili: Jamhuri ya Kenya), is a country in East Africa. With a population of more than 47.6 million in the 2019 census, Kenya is the 28th-most-populous country in the world and 7th most populous in Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi, while its oldest and second-largest city, is the major port city of Mombasa, situated on Mombasa Island in the Indian Ocean and the surrounding mainland. Mombasa was the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate, which included most of what is now Kenya and southwestern Somalia, from 1889 to 1907. Other important cities include Kisumu and Nakuru. Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, Uganda to the west, Tanzania to the south, and the Indian Ocean to the southeast. Kenya's geography, climate and population vary widely, ranging from cold snow-capped mountaintops (Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya) with vast surrounding forests, wildlife and fertile agricultural regions to temperate climates in western and rift valley counties and further on to dry less fertile arid and semi-arid areas and absolute deserts (Chalbi Desert and Nyiri Desert).

Kenya's earliest inhabitants were hunter-gatherers, like the present-day Hadza people. According to archaeological dating of associated artifacts and skeletal material, Cushitic speakers first settled in Kenya's lowlands between 3,200 and 1,300 BC, a phase known as the Lowland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic. Nilotic-speaking pastoralists (ancestral to Kenya's Nilotic speakers) began migrating from present-day South Sudan into Kenya around 500 BC. Bantu people settled at the coast and the interior between 250 BC and 500 AD.

European contact began in 1500 AD with the Portuguese Empire, and effective colonisation of Kenya began in the 19th century during the European exploration of the interior. Modern-day Kenya emerged from a protectorate established by the British Empire in 1895 and the subsequent Kenya Colony, which began in 1920. Numerous disputes between the UK and the colony led to the Mau Mau revolution, which began in 1952, and the declaration of independence in 1963. After independence, Kenya remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The current constitution was adopted in 2010 and replaced the 1963 independence constitution.

Kenya is a presidential representative democratic republic, in which elected officials represent the people and the president is the head of state and government. Kenya is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, COMESA, International Criminal Court, as well as other international organisations. It is also a major non-NATO ally of the United States. With a GNI of 1,840, Kenya is a lower-middle-income economy. Kenya's economy is the second largest in eastern and central Africa, after Ethiopia, with Nairobi serving as a major regional commercial hub. Agriculture is the largest sector; tea and coffee are traditional cash crops, while fresh flowers are a fast-growing export. The service industry is also a major economic driver, particularly tourism. Kenya is a member of the East African Community trade bloc, though some international trade organisations categorise it as part of the Greater Horn of Africa. Africa is Kenya's largest export market, followed by the European Union. (Full article...)

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Hell's Gate National Park, December 2014

Hell's Gate National Park lies south of Lake Naivasha in Kenya, north west of Nairobi. Hell's Gate National Park is named after a narrow break in the cliffs, once a tributary of a prehistoric lake that fed early humans in the Rift Valley. It was established in 1984. A small national park, it is known for its wide variety of wildlife and for its scenery. This includes the Fischer's Tower and Central Tower columns and Hell's Gate Gorge. The national park is also home to five geothermal power stations at Olkaria. The park is equipped with three basic campsites and includes a Maasai Cultural Center, providing education about the Maasai tribe's culture and traditions. (Full article...)

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Beach close to Robinson Island Kenya a couple of kilometres north of Malindi town, Kilifi County.

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Machakos County is a county of Kenya. Its capital is Machakos. Its largest town is Kangundo - Tala. The county has a population of 1,098,584. The county borders Nairobi and Kiambu counties to the West, Embu to the North, Kitui to the East, Makueni to the South, Kajiado to the South West, and Muranga and Kirinyaga to the North West. (Read more...)

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Mount Kenya (Meru: Kĩrĩmaara, Kikuyu: Kĩrĩnyaga, Kamba: Ki Nyaa, Embu: Kirinyaa) is an extinct volcano in Kenya and the second-highest peak in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian (5,199 metres (17,057 feet)), Nelion (5,188 m (17,021 ft)) and Point Lenana (4,985 m (16,355 ft)). Mount Kenya is located in the former Eastern and Central provinces of Kenya; its peak is now the intersection of Meru, Embu, Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Tharaka Nithi counties, about 16.5 kilometres (10.3 miles) south of the equator, around 150 km (90 mi) north-northeast of the capital Nairobi. Mount Kenya is the source of the name of the Republic of Kenya.

Mount Kenya is a volcano created approximately 3 million years after the opening of the East African Rift. Before glaciation, it was 7,000 m (23,000 ft) high. It was covered by an ice cap for thousands of years. This has resulted in very eroded slopes and numerous valleys radiating from the peak. There are currently 11 small glaciers, which are shrinking rapidly, and may disappear by 2050. The forested slopes are an important source of water for much of Kenya. (Full article...)

