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Kenya

Map of Kenya

Republic of Kenya

National name: Jamhuri ya Kenya

President: Mwai Kibaki (2002)

Current government officials

Land area: 219,788 sq mi (569,251 sq km); total area: 224,961 sq mi (582,650 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 36,913,721 (growth rate: 2.8%); birth rate: 38.9/1000; infant mortality rate: 57.4/1000; life expectancy: 55.3; density per sq mi: 168

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Nairobi, 3,064,800 (metro. area), 2,411,900 (city proper)

Other large city: Mombasa, 712,600

Monetary unit: Kenya shilling

Languages: English (official), Swahili (national), and numerous indigenous languages

Ethnicity/race: Kikuyu 22%; Luhya 14%; Luo 13%; Kalenjin 12%; Kamba 11%; Kisii 6%; Meru 6%; other African 15%; Asian, European, and Arab 1%

Religions: Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%, indigenous beliefs 10%, Islam 10%, others 2% (note: estimates vary widely)

Literacy rate: 85% (2003 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $58.88 billion; per capita $1,700. Real growth rate: 7%. Inflation: 9.8%. Unemployment: 40% (2001 est.). Arable land: 8%. Agriculture: tea, coffee, corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruit, vegetables; dairy products, beef, pork, poultry, eggs. Labor force: 11.85 million; agriculture 75%, industry and services 25% (2003 est.). Industries: small-scale consumer goods (plastic, furniture, batteries, textiles, soap, cigarettes, flour), agricultural products, oil refining; aluminum, steel, lead; cement, commercial ship repair, tourism. Natural resources: limestone, soda ash, salt, gemstones, fluorspar, zinc, diatomite, gypsum, wildlife, hydropower. Exports: $3.76 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): tea, horticultural products, coffee, petroleum products, fish, cement. Imports: $7.602 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery and transportation equipment, petroleum products, motor vehicles, iron and steel, resins and plastics. Major trading partners: Uganda, UK, U.S., Netherlands, Egypt, Tanzania, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, India, China, Japan (2004).

Member of Commonwealth of Nations

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 293,400 (2006); mobile cellular: 6.485 million (2006). Radio broadcast stations: AM 24, FM 18, shortwave 6 (2001). Radios: 3.07 million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 8 (2002). Televisions: 730,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 2,120 (2007). Internet users: 2.77 million (2006).

Transportation: Railways: total: 2,778 km (2006). Highways: total: 63,265 km; paved: 8,933 km; unpaved: 54,332 km (2004). Waterways: part of the Lake Victoria system is within the boundaries of Kenya. Ports and harbors: Kisumu, Lamu, Mombasa. Airports: 225 (2007).

International disputes: Kenya's administrative boundary still extends into the Sudan, creating the “Ilemi triangle.”

Major sources and definitions

Geography

Kenya lies across the equator in east-central Africa, on the coast of the Indian Ocean. It is twice the size of Nevada. Kenya borders Somalia to the east, Ethiopia to the north, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. In the north, the land is arid; the southwest corner is in the fertile Lake Victoria Basin; and a length of the eastern depression of the Great Rift Valley separates western highlands from those that rise from the lowland coastal strip.

Government

Republic.

History

Paleontologists believe people may first have inhabited Kenya about 2 million years ago. In the 700s, Arab seafarers established settlements along the coast, and the Portuguese took control of the area in the early 1500s. More than 40 ethnic groups reside in Kenya. Its largest group, the Kikuyu, migrated to the region at the beginning of the 18th century.

The land became a British protectorate in 1890 and a Crown colony in 1920, when it went by the name British East Africa. Nationalist stirrings began in the 1940s, and in 1952 the Mau Mau movement, made up of Kikuyu militants, rebelled against the government. The fighting lasted until 1956.

On Dec. 12, 1963, Kenya achieved full independence. Jomo Kenyatta, a nationalist leader during the independence struggle who had been jailed by the British, was its first president.

From 1964 to 1992, the country was ruled as a one-party state by the Kenya African National Union (KANU), first under Kenyatta and then under Daniel arap Moi. Demonstrations and riots pressured Moi to allow for multiparty elections in 1992.

The economy did not flourish under Moi's rule. In the 1990s, Kenya's infrastructure began disintegrating and official graft was rampant, contributing to the withdrawal of much foreign aid. In early 1995, President Moi moved against the opposition and ordered the arrest of anyone who insulted him.

