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Kenya portal

Introduction

Location of Kenya
The flag of Kenya

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 Africa. 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. (Full article...)


Hell's Gate National Park, December 2014

Hell's Gate National Park is a national park situated near Lake Naivasha in Kenya. The 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. The park is notable 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 features three basic campsites and includes a Maasai Cultural Center, providing education about Maasai culture and traditions. (Full article...)

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Giraffe in Nairobi
Giraffe in Nairobi
A giraffe in Nairobi National Park with the Nairobi skyline in the background

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Muranga County showing the landscape
Muranga County showing the landscape

Muranga County is one of the counties of Kenya's former Central Province. Its largest town is Makuyu but its capital is Murang'a, called Fort Hall in colonial times (before 1963). It is inhabited mainly by and is considered the home of the Kikuyu, the largest community in Kenya. The county has a population of 942,581 (2009 census). (Read more...)

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Mount Kenya (Meru: Kĩrĩmaara, Kikuyu: Kĩrĩnyaga, Kamba: Ki nyaaa, 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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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 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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In the news

Wikinews Kenya portal
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3 November 2024 – 2024 New York City Marathon
Somali-Dutch distance runner Abdi Nageeye wins the 53rd New York City Marathon men's race with a time of 2:07:39. Kenyan distance runner Sheila Chepkirui wins the women's race with a time of 2:24:35. (The New York Times)
1 November 2024 –
Kenyan Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki is sworn in as Deputy President of Kenya after the High Court lifted an order that prevented Kindiki's swearing-in yesterday. (AP)
18 October 2024 –
Kenya's National Assembly unanimously approves Interior Secretary Kithure Kindiki as the new Deputy President following his nomination by President William Ruto. However, the High Court temporarily suspends the impeachment of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in order to hear challenges. (AP)
17 October 2024 –
The Senate of Kenya convicts Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on 5 out of 11 charges, thereby removing him from office. (BBC News)
13 October 2024 – 2024 Chicago Marathon
Kenyan runner Ruth Chepng'etich runs 2:09:56 to break the world record for women's marathon by 1 minute and 57 seconds at the Chicago Marathon. (AP)
13 September 2024 – Germany–Kenya relations, Immigration to Germany
Germany and Kenya agree on a labour migration deal which will see 250,000 skilled and semi-skilled Kenyan workers go work in Germany amid a shortage of skilled labour in the German economy. The agreement will also simplify the return of illegal migrants to Kenya. (BBC News)

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