108-648: Kiganjo is a small town in Kenya 's Nyeri county . It hosts the Kenya Police College which is Kenya's main college for police training. Kiganjo also hosts one of the Kenya Cooperative Creameries KCC (now New KCC) and a milk depot for the Brookside Milk Company (at Chaka). Kiganjo sits at the junction of roads from Nairobi (A2) and Nyeri (B5), and hosts a railway station on the northern arm of
216-610: A sea route to India around Africa, but went lost. A few years later, in 1312, possibly in search of the Vivaldi brothers, a fellow Genoese, Lancelotto Malocello rediscovered the Canary Islands . Lanzarote is named after him. Jaume Ferrer sailed from Majorca down the West African coast to find the legendary "River of Gold" in 1346, but the outcome of his quest and his fate are unknown. Portuguese explorer Prince Henry , known as
324-569: A Bantu cultural core. DNA evidence has found that the Swahili people were of mixed African and Asian (particularly Persian) ancestry. The Kilwa Sultanate was a medieval sultanate centred at Kilwa , in modern-day Tanzania. At its height, its authority stretched over the entire length of the Swahili Coast , including Kenya. Since the 10th century, rulers of Kilwa would go on to build elaborate coral mosques and introduce copper coinage. Swahili,
432-562: A Bantu language with Arabic , Persian , and other Middle-Eastern and South Asian loanwords , later developed as a lingua franca for trade between the different peoples. Since the turn of the 20th century, Swahili has adopted numerous loanwords and calques from English, many of them originating during English colonial rule. The Swahili built Mombasa into a major port city and established trade links with other nearby city-states, as well as commercial centres in Persia, Arabia, and even India. By
540-587: A colonist's perspective is found in the memoir Out of Africa by Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, published in 1937. By the 1930s, approximately 30,000 white settlers lived in the area and gained a political voice because of their contribution to the market economy. The central highlands were already home to over a million members of the Kikuyu people, most of whom had no land claims in European terms and lived as itinerant farmers. To protect their interests,
648-533: A great amount of land, in the plains where people did not put up much resistance. The Nandi peoples managed to oppose the Masai, while the Taveta peoples fled to the forests on the eastern edge of Mount Kilimanjaro , although they later were forced to leave the land due to the threat of smallpox . An outbreak of either rinderpest or pleuropneumonia greatly affected the Masai's cattle, while an epidemic of smallpox affected
756-590: A long defense of Fort Christiansborg . The Dano-Norwegian colonized the Danish Gold Coast , from 1674 to 1755 the settlements were administered by the Danish West India-Guinea Company . From December 1680 to 29 August 1682, the Portuguese occupied Fort Christiansborg. In 1750 it was made a Danish crown colony . From 1782 to 1785 it was under British occupation. From 1814 it was made part of
864-688: A result, the growing colonial ambitions of the Netherlands were mostly directed against Portugal. For this purpose, two Dutch companies were founded: the West Indies Company , with power over all the Atlantic Ocean, and the East Indies Company , with power over the Indian Ocean. The West India Company conquered Elmina in 1637 and Luanda in 1640. In 1648, they were expelled from Luanda by
972-507: A route to India and kept trying to circumnavigate Africa. In 1485, the expedition of João Afonso d'Aveiros , with the German astronomer Martin of Behaim as part of the crew, explored the Bight of Benin (Kingdom of Benin), returning information about African king Ogane . In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias and his pilot Pêro de Alenquer , after putting down a mutiny, turned a cape where they were caught by
1080-538: A stop in travels to India. In 1642, the French East India Company founded a settlement in southern Madagascar called Fort Dauphin . The commercial results of this settlement were scarce and, again, most of the settlers died. One of the survivors, Etienne de Flacourt , published a History of the Great Island of Madagascar and Relations , which was for a long time the main European source of information about
1188-509: A storm, naming it Cape of Storms. They followed the coast for a while realizing that it kept going eastward with even some tendency to the north. Lacking supplies, they turned around with the conviction that the far end of Africa had finally been reached. Upon their return to Portugal, the promising cape was renamed Cape of Good Hope . Some years later, Christopher Columbus landed in America under rival Castilian command. Pope Alexander VI decreed
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#17328519203651296-578: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . 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,
1404-570: Is now Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria. The parts of North Africa north of the Sahara were well known in antiquity. However, the Romans never seem to have explored the Sahara itself, or the lands South of it. Prior to the 2nd century BC, however, Greek geographers were unaware that the landmass then known as Libya expanded south of the Sahara, assuming that the desert bounded on the outer Ocean . Indeed, Alexander
