Editing Kenya

{{Wikipedia origin}} 
[[File:Flag_of_Kenya.svg|thumb|250px|right|The flag of Kenya.]]

==Overview==
[[File:African Leso.jpg|thumb|250px|right|True to their colors and Kenyan culture, the Leso has not lost its touch. Author: Tmwatha.]]

'''Kenya''' (/ˈkɛnjə/; locally [ˈkɛɲa]), officially the '''Republic of Kenya''', is a country in Africa and a founding member of the East African Community (EAC). Its capital and largest city is Nairobi. Kenya's territory lies on the equator and overlies the East African Rift covering a diverse and expansive terrain that extends roughly from Lake Victoria to Lake Turkana (formerly called Lake Rudolf) and further south-east to the Indian Ocean. It is bordered by Tanzania to the south and southwest, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east. Kenya covers 581,309 km2 (224,445 sq mi), and had a population of approximately 48 million people in January 2017.

Kenya has a warm and humid tropical climate on its Indian Ocean coastline. The climate is cooler in the savannah grasslands around the capital city, Nairobi, and especially closer to Mount Kenya, which has snow permanently on its peaks. Further inland are highlands in Central and Rift Valley regions where tea and coffee are grown as cash crops which are major foreign revenue earners. In the West are Nyanza and Western regions, there is an equatorial, hot and dry climate which becomes humid around Lake Victoria, the largest tropical fresh-water lake in the world. This gives way to temperate and forested hilly areas in the neighbouring western region. The north-eastern regions along the border with Somalia and Ethiopia are arid and semi-arid areas with near-desert landscapes. Kenya is known for its world class athletes in track and field and rugby. Thanks to its diverse climate and geography, expansive wildlife reserves and national parks such as the East and West Tsavo National Park, Amboseli National Park, Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru National Park, Aberdares National Park and white sand beaches at the Coastal region, Kenya is home to the modern safari and has several world heritage sites such as Lamu and numerous beaches, including in Diani, Bamburi and Kilifi, where international yachting competitions are held every year.

Kenya obtained independence in December 1963. Following a referendum in August 2010 and adoption of a new constitution, Kenya is now divided into 47 semi-autonomous counties, governed by elected governors.

==History ==
The African Great Lakes region, which Kenya is a part of, has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic period. By the first millennium AD, the Bantu expansion had reached the area from West-Central Africa. The borders of the modern state consequently comprise the crossroads of the Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Afroasiatic areas of the continent, representing most major ethnolinguistic groups found in Africa. Bantu and Nilotic populations together constitute around 97% of the nation's residents.

The Kenyan coast had served host to communities of ironworkers and communities of Bantu subsistence farmers, hunters and fishers who supported 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 trade relations with Arabs. This led to the increase economic growth of the Swahili states, introduction of Islam, Arabic influences on the Swahili Bantu language, cultural diffusion, as well as the Swahili city-states becoming a member of a larger trade network. Many historians had long believed that the city states were established by Arab or Persian traders, but archeological evidence has led scholars to recognize the city states as an indigenous development which, though subjected to foreign influence due to trade, retained a Bantu cultural core.

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. It was said to be founded in the 10th century by Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi, a Persian Sultan from Shiraz in southern Iran.

Imperial Germany set up a protectorate over the Sultan of Zanzibar's coastal possessions in 1885, followed by the arrival of Sir William Mackinnon's British East Africa Company (BEAC) in 1888, after the company had received a royal charter and concessionary rights to the Kenya coast from the Sultan of Zanzibar for a 50-year period. Incipient imperial rivalry was forestalled when Germany handed its coastal holdings to Britain in 1890, in exchange for German control over the coast of Tanganyika. The colonial takeover met occasionally with some strong local resistance: Waiyaki Wa Hinga, a Kikuyu chief who ruled Dagoretti who had signed a treaty with Frederick Lugard of the BEAC, having been subject to considerable harassment, burnt down Lugard's fort in 1890. Waiyaki was abducted two years later by the British and killed.

European and Arab presence in coastal Mombasa dates to the Early Modern period; European exploration of the interior began in the 19th century.

In 1895 the British government took over and claimed the interior as far west as Lake Naivasha; it set up the East Africa Protectorate. A key to the development of Kenya's interior was the construction, started in 1895, of a railway from Mombasa to Kisumu, on Lake Victoria, completed in 1901.