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Kenya Airways Nairobi National Park Ruins of Gedi Msambweni Lamu Fort Kenya at the 2006 Winter Olympics 2013 CECAFA Cup

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Kenyatta in 1966

Jomo Kenyatta CGH (c. 1897 – 22 August 1978) was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He was the country's first president and played a significant role in the transformation of Kenya from a colony of the British Empire into an independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and a conservative, he led the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party from 1961 until his death.

Kenyatta was born to Kikuyu farmers in Kiambu, British East Africa. Educated at a mission school, he worked in various jobs before becoming politically engaged through the Kikuyu Central Association. In 1929, he travelled to London to lobby for Kikuyu land affairs. During the 1930s, he studied at Moscow's Communist University of the Toilers of the East, University College London, and the London School of Economics. In 1938, he published an anthropological study of Kikuyu life before working as a farm labourer in Sussex during the Second World War. Influenced by his friend George Padmore, he embraced anti-colonialist and Pan-African ideas, co-organising the 1945 Pan-African Congress in Manchester. He returned to Kenya in 1946 and became a school principal. In 1947, he was elected President of the Kenya African Union, through which he lobbied for independence from British colonial rule, attracting widespread indigenous support but animosity from white settlers. In 1952, he was among the Kapenguria Six arrested and charged with masterminding the anti-colonial Mau Mau Uprising. Although protesting his innocence—a view shared by later historians—he was convicted. He remained imprisoned at Lokitaung until 1959 and was then exiled to Lodwar until 1961. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that Kenyan coffee farmer "Pinkie" Jackson amassed Africa's largest collection of native butterflies?
... that in 2009, Doreen Nabwire became the first Kenyan woman to play professional football in Europe?
... that Kenyan theologian Mary Getui was named a Moran of the Burning Spear?
... that Gloria Orwoba raised awareness about period poverty by appearing in the Senate of Kenya in apparently blood-stained trousers?
... that British outrage at the sentencing of a white Kenyan settler to just two years' imprisonment for the 1923 killing of a black employee eventually led to the replacement of the colony's legal code?
... that squatters were one of the groups that started the Mau Mau rebellion?

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In the news

Wikinews Kenya portal

16 July 2024 – Kenya Finance Bill protests: Police fire tear gas and water cannons at anti-government protestors as demonstrations continue in cities across Kenya, calling for the removal of President William Ruto. (Al Jazeera)
15 July 2024 –: The prime suspect arrested over the discovery of nine mutilated female bodies in a rubbish dump in the Mukuru slums of Nairobi, Kenya, confesses to killing 42 women. Another man is also arrested. (Al Jazeera)
11 July 2024 – Kenya Finance Bill protests: Kenyan President William Ruto dismisses all of his cabinet ministers as well as the attorney general in response to deadly protests against a finance bill drafted by his administration. (BBC News)
2 July 2024 – Kenya Finance Bill protests: Protests against the controversially rejected Kenyan finance bill and President William Ruto continue in major cities in the country, with the National Commission on Human Rights reporting at least 39 people killed and 361 injured in the protests. (Al Jazeera)
27 June 2024 – Kenya Finance Bill protests: Thousands of people protest in cities across Kenya, calling for the removal of President William Ruto. (Al Jazeera)
26 June 2024 – Kenya Finance Bill protests: President William Ruto withdraws the controversial Kenya Finance Bill 2024 following an assault on the parliament that killed multiple people. (Reuters)

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Panorama overlooking Tsavo East National Park.

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The following are images from various Kenya-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Maasai woman in traditional headdress and attire. (from Culture of Kenya)
Image 2Traditional dancers in Nairobi (from Culture of Kenya)
Image 3Ugali, served here with beef and sauce, is a mainstay of the cuisine throughout the African Great Lakes region. (from Culture of Kenya)
Image 4Mwai Kibaki and (the late) Mrs. Lucy Kibaki with US President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush at the White House during a state visit in 2003. (from History of Kenya)
Image 5The Diocese of Mombasa (from Culture of Kenya)
Image 6Filmmaker Nathan Collett (with camera) shooting feature film Togetherness Supreme in collaboration with Kibera youth trainees. (from Culture of Kenya)
Image 7BMJ, A US-based award-winning Kenyan actor. His role in South African Post Apartheid play 'Sizwe Bansi is Dead' by Arthol Fugard earned him the best actor award in Oslo, Norway. (from Culture of Kenya)
Image 8A traditional Kenyan drum, similar to the Djembe of West Africa. (from Culture of Kenya)
Image 9Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga speaking to the Kenyan media. (from Culture of Kenya)
Image 101911 map (from History of Kenya)
Image 11Orange Democratic Movement leader Prime Minister Omolo Odinga speaking with the Kenyan media. (from History of Kenya)
Image 12Kenya demography (1961–2003) (from History of Kenya)
Image 13President Daniel arap Moi in 1979 (from History of Kenya)
Image 14Kenyan dancers performing a traditional dance (from Culture of Kenya)
Image 15Traditional Kenyan decorative calabashes (from Culture of Kenya)