1512-556: Is sceptical of the historicity of this feat, which would have taken place about 120 years before his birth; however, the reason he gives for disbelieving the story is the sailors' reported claim that when they sailed along the southern coast of Africa, they found the Sun stood to their right, in the north; Herodotus, who was unaware of the spherical shape of the Earth found this impossible to believe. Some commentators took this circumstance as proof that
1620-578: Is some uncertainty as to how far precisely Hanno reached; he may have sailed as far as Sierra Leone , Guinea or even Gabon . However, Robin Law notes that some commentators have argued that Hanno's exploration may have taken him no farther than southern Morocco. Africa is named for the Afri people who settled in the area of current-day Tunisia. The Roman province of Africa spanned the Mediterranean coast of what
1728-543: 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
1836-528: 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
1944-612: The Inter caetera bull, dividing the non-Christian parts of the world between the two rival Catholic powers, Spain and Portugal. Finally, in the years 1497 to 1498, Vasco da Gama , again with Alenquer as a pilot, took a direct route to Cape of Good Hope, via St. Helena . He went beyond the farthest point reached by Dias and named the country Natal . Then he sailed northward, making land at Quelimane ( Mozambique ) and Mombasa , where he found Chinese traders, and Malindi (both in modern Kenya ). In this town, he recruited an Arab pilot who led
2052-513: The Azores . Naval charts of 1339 show that the Canary Islands were already known to Europeans. In 1341, Portuguese and Italian explorers prepared a joint expedition. In 1342 the Catalans organized an expedition captained by Francesc Desvalers to the Canary Islands that set sail from Majorca. In 1344, Pope Clement VI named French admiral Luis de la Cerda Prince of Fortune , and sent him to conquer
2160-447: The Bissau islands and named Serra Leoa ( Lioness Mountains ). In 1469, Fernão Gomes rented the rights of African exploration for five years. Under his direction, in 1471, the Portuguese reached the village of Shama in modern day Ghana and named it and the surrounding region A Mina (the mine). This name came from the abundance of gold that they discovered in the region and led to
2268-729: The Congo Basin and the African Great Lakes . This "Heart of Africa" remained one of the last remaining "blank spots" on world maps of the later 19th century (alongside the Arctic , Antarctic , and interior of the Amazon Basin ). It was left for 19th-century European explorers, including those searching for the famed sources of the Nile , notably John Hanning Speke , Richard Francis Burton , David Livingstone , and Henry Morton Stanley , to complete
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#17328519203652376-683: The Gambia River , visiting the land of Senegal , while another Italian sailor from Genoa, Antonio de Noli , also on behalf of Prince Henry, explored the Bijagós islands, and, together with the Portuguese Diogo Gomes , the Cape Verde archipelago. Antonio de Noli , who became the first governor of Cape Verde (and the first European colonial governor in Sub-Saharan Africa), is also considered
2484-527: The Greater Horn of Africa . Africa is Kenya's largest export market, followed by the European Union. The Republic of Kenya is named after Mount Kenya . The earliest recorded version of the modern name was written by German explorer Johann Ludwig Krapf in the 19th century. While travelling with a Kamba caravan led by the long-distance trader Chief Kivoi , Krapf spotted the mountain peak and asked what it
2592-706: The Gulf of Guinea ). Between 859 and 861 a Viking fleet of 62 ships, led by Hastein and Björn Ironside sailed from the Loire to raid in the Mediterranean , including North Africa. From 1146 to 1148 the Norseman , Roger II of Sicily , established the Kingdom of Africa . In May 1291 the Genoese brothers, Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi , commanded the first known expedition in search of
2700-488: The Indian Ocean . They established many bases along the eastern coast of Africa except for Somalia (See Ajuran-Portuguese wars). The Portuguese also captured Aden in 1513. One of the ships under command of Diogo Dias arrived at a coast that was not in East Africa. Two years later, a chart already showed an elongated island east of Africa that bore the name Madagascar . But only a century later, between 1613 and 1619, did
2808-617: The Kalenjin , Samburu , Luo , Turkana , and Maasai . By the first millennium AD, Bantu -speaking farmers had moved into the region, initially along the coast. The Bantus originated in West Africa along the Benue River in what is now eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon . The Bantu migration brought new developments in agriculture and ironworking to the region. Bantu groups in Kenya include
2916-595: The Kikuyu , Luhya , Kamba , Kisii , Meru , Kuria , Aembu , Ambeere , Wadawida -Watuweta, Wapokomo, and Mijikenda , among others. Notable prehistoric sites in the interior of Kenya include the (possibly archaeoastronomical) site Namoratunga on the west side of Lake Turkana and the walled settlement of Thimlich Ohinga in Migori County . The Kenyan coast had served as host to communities of ironworkers and Bantu subsistence farmers, hunters, and fishers who supported
3024-564: The Ming Dynasty , visited the East African coast on one of his last ' treasure voyages '. Malindi authorities also welcomed the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498. During the 18th and 19th century C.E, the Masai people moved into central and southern Rift Valley plains of Kenya, from a region north of Lake Rudolf (now Lake Turkana ). Although there were not many, they managed to conquer
