Portal:Kenya

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Kenya portal
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. A member of the African Union 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, COMESA, International Criminal Court, as well as other international organisations. 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...)


Mwale Medical and Technology City (commonly abbreviated as MMTC) is a community-owned sustainable metropolis located in Butere Sub-county, Kakamega, Kenya. It is centered around a large medical complex with a 5,000-patient capacity Hamptons Hospital, with a research and innovation park in the Plaza district. It also has a large industrial district anchored by a solar power plant. Three other districts have residential homes with a 36-hole golf course, a commercial shopping center with mall, supermarkets, and hotels, and an airport district for evacuating patients to the hospital via a planned cable car. The city costs US$2 billion. It is "a golden standard for new green Cities' development worldwide." MMTC serves as a successful template for other new cities due to the way it has integrated and uplifted the local community and catalyzed economic growth in the region. (Full article...)
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Sunrise in Mombasa
Sunrise in Mombasa

Sunrise in Mombasa, Kenya over the Indian Ocean. Mombasa is currently 2nd largest city in Kenya. It is located in Mombasa County.

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Nakuru skyline

Nakuru is capital of Kenya's Nakuru County. It is the largest urban centre in midwestern Kenya with 307,990 inhabitants and the fourth largest urban centre in the country. It lies about 1850 m above sea level. (Read more...)

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Kenya sent a delegation to compete at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, from 10–26 February 2006. This was Kenya's third time participating in a Winter Olympic Games. The Kenyan delegation consisted of one athlete, cross-country skier and three-time Olympian Philip Boit. In his only event, he finished 91st in the men's 15 kilometre classical. (Full article...)

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Jaramogi Ajuma Oginga Odinga (October 1911 – 20 January 1994) was a Kenyan politician who became a prominent figure in Kenya's struggle for independence. He served as Kenya's first vice-president, and thereafter as opposition leader. Odinga's son Raila Odinga is a former prime minister, and another son, Oburu Odinga, is a former assistant minister in the Ministry of Finance.

Jaramogi is credited for the phrase "Not Yet Uhuru" which is the title of his autobiography published in 1967. "Uhuru" means freedom in Swahili and he was referencing his belief that even after independence from British colonialism, the brutal oppression of opposition in political affairs in Kenya, meant that the country had still not attained real freedom. For example, Jaramogi's son Raila Odinga also spent eight years in detention, although he later served as prime minister. (Full article...)
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In the news

Wikinews Kenya portal
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15 April 2024 –
Fifty-eight people have been killed in Tanzania and 13 people have been killed in Kenya in the past two weeks by flooding caused by torrential rains, with more than 125,000 people in coastal areas of East Africa affected by the flooding. Tanzania announces plans to construct fourteen dams in an attempt to reduce the damage from future floods. (AP)
1 March 2024 – Haitian crisis
Kenyan president William Ruto announces an agreement with Haiti to deploy 1,000 police officers as part of a mission approved by the United Nations to combat gang violence in the Caribbean nation. (Reuters)
1 February 2024 –
A gas truck explodes in a residential area of Nairobi, Kenya, killing three people and injuring 297 others. (BBC News)
18 January 2024 – Shakahola Forest incident
Ninety-five people are charged in Kenya over the deaths by 429 followers of a religious cult in 2023. (Al Jazeera)
22 December 2023 –
Kenya's anti-corruption commission charges the country’s former tourism minister and two others with economic crimes for the alleged fraud of tens of millions of dollars in inflated costs for the construction of a hospitality college. (AP)
12 December 2023 – Visa policy of Kenya
Kenyan President William Ruto announces that all tourists will no longer require a travel visa to enter the country from January, with the visa being replaced by electronic travel authorisation. (Reuters)

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Credit: Trees ForTheFuture
Nakuru, is the largest urban centre in midwestern Kenya and the fourth largest urban centre in the country.

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