A series of disasters plagued Kenya in 1997 and 1998: severe flooding destroyed roads, bridges, and crops; epidemics of malaria and cholera overwhelmed the ineffectual health care system; and ethnic clashes erupted between the Kikuyu and Kalenjin ethnic groups in the Rift Valley.

On Aug. 7, 1998, the U.S. embassy in Nairobi was bombed by terrorists, killing 243 and injuring more than 1,000. The embassy in neighboring Tanzania was bombed the same day, killing 10.

In a successful effort to win back IMF and World Bank funding, which had been suspended because of Kenya's corruption and poor economic practices, President Moi appointed his high-profile critic and political opponent, Richard Leakey, as head of the civil service in 1999. A third-generation white Kenyan, son of paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey, he had been a highly effective reformer as head of the Kenya Wildlife Service. But after 20 months during which he made a promising start at cleaning up Kenya's corrupt bureaucracy, Leakey was sacked by Moi. Kenya is regularly ranked among the ten most corrupt countries in the world, according to the watchdog group Transparency International.

In August 2000 UN aid workers estimated 3.3 million Kenyans were at risk of starvation due to a devastating East African drought.

An anticorruption law, sponsored by the ruling party, failed to pass in parliament in Aug. 2001 and imperiled Kenya's chances for international aid. Opposition leaders called the law a cynical ploy meant to give the appearance of reform; the proposed law, they contended, was in fact too weak and full of loopholes to make a dent in corruption.

Opposition leader Mwai Kibaki won the Dec. 2002 presidential election, defeating Moi's protégé, Uhuru Kenyatta (term limits prevented Moi, in power for 24 years, from running again). Kibaki promised to put an end to the country's rampant corruption. In his first few months, Kibaki did initiate a number of reforms—ordering a crackdown on corrupt judges and police and instituting free primary school education—and international donors opened their coffers again.

But by 2004, disappointment in Kibaki set in when little further progress was evident, and a long-awaited new constitution, meant to limit the president's power, still had not been delivered. Kibaki made no real progress on his mandate to stem corruption, which became glaringly evident when his anticorruption minister, John Githongo, resigned in Feb. 2005, frustrated that he was prevented from investigating a number of scandals. In July 2005, parliament finally approved a draft of a constitution, but in Dec. 2005 voters rejected it because it expanded the president's powers.

A drought ravaged Kenya, and by Jan. 2006, 2.5 million Kenyans faced starvation.

Kenya descended into violence and chaos following December 2007's presidential election. Preliminary results had opposition candidate Raila Odinga, of the Orange Democratic Movement, defeating incumbent Kibaki, 57% to 39%. In the days after the election, however, Odinga's lead dwindled and Kenya's electoral commission declared Kibaki the winner, 46% to 44%. International observers said the vote was rigged. Odinga, a champion of the poor, had promised to eliminate corruption and tribalism. After the announcement of the official results, violence broke out among members of the Luo and Kikuyu tribes. Odinga is Luo, and Kibaki is Kikuyu. The fighting between the tribes intensified in January 2008, with more than 800 people dying in violence across the country. Odinga refused Kibaki's invitation to discuss the political crisis after Kibaki appointed his cabinet, which did not include any members of Odinga's Orange Democratic Party. Parliament, however, elected Kenneth Marende, of Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement, speaker over an ally of Kibaki. The deployment of the Kenyan military did little to stem the brutal ethnic fighting. In late January, Melitus Mugabe Were, a member of Parliament who has worked to mend the ethnic strife in Kenya and help the poor, was dragged from his car and shot. Members of the opposition said the killing was a political assassination.

By February 2008, more than 1,000 people had died in the ethnic violence. Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan met with representatives from the government and the opposition in an attempt to resolve the crisis. After protracted negotiations that left Annan frustrated, the government and the opposition agreed in late February on a power-sharing deal that has Odinga filling the newly created position as prime minister and the two rivals dividing cabinet positions. Parliament met in March, a much-needed first step toward restoring peace to the battered country. Kibaki announced an enormous national unity cabinet in April that includes 94 ministers. His supporters head powerful minsitries, such as finance and foreign relations. As expected, Odinga is named prime minister.

See also Encyclopedia: Kenya.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes: Kenya

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