3132-512: The Pleistocene epoch. During excavations at Lake Turkana in 1984, palaeoanthropologist Richard Leakey , assisted by Kamoya Kimeu , discovered the Turkana Boy , a 1.6-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil. East Africa, including Kenya, is one of the earliest regions where modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) are believed to have lived. Evidence was found in 2018, dating to about 320,000 years ago, of
3240-594: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ) gained a colony in Africa on St. Andrew's Island at the Gambia River and established the Jacob Fort there. The Duchy also took other local lands including St. Mary Island (modern-day Banjul ) and Fort Jillifree . In 1650, Swedish merchants founded Swedish Gold Coast in modern Ghana following the foundation of the Swedish Africa Company (1649). In 1652
3348-682: The Somali Republic to the north. A ceasefire was eventually reached with the signing of the Arusha Memorandum in October 1967, but relative insecurity prevailed through 1969. To discourage further invasions, Kenya signed a defence pact with Ethiopia in 1969, which is still in effect. On 12 December 1964, the Republic of Kenya was proclaimed, and Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya's first president. Under Kenyatta, corruption became widespread throughout
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3456-468: The equator was crossed by Europeans. Portugal established a base in Sāo Tomé that, after 1485, was settled with criminals. After 1497, expelled Spanish and Portuguese Jews were also sent there. In 1482, Diogo Cão found the mouth of a large river and learned of the existence of a great kingdom, Kongo . In 1485, he explored the river upstream as well. But the Portuguese wanted, above anything else, to find
3564-410: The 15th century, Portuguese voyager Duarte Barbosa claimed that "Mombasa is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships, both of which are bound from Sofala and others which come from Cambay and Melinde and others which sail to the island of Zanzibar." In the 17th century, the Swahili coast was conquered and came under
3672-417: The 15th to 18th centuries. At the beginning of the 19th century, European knowledge of the geography of the interior of sub-Saharan Africa was still rather limited. Expeditions exploring Southern Africa were made during the 1830s and 1840s, so that around the midpoint of the 19th century and the beginning of the colonial Scramble for Africa , the unexplored parts were now limited to what would turn out to be
3780-512: The 16th and 17th centuries. The European powers were content to establish trading posts along the coast while they were actively exploring and colonizing the New World . Exploration of the interior of Africa was thus mostly left to the Muslim slave traders , who in tandem with the Muslim conquest of Sudan established far-reaching networks and supported the economy of a number of Sahelian kingdoms during
3888-470: The 1963 independence constitution with a new one. As a result, the elections of 2007 took place following the procedure set by the old constitution. Kibaki was reelected in highly contested elections marred by political and ethnic violence . The main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, claimed the election was rigged and that he was the rightfully elected president. In the ensuing violence, 1,500 people were killed and another 600,000 internally displaced, making it
3996-415: The 2002 elections. Moi's plan to be replaced by Uhuru Kenyatta failed, and Mwai Kibaki , running for the opposition coalition "National Rainbow Coalition" ( NARC ), was elected president. David Anderson (2003) reports the elections were judged free and fair by local and international observers, and seemed to mark a turning point in Kenya's democratic evolution. In 2005, Kenyans rejected a plan to replace
4104-531: The African continent attested to was made by Phoenician sailors, in an expedition commissioned by Egyptian pharaoh Necho II , c. 600 BC which took three years. A report of this expedition is provided by Herodotus (4.37). They sailed south, rounded the Cape heading west, made their way north to the Mediterranean, and then returned home. He states that they paused each year to sow and harvest grain. Herodotus himself
4212-706: The Air Force. It was quickly suppressed by forces commanded by Chief of General Staff Mahamoud Mohamed , a veteran Somali military official. They included the General Service Unit (GSU)—a paramilitary wing of the police—and later the regular police. On the heels of the Garissa Massacre of 1980, Kenyan troops committed the Wagalla massacre in 1984 against thousands of civilians in Wajir County . An official probe into
4320-634: The Canaries. In 1402, Jean de Bethencourt and Gadifer de la Salle sailed to conquer the Canary Islands but found them already plundered by the Castilians . Although they did conquer the isles, Bethencourt's nephew was forced to cede them to Castile in 1418. In 1455 and 1456 two Italian explorers, Alvise Cadamosto from Venice and Antoniotto Usodimare from Genoa , together with an unnamed Portuguese captain and working for Prince Henry of Portugal, followed
4428-454: The Embu call it "Kirinyaa". All three names have the same meaning. Ludwig Krapf recorded the name as both Kenia and Kegnia . Some have said that this was a precise notation of the African pronunciation / ˈ k ɛ n j ə / . An 1882 map drawn by Joseph Thompsons, a Scottish geologist and naturalist, indicated Mt. Kenya as Mt. Kenia. The mountain's name was accepted, pars pro toto , as
