Kenya, a country in East Africa, is famed for its scenic landscapes and vast wildlife preserves. Its Indian Ocean coast has historically provided important ports for goods entering the continent from Arabian and Asian traders for many centuries. Kenya is a truly diverse and vibrant country, boasting both cultural and natural diversity.
If you were to travel across the country, you’d see the Indian Ocean, towering mountains, and vast savannas. You’d hear 60 different languages and taste the unique flavors of the many different styles of Kenyan food.
Geography and Nature
Kenya is bisected horizontally by the Equator and vertically by longitude 38° E. It is bordered to the north by South Sudan and Ethiopia, to the east by Somalia and the Indian Ocean, to the south by Tanzania, and to the west by Lake Victoria and Uganda.
The 38th meridian divides Kenya into two halves of striking contrast. While the eastern half slopes gently to the coral-backed seashore, the western portion rises more abruptly through a series of hills and plateaus to the Eastern Rift Valley, known in Kenya as the Central Rift. West of the Rift is a westward-sloping plateau, the lowest part of which is occupied by Lake Victoria.
Within this basic framework, Kenya is divided into the following geographic regions:
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- The Lake Victoria basin
- The Rift Valley and associated highlands
- The eastern plateau forelands
- The semiarid and arid areas of the north and south
- The coast
Kenya's savanna is familiar from movies, TV shows, books, and commercials. It's the landscape many people imagine when they think of Africa.
Millions of people visit Kenya each year to see its endless savanna and the animals that inhabit it: elephants, lions, cheetahs, giraffes, zebras, hippos, rhinos, and more. The Kenyan government has set up more than 50 reserves and parks to protect these animals.
People seeking African wildlife usually focus on Kenya's lowland savannas. But Kenya's ecosystems also include deserts, swamps, mountains, and forests. Each region has its own mix of plants and animals that are suited to the area's particular conditions. Kenya's highland forests are home to many animals found nowhere else in the world.
Slicing through Kenya from north to south is the Great Rift Valley, also known as the East African Rift Valley. It was formed more than 25 million years ago by geological tension in the earth’s crust and is approximately 6500 kilometers long and 60 kilometers wide.
While its global claim to fame is that it is the world’s largest desert lake, Lake Turkana is also Kenya’s largest lake. You may be thinking “wow, that’s a lot of national parks for just one lake,” and yes, it is, but then again Lake Turkana is over 6,000 square kilometers, so it’s a pretty massive lake!
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Demographics and Culture
Kenya is made up of more than 40 different ethnic groups that speak over 60 languages, making the country’s cultures and traditions just as diverse as the population itself.
Kenya is a multi-ethnic state in East Africa. Kenya's population was reported as 47.6 million during the 2019 census compared to 38.6 million inhabitants 2009, 30.7 million in 1999, 21.4 million in 1989, and 15.3 million in 1979.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Kenya had a population of 47,564,296 by 2019. The largest native ethnic groups were the Kikuyu (8,148,668), Luhya (6,820,000), Kalenjin (6,358,113), Luo (5,066,966), Kamba (4,663,910), Somalis (2,780,502), Kisii (2,703,235), Mijikenda (2,488,691), Meru (1,975,869), Maasai (1,189,522), and Turkana (1,016,174).
Kenya’s many peoples are well known to outsiders, largely because of the British colonial administration’s openness to study. Anthropologists and other social scientists have documented for generations the lives of the Maasai, Luhya, Luo, Kalenjin, and Kikuyu peoples, to name only some of the groups.
Adding to the country’s ethnic diversity are European and Asian immigrants from many nations.
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Kenyans put great emphasis on the values of humility, caring for your neighbors, and maintaining friendships. While Kenya is adapting to many modern values like the importance of education, they also remain strongly tied to tradition. It reflects a reality that progress and tradition can coexist beautifully.
Kenya is also one of the most cosmopolitan countries in Africa - no one single cultural element can be used to describe the people as a whole. You could say that the country’s local population easily represents more diversity than many other African countries.
Traditional African beliefs play a significant role in the lives of Kenyans in spite of adapting to modern values. Kenyans practice traditional values of humility, concern for neighbors and maintenance of kinship ties.
Some communities have retained more of the traditional African lifestyle than others. They live in huts, walk barefoot, dress in robes and decorate their hair with colored soils. The Maasai tribe is famous for maintaining a nomadic way of life revolving around cattle and the search for pasture.
Out of all the African countries, Kenya has perhaps the most varied assortment of popular music forms, likely due to the 40-plus ethnic groups that make up the country and its culture. Many of the different ethnic groups have their own distinctive musical styles.
Historically, music in Kenya has been used for sharing information and stories. Throughout Kenya, a variety of drums are used in music traditions within the different ethnic groups. Another popular style of music in coastal Kenya is called taarab, which combines traditional African percussion with the sounds of Arab instruments.
Just like its culture, traditions and music, the food and drink of Kenya is extremely diverse. Each of the ethnic groups has its own styles and specialties.
Ugali is perhaps the most common dish in Kenyan cuisine. Ugali is a cornmeal that is boiled into a thick paste. Githeri is another staple dish in Kenya. It is a stew made of corn and beans with vegetables occasionally mixed in. Chapati is Kenyan flatbread. It is made of flour dough that is wound into a coil and fried in oil. Tea is not only a drink that the Kenyan people regularly enjoy, but it has also become one of the country’s key exports. In fact, Kenya is the biggest exporter of black tea in the world!