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4536-685: The Great , according to Plutarchus ' Lives , considered sailing from the mouths of the Indus back to Macedonia passing south of Africa as a shortcut compared to the land route. Even Eratosthenes around 200 BC still assumed an extent of the landmass no further south than the Horn of Africa . By the Roman imperial period, the Horn of Africa was well-known to Mediterranean geographers. The trading post of Rhapta , described as "the last marketplace of Azania ," may correspond to
4644-404: The Kenyan Railway System. Kagumo High School , which is a national school for boys, is also located in Kiganjo. Kiganjo Kenya Police College has long hosted the first Kenyan High Altitude Athletics Training Camp where famous athletes such as Kipchoge Keino and Ben Jipcho started their athletics careers. The Nyeri war cemetery has 364 World War II victims buried in it, of whom 355 fought with
4752-419: The Kongo to weaken the neighboring realm of the Ndongo , where Queen Nzinga put up a fierce but eventually doomed resistance to Portuguese and Jagga ambitions. Portugal intervened militarily in these conflicts, creating the basis for their colony of Angola . In 1663, after another conflict, the royal crown of Kongo was sent to Lisbon . Nevertheless, a diminished Kongo Kingdom would still exist until 1885, when
4860-411: The Masai themselves. After the death of the Masai Mbatian , the chief laibon (medicine man), the Masai split into warring factions. The Masai caused much strife in the areas they conquered; however, cooperation between such groups as the Luo people , Luhya people , and Gusii people is evidenced by shared vocabulary for modern implements and similar economic regimes. Although Arab traders remained in
4968-513: The Navigator , was the first European to methodically explore Africa and the oceanic route to the Indies. From his residence in the Algarve region of southern Portugal, he directed successive expeditions to circumnavigate Africa and reach India. In 1420, Henry sent an expedition to secure the uninhabited but strategic island of Madeira . In 1425, he tried to secure the Canary Islands as well, but these were already under firm Castilian control. In 1431, another Portuguese expedition reached and annexed
5076-420: The Netherlands for 7,000 ducats and 12 slaves, six of them chained with pure gold chains. In 1777, the Spanish Empire and Portuguese Empire signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso in which Portugal give the islands of Annobón and Fernando Poo in waters of the Gulf of Guinea , as well as the Guinean coast between the Niger River and the Ogooué River , to Spain . The British expressed their interest by
5184-483: The Portuguese directly to Calicut . On 28 August 1498, King Manuel of Portugal informed the Pope of the good news that Portugal had reached India. Egypt and Venice reacted to this news with hostility; from the Red Sea , they jointly attacked the Portuguese ships that traded with India. The Portuguese defeated these ships near Diu in 1509. The Ottoman Empire 's indifferent reaction to Portuguese exploration left Portugal in almost exclusive control of trade through
5292-410: The Portuguese explore the island in detail. They signed treaties with local chieftains and sent the first missionaries , who found it impossible to make locals believe in Hell , and were eventually expelled. The Portuguese presence in Africa soon interfered with existing Arab trade interests. By 1583, the Portuguese established themselves in Zanzibar and on the Swahili coast . The Kingdom of Congo
5400-411: The Portuguese referring to the broader region as the Costa da Mina (Coast of the Mine). This name served as the basis for other European colonizers to refer to the region as the Gold Coast . In 1472, Fernão do Pó discovered the island that would bear his name for centuries (now Bioko ) and an estuary abundant in shrimp ( Portuguese : camarão, ), giving its name to Cameroon . Soon after,
5508-602: The Portuguese. Overall the Dutch built 16 forts in different places, including Gorée in Senegal , partly overtaking Portugal as the main slave-trading power. The Dutch Gold Coast and Dutch Slave Coast were successful. But in the colony of Dutch Loango-Angola , the Portuguese managed to expel the Dutch. In Dutch Mauritius the colonization started in 1638 and ended in 1710, with a brief interruption between 1658 and 1666. Numerous governors were appointed, but continuous hardships such as cyclones, droughts, pest infestations, lack of food, and illnesses finally took their toll, and
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#17328519203655616-435: The Protectorate of Kenya so that all of Kenya would become one sovereign state. In this way, Kenya became an independent country under the Kenya Independence Act 1963 of the United Kingdom. On 12 December 1964, Kenya became a republic under the name "Republic of Kenya". Concurrently, the Kenyan army fought the Shifta War against ethnic Somali rebels inhabiting the Northern Frontier District who wanted to join their kin in
5724-457: The Sudan reached Europe without Muslim mediation. Most of the slaves were sent to Madeira, which became, after thorough deforestation, the first European plantation colony. Between 1444 and 1447, the Portuguese explored the coasts of Senegal , Gambia , and Guinea . In 1456, the Venetian captain Alvise Cadamosto, under Portuguese command, explored the islands of Cape Verde . In 1462, two years after Prince Henry's death, Portuguese sailors explored
5832-399: 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
5940-399: The United Kingdom forces, eight in the South African forces, and one with Indian forces. The cemetery is located along the Nairobi–Nanyuki highway in Kiganjo at 0°24′08″S 37°00′36″E / 0.40228°S 37.01006°E / -0.40228; 37.01006 . Sagana Lodge , one of several state lodges, is located in Kiganjo. This Central Province (Kenya) location article
6048-414: The United Kingdom. Kenya itself was the site of fighting between Allied forces and Italian troops in 1940–41, when Italian forces invaded. Wajir and Malindi were bombed as well. From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was in a state of emergency arising from the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule. The Mau Mau, also known as the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, were primarily Kikuyu people. During
6156-415: The area, trade routes were disrupted by the hostile Masai, though there was trade in ivory between these factions. The first foreigners to successfully get past the Masai were Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann , two German missionaries who established a mission in Rabai , not too far from Mombasa . The pair were the first Europeans to sight Mount Kenya . The colonial history of Kenya dates from
6264-534: The article by stating the cost of the stability in terms of human rights abuses. The opposition party started by Oginga Odinga — Kenya People's Union (KPU)—was banned in 1969 after the Kisumu Massacre and KPU leaders were still in detention without trial in gross violation of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights . The Kenya Students Union, Jehovah Witnesses and all opposition parties were outlawed. Kenyatta ruled until his death on 22 August 1978. After Kenyatta died, Daniel arap Moi became president. He retained
6372-453: The atrocities was later ordered in 2011. The election held in 1988 saw the advent of the mlolongo (queuing) system, where voters were supposed to line up behind their favoured candidates instead of casting a secret ballot. This was seen as the climax of a very undemocratic regime and led to widespread agitation for constitutional reform. Several contentious clauses, including the one that allowed for only one political party, were changed in
6480-475: The beginning of the end of Moi's leadership and the rule of KANU. Moi retained the presidency and George Saitoti became vice president. Although it held on to power, KANU won 100 seats and lost 88 seats to the six opposition parties. The 1992 elections marked the beginning of multiparty politics after more than 25 years of KANU rule. Following skirmishes in the aftermath of the elections, 5,000 people were killed and another 75,000 displaced from their homes. In
6588-406: The bulk of the skilled labour required for construction. They and most of their descendants later remained in Kenya and formed the core of several distinct Indian communities, such as the Ismaili Muslim and Sikh communities. While building the railway through Tsavo , a number of the Indian railway workers and local African labourers were attacked by two lions known as the Tsavo maneaters . At
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#17328519203656696-420: The centuries, the Kenyan coast has played host to many merchants and explorers. Among the cities that line the Kenyan coast is Malindi. It has remained an important Swahili settlement since the 14th century and once rivalled Mombasa for dominance in the African Great Lakes region. Malindi has traditionally been a friendly port city for foreign powers. In 1414, the Chinese trader and explorer Zheng He , representing
6804-400: 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
6912-401: The coast of Tanzania . The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea , dated to the 1st century AD, appears to extend geographical knowledge further south, to Southeast Africa . Ptolemy's world map of the 2nd century is well aware that the African continent extends significantly further south than the Horn of Africa, but has no geographic detail south of the equator (it is unclear whether it is aware of
7020-476: The coastal hotel business, with Kenyatta personally owning the Leonard Beach Hotel. Kenyatta's mixed legacy was highlighted at the 10-year anniversary of Kenya's independence. A December 1973 article in The New York Times praised Kenyatta's leadership and Kenya for emerging as a model of pragmatism and conservatism. Kenya's GDP had increased at an annual rate of 6.6%, higher than the population growth rate of more than 3%. But Amnesty International responded to
7128-506: The colonial administration's crackdown, over 11,000 freedom fighters had been killed, along with 100 British troops and 2,000 Kenyan loyalist soldiers. War crimes were committed on both sides of the conflict, including the publicised Lari massacre and the Hola massacre . The governor requested and obtained British and African troops, including the King's African Rifles . The British began counter-insurgency operations. In May 1953, General Sir George Erskine took charge as commander-in-chief of
7236-677: The colony's armed forces, with the personal backing of Winston Churchill . The capture of Waruhiu Itote (nom de guerre "General China" ) on 15 January 1954 and the subsequent interrogation led to a better understanding of the Mau Mau command structure for the British. Operation Anvil opened on 24 April 1954, after weeks of planning by the army with the approval of the War Council. The operation effectively placed Nairobi under military siege. Nairobi's occupants were screened and suspected Mau Mau supporters moved to detention camps. More than 80,000 Kikuyu were held in detention camps without trial, often subject to brutal treatment. The Home Guard formed