Languages
Kenya is a linguistically diverse country where the majority of the population speaks at least 3 languages. In addition to the 42 ethnic dialects, English is the official language, while Swahili (Kiswahili) is the national language spoken by almost every Kenyan.
Kenya's various ethnic groups typically speak their mother tongues within their own communities. The two official languages, English and Swahili, serve as the main lingua franca between the various ethnic groups. According to Ethnologue, there are a total of 69 languages spoken in Kenya.
Religion
Kenyan culture is heavily influenced by Christianity. Over 80% of the population identifies as Christian - a majority of whom are Protestant and Roman Catholic.
Economy
Kenya is considered the economic, financial, and transport hub of East Africa. The country’s diverse wildlife and panoramic geography draw large numbers of European and North American visitors, and tourism is an important contributor to Kenya’s economy.
Tea is not only a drink that the Kenyan people regularly enjoy, but it has also become one of the country’s key exports. In fact, Kenya is the biggest exporter of black tea in the world!
In March 2021, Kenya exported coffee to the value of approximately 4.56 billion Kenyan shillings, over 40.2 million in US dollars.
History
Kenya's location between the Indian Ocean and Lake Victoria means that people from all over Africa and the Middle East have traveled and traded across it for centuries.
Scientists think Northern Kenya and Tanzania may have been the original birthplace of humans. The bones of one of the earliest human ancestors ever found were discovered in Kenya's Turkana Basin.
Slavery is a big part of Kenya's history. During the 1600s and 1700s, many Kenyans were kidnapped and taken as slaves by Arabs, Europeans, and Americans.
The first people to settle in Kenya were indigenous African communities who migrated from various parts of the continent. Other visitors included traders, explorers and tourists who came in from various parts of the world such as Portugal, Arabia, Roman empire, India and Greece. They visited mainly the East African Coast from as early as the first century A.D.
The first major European presence in East Africa started with the arrival of the Portuguese in the East African waters in 1498 when Vasco Da Gamas fleet made its initial forays on its way to the East Indies. Their quest to control and dominate the lucrative Indian Ocean trade, the conquest of several city-states along the coast, and the establishment of their dominance, lasted 200 years.
The scramble for colonies in Africa among European countries reached fever pitch in 1884, when the Berlin Conference was convened to partition Africa amongst European colonial rivals. Among British acquisitions was the land we today call Kenya. A British trading company, Imperial British East Africa Company, was set up and posted to administer Kenya under the name British East Africa Protectorate.
The seventy years of colonial rule in Kenya were characterised by punitive economic, social and political policies. Most outstanding among these policies was racial discrimination. Huge fertile land was alienated for white settlement, and harsh labour laws were enacted to force the Africans to work at low wages on settler farms and public works.
In 1944, the first countrywide nationalist party, Kenya African Union (KAU) was formed. And in the same year the first African, Eliud Mathu, was nominated to the settler dominated Legislative Council.
After considerable discussion, it was decided to form a mass organization to mobilize the people for the final assault on colonialism, hence the birth of Kenya African National Union, (KANU). KANU was formed in March 1960, at Kiambu town, and on 11 June 1960, it was registered as a mass political society.
The first election on a broad electoral register was held in 1961, and was won by KANU.
The first Government of independent Kenya immediately had to deal with some pressing economic and political problems. The priorities were acceleration of growth, Kenyanisation of the economy and redistribution of incomes.
Since independence Kenya has had 5 presidents. The first President mzee Jomo Kenyatta led Kenya since its independence. Upon Kenyatta’s death on 22nd August 1978, Daniel Arap Moi took over the leadership until he retired on 30th December 2002- in line with a constitutional provision which limits the presidential term to a maximum 10 years of 5 years each.
Mwai Kibaki then took over from Moi on 30th December 2002 to become Kenya’s third President through the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) thus ending KANU’s forty-year dominance. Kibaki was re-elected in 2007 and handed over to Uhuru Kenyatta on March 2013. Uhuru was elected on The National Alliance (TNA) and was re-elected on 26th October 2017.
Interesting Facts
Here are some interesting facts about Kenya:
- There are a total of 50 national parks and reserves in Kenya.
- Kenya is home to some of the world’s best long-distance runners.
- The national animal of Kenya is the East African lion, and the national bird is the Lilac Breasted Roller.
- Wangari Muta Maathai, a Kenyan environmental, social, and political activist, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
- Kenya is amongst one of the world’s leading safari destinations, being home to the Masai Mara National Reserve.
- Many people think the Great Migration happens only once a year, however this natural phenomenon occurs year-round as a cycle.
- East Africa, including Kenya, is one of the earliest regions where modern humans (homo sapiens) are believed to have lived.
In Kenya, more than 40 national parks and game reserves have been set aside for the conservation of wildlife and natural habitat.
Table: Major Ethnic Groups in Kenya (2019)
| Ethnic Group | Population |
|---|---|
| Kikuyu | 8,148,668 |
| Luhya | 6,820,000 |
| Kalenjin | 6,358,113 |
| Luo | 5,066,966 |
| Kamba | 4,663,910 |
| Somalis | 2,780,502 |
| Kisii | 2,703,235 |
| Mijikenda | 2,488,691 |
| Meru | 1,975,869 |
| Maasai | 1,189,522 |
| Turkana | 1,016,174 |
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