7344-430: The constitution to allow Moi to remain president for another term. Subsequently, Moi stood for reelection and won a 5th term in 1997. His win was strongly criticised by his major opponents, Kibaki and Odinga , as fraudulent. Following this win, Moi was constitutionally barred from another presidential term. Beginning in 1998, he attempted to influence the country's succession politics to have Uhuru Kenyatta elected in
7452-413: The core of the government's strategy as it was composed of loyalist Africans, not foreign forces such as the British Army and King's African Rifles. The capture of Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 in Nyeri signified the ultimate defeat of the Mau Mau and essentially ended the military offensive. During this period, substantial governmental changes to land tenure occurred. The most important of these
7560-428: The country. The building of the railway was resisted by some ethnic groups—notably the Nandi , led by Orkoiyot Koitalel Arap Samoei from 1890 to 1900—but the British eventually built it. The Nandi were the first ethnic group to be put in a native reserve to stop them from disrupting the building of the railway. During the railway construction era, there was a significant influx of Indian workers, who provided
7668-414: The death of most of the colonists. The English forts on the West African coast were eventually taken by the Dutch. In 1626, the French Compagnie de l'Occident was created. This company expelled the Dutch from Senegambia ( Senegal ), making it the first French domain in Africa. They also conquered the island of Arguin . France also set her eyes on Madagascar, the island that had been used since 1527 as
7776-574: The direct rule of the Omani Arabs , who expanded the slave trade to meet the demands of plantations in Oman and Zanzibar . Initially, these traders came mainly from Oman, but later many came from Zanzibar (such as Tippu Tip ). In addition, the Portuguese started buying slaves from the Omani and Zanzibari traders in response to the interruption of the transatlantic slave trade by British abolitionists. Throughout
7884-460: The discoverer of the First Islands of Cape Verde. Along the western and eastern coasts of Africa, progress was also steady; Portuguese sailors reached Cape Bojador in 1434 and Cape Blanco in 1441. In 1443, they built a fortress on the island of Arguin , in modern-day Mauritania , trading European wheat and cloth for African gold and slaves. It was the first time that the semi-mythic gold of
7992-441: The early emergence of modern behaviours , including long-distance trade networks (involving goods such as obsidian), the use of pigments, and the possible making of projectile points. The authors of three 2018 studies on the site suggest that complex and modern behaviours had already begun in Africa around the time of the emergence of Homo sapiens . The first inhabitants of present-day Kenya were hunter-gatherer groups, akin to
8100-571: 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
8208-411: The economy with agriculture, fishing, metal production, and trade with foreign countries. These communities formed the earliest city-states in the region, which were collectively known as Azania . By the 1st century CE, many of the city-states such as Mombasa , Malindi , and Zanzibar began to establish trading relations with Arabs . This led to the increased economic growth of the Swahili states,
8316-685: The establishment of a German Empire protectorate over the Sultan of Zanzibar 's coastal possessions in 1885, followed by the arrival of the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1888. Imperial rivalry was prevented by the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty , Germany handed its East African coastal holdings to Britain in 1890. The transfer by Germany to Britain was followed by the building of the Uganda Railway passing through
8424-476: The exploration of Africa by the 1870s. After this, the general geography of Africa was known, but it was left to further expeditions during the 1880s onward, notably, those led by Oskar Lenz , to flesh out more detail such as the continent's geological makeup. The Phoenicians explored North Africa, establishing a number of colonies, the most prominent of which was Carthage . Carthage itself conducted exploration of West Africa. The first alleged circumnavigation of
8532-431: The following years. In 1991, Kenya transitioned to a multiparty political system after 26 years of single-party rule. On 28 October 1992, Moi dissolved parliament, five months before the end of his term. As a result, preparations began for all elective seats in parliament as well as the president. The election was scheduled to take place on 7 December 1992, but delays led to its postponement to 29 December. Apart from KANU,
8640-642: The footsteps of the Portuguese. During the Tudor period , English merchant adventurers started trading in West Africa, coming into conflict with Portuguese troops. In 1581, Francis Drake reached the Cape of Good Hope. In 1660, the Royal African Company was founded. In 1663, the English built Fort James in Gambia . One year later, another English colonial expedition attempted to settle southern Madagascar, resulting in
8748-623: The formation in 1788 of The Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa . The individuals who formed this club were inspired in part by the Scotsman James Bruce , who had ventured to Ethiopia in 1769 and reached the source of the Blue Nile . Overall, the European exploration of Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries was very limited. Instead, they were focused on
8856-658: The foundations were laid of the fort Carlsborg.In 1658 Fort Carlsborg was seized and made part of the Danish Gold Coast colony, then to the Dutch Gold Coast . Later on the local population started a successful uprising against their new masters and in December 1660 the King of the Akan people subgroup- Efutu again offered Sweden control over the area, but in 1663 were seized by the Danish after
8964-510: The government, civil service, and business community. Kenyatta and his family were tied up with this corruption as they enriched themselves through the mass purchase of property after 1963. Their acquisitions in the Central, Rift Valley, and Coast Provinces aroused great anger among landless Kenyans. His family used his presidential position to circumvent legal or administrative obstacles to acquiring property. The Kenyatta family also heavily invested in
9072-511: The introduction of Islam , Arabic influences on the Swahili Bantu language , cultural diffusion , as well as the Swahili city-states becoming members of a larger trade network. Many historians had long believed that the city-states were established by Arab or Persian traders, but archaeological evidence has led scholars to recognise the city-states as an indigenous development which, though subjected to foreign influence due to trade, retained
9180-620: The island was definitively abandoned in 1710. The Dutch left a lasting impact in South Africa , a region ignored by Portugal that the Dutch eventually decided to use as a station in their route to East Asia. Jan van Riebeeck founded Cape Town in 1652, starting the European exploration and colonization of South Africa . Almost at the same time as the Dutch, other European colonial powers attempted to create their own outposts in West Africa, following in
9288-550: The island. Further settlement attempts had no more success but, in 1667, François Martin led the first expedition to the Malagasy heartland, reaching Lake Alaotra . In 1665, France officially claimed Madagascar, under the name of Île Dauphine. However, little colonial activity would take place in Madagascar until the 19th century. In 1651, the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (a vassal of
9396-634: The land, capturing British supplies, and remaining undefeated. He eventually surrendered in Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia) 14 days after the Armistice was signed in 1918. To chase von Lettow, the British deployed the British Indian Army troops from India but needed large numbers of porters to overcome the formidable logistics of transporting supplies far into the interior on foot. The Carrier Corps
9504-498: The last Manicongo, Pedro V, ceded his almost non-existent domain to Portugal. The Portuguese dealt with the other major state of Southern Africa, the Monomotapa (in modern Zimbabwe ), in a similar manner: Portugal intervened in a local war hoping to get abundant mineral riches, imposing a protectorate. But with the authority of the Monomotapa diminished by the foreign presence, anarchy took over. The local miners migrated and even buried
9612-434: The mines to prevent them from falling into Portuguese hands. When in 1693 the neighboring Cangamires invaded the country, the Portuguese accepted their failure and retreated to the coast. Beginning in the 17th century, the Netherlands began exploring and colonizing Africa. While the Dutch were waging a long war of independence against Spain, Portugal had temporarily united with Spain, starting in 1580 and ending in 1640. As
9720-586: The modern Khoisan speakers. These people were later largely replaced by agropastoralist Cushitic (ancestral to Kenya's Cushitic speakers) from the Horn of Africa . During the early Holocene , the regional climate shifted from dry to wetter conditions, providing an opportunity for the development of cultural traditions such as agriculture and herding , in a more favourable environment. Around 500 BC, Nilotic -speaking pastoralists (ancestral to Kenya's Nilotic speakers) started migrating from present-day southern Sudan into Kenya. Nilotic groups in Kenya include
9828-556: The name of the country. It did not come into widespread official use during the early colonial period, when the country was referred to as the East African Protectorate . The official name was changed to the Colony of Kenya in 1920. Hominids such as Homo habilis (1.8 to 2.5 million years ago) and Homo erectus (1.9 million to 350,000 years ago) are possible direct ancestors of modern Homo sapiens , and lived in Kenya in
9936-464: The next five years, many political alliances were formed in preparation for the next elections. In 1994, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga died and several coalitions joined his FORD Kenya party to form a new party, United National Democratic Alliance. This party was plagued with disagreements. In 1995, Richard Leakey formed the Safina party, but it was denied registration until November 1997. In 1996, KANU revised
10044-551: The outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the governors of British East Africa (as the protectorate was generally known) and German East Africa initially agreed on a truce in an attempt to keep the young colonies out of direct hostilities. But Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck , the German military commander, determined to tie down as many British resources as possible. Completely cut off from Germany, Lettow-Vorbeck conducted an effective guerrilla warfare campaign , living off
10152-597: 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
10260-507: 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
10368-416: The presidency, running unopposed in elections held in 1979, 1983 ( snap elections ), and 1988, all of which were held under the single-party constitution. The 1983 elections were held a year early, and were a direct result of a failed military coup on 2 August 1982. The 1982 coup was masterminded by a low-ranking Air Force serviceman, Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka , and was staged mainly by enlisted men of
10476-404: The ruling party, other parties represented in the elections included FORD Kenya and FORD Asili. This election was marked by large-scale intimidation of opponents and harassment of election officials. It resulted in an economic crisis propagated by ethnic violence as the president was accused of rigging electoral results to retain power. This election was a turning point for Kenya as it signified
10584-403: The settlers banned the growing of coffee and introduced a hut tax, and the landless were granted less and less land in exchange for their labour. A massive exodus to the cities ensued as their ability to make a living from the land dwindled. By the 1950s, there were 80,000 white settlers living in Kenya. Throughout World War II , Kenya was an important source of manpower and agriculture for
10692-556: The territory of Denmark . In 1677, King Frederick William I of Prussia sent an expedition to the western coast of Africa. The commander of the expedition, Captain Blonk, signed agreements with the chieftains of the Gold Coast. There, the Prussians built a fort named Gross Friederichsburg and restored the abandoned Portuguese fort of Arguin. But in 1720, the king decided to sell these bases to
10800-513: The voyage is historical, but one scholar still dismisses the report as unlikely. Euthymenes of Massalia explored the coast of West Africa in the early sixth century BC. The West African coast may have been explored by Hanno the Navigator in an expedition c. 500 BC. The report of this voyage survives in a short Periplus in Greek, which was first cited by Greek authors in the 3rd century BC. There
10908-575: The willingness of Somalis in Kenya to join Somalia . The result of the referendum showed that 86% of Somalis in Kenya wanted to join Somalia , yet the British colonial administration rejected the result and the Somalis remained in Kenya. The first direct elections for native Kenyans to the Legislative Council took place in 1957. Despite British hopes of handing power to "moderate" local rivals, it
11016-556: The worst post-election violence in Kenya. To stop the death and displacement of people, Kibaki and Odinga agreed to work together, with the latter taking the position of a prime minister. This made Odinga the second prime minister of Kenya . European exploration of Africa The geography of North Africa has been reasonably well known among Europeans since classical antiquity in Greco-Roman geography . Northwest Africa (the Maghreb )
11124-562: Was converted to Christianity in 1495, its king taking the name of João I . The Portuguese also established their trade interests in the Kingdom of Mutapa in the 16th century, and in 1629 placed a puppet ruler on the throne. The Portuguese (and later also the Dutch) also became involved in the local slave economy, supporting the state of the Jaggas , who performed slave raids in the Congo. They also used
11232-439: Was called. Kivoi told him " Kĩ-Nyaa " or " Kĩlĩma- Kĩinyaa ", probably because the pattern of black rock and white snow on its peaks reminded him of the feathers of the male ostrich. In archaic Kikuyu , the word 'nyaga' or more commonly 'manyaganyaga' is used to describe an extremely bright object. The Agikuyu, who inhabit the slopes of Mt. Kenya, call it Kĩrĩma Kĩrĩnyaga (literally 'the mountain with brightness') in Kikuyu , while
11340-502: Was formed and ultimately mobilised over 400,000 Africans, contributing to their long-term politicisation. In 1920, the East Africa Protectorate was turned into a colony and renamed Kenya after its highest mountain. During the early part of the 20th century, the interior central highlands were settled by British and other European farmers, who became wealthy farming coffee and tea. One depiction of this period of change from
11448-566: Was known as either Libya or Africa , while Egypt was considered part of Asia. European exploration of sub-Saharan Africa begins with the Age of Discovery in the 15th century, pioneered by the Kingdom of Portugal under Henry the Navigator . The Cape of Good Hope was first reached by Bartolomeu Dias on 12 March 1488, opening the important sea route to India and the Far East , but European exploration of Africa itself remained very limited during
11556-575: Was the Kenya African National Union (KANU) of Jomo Kenyatta that formed a government. The Colony of Kenya and the Protectorate of Kenya each came to an end on 12 December 1963, with independence conferred on all of Kenya. The U.K. ceded sovereignty over the Colony of Kenya. The Sultan of Zanzibar agreed that simultaneous with independence for the colony, he would cease to have sovereignty over
11664-542: Was the Swynnerton Plan , which was used to both reward loyalists and punish Mau Mau. This left roughly 1/3rd of Kikuyu bereft of any tenancy land arrangement and thus propertyless at the time of independence. Before Kenya got its independence, Somali ethnic people in present-day Kenya in the areas of Northern Frontier Districts petitioned Her Majesty's Government not to be included in Kenya. The colonial government decided to hold Kenya's first referendum in 1962 to check
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