The border was extended to Uganda in 1902, and in 1920 the enlarged protectorate, except for the original coastal strip, which remained a protectorate, became a crown colony. With the beginning of colonial rule in 1895, the Rift Valley and the surrounding Highlands became reserved for whites. In the 1920s Indians objected to the reservation of the Highlands for Europeans, especially British war veterans. The whites engaged in large-scale coffee farming dependent on mostly Kikuyu labour. Bitterness grew between the Indians and the Europeans.

This area's fertile land has always made it the site of migration and conflict. There were no significant mineral resources—none of the gold or diamonds that attracted so many to South Africa.

Following severe financial difficulties of the British East Africa Company, the British government on 1 July 1895 established direct rule through the East African Protectorate, subsequently opening (1902) the fertile highlands to white settlers. This was resisted by some ethnic groups—notably the Nandi led by Orkoiyot Koitalel Arap Samoei for ten years from 1890 to 1900—however the British eventually built the railway. The Nandi were the first ethnic group to be put in a native reserve to stop them from disrupting the building of the railway. In 1920, the East Africa Protectorate was turned into a colony and renamed Kenya for its highest mountain.

The British Empire established the East Africa Protectorate in 1895, which starting in 1920 gave way to the Kenya Colony.

From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was in a state of emergency arising from the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule. 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 the colony's armed forces, with the personal backing of Winston Churchill.

The capture of Warũhiũ Itote (aka General China) on 15 January 1954 and the subsequent interrogation led to a better understanding of the Mau Mau command structure. 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 the Mau Mau supporters moved to detention camps. The Home Guard formed 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. By the end of the emergency, the Home Guard had killed 4,686 Mau Mau, amounting to 42% of the total insurgents. 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 was the Swynnerton Plan, which was used to both reward loyalists and punish Mau Mau.

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 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 being conferred on all of Kenya. The United Kingdom ceded sovereignty over the Colony of Kenya. The Sultan of Zanzibar agreed that simultaneous with independence for the Colony of Kenya, the Sultan would cease to have sovereignty over the Protectorate of Kenya so that all of Kenya would be one sovereign, independent state. In this way, Kenya became an independent country under the Kenya Independence Act 1963 of the United Kingdom. Exactly 12 months later on 12 December 1964, Kenya became a republic under the name "Republic of Kenya".

Kenya obtained independence in December 1963. Following a referendum in August 2010 and adoption of a new constitution, Kenya is now divided into 47 semi-autonomous counties, governed by elected governors.

Concurrently, the Kenyan army fought the Shifta War against ethnic Somali rebels inhabiting the Northern Frontier District, who wanted to join their kin in the Somali Republic to the north. A cease fire was eventually reached with the signature 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.

In 2002, Moi was constitutionally barred from running, and Mwai Kibaki, running for the opposition coalition "National Rainbow Coalition" (NARC), was elected President. 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 the 1963 independence constitution with a new one.

The toll of the 2007 Post-election violence included approximately 1,500 deaths and up to 600,000 people left internally displaced.

In mid-2011, two consecutive missed rainy seasons precipitated the worst drought in East Africa seen in 60 years. The northwestern Turkana region was especially affected, with local schools shut down as a result. The crisis was reportedly over by early 2012 because of coordinated relief efforts. Aid agencies subsequently shifted their emphasis to recovery initiatives, including digging irrigation canals and distributing plant seeds.

==Tribes==
#22% Kikuyu.
#14% Luhya.
#13% Luo.
#12% Kalenjin.
#11% Kamba.
#6% Kisii.
#6% Meru.
#15% other African.
#1% non-African (mostly Whites, Arabs and mixed-bloods).

==Economy==
The capital, Nairobi, is a regional commercial hub. The economy of Kenya is the largest by GDP in East and Central Africa. Agriculture is a major employer; the country traditionally exports tea and coffee and has more recently begun to export fresh flowers to Europe. The service industry is also a major economic driver. Additionally, Kenya is a member of the East African Community trading bloc. Trade play a major role in the economy.

==Also see==
#[[President of Kenya]]
#[[August 8th, 2017, Kenyan elections]]
#[[October 17th, 2017 Kenyan presidential election]]
#[[2017 Kenyan false diplomas for state officials scam]]
#[[Traffic Amendments Act 2014 (Kenya)]]
#

==Sources==
#http://www.president.go.ke
#http://www.parliament.go.ke
#http://www.africa.com/kenya/  
#https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya
#https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya_(Commonwealth_realm)
#https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya_Colony
#https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Kenya
#https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Africa_Protectorate
#http://www.britishempire.co.uk/images3/africamapgerman1892.jpg
#http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7344816.stm
#https://www.cmi.no/publications/2368-of-oranges-and-bananas
#https://web.archive.org/web/20120104173650/http://www.kbc.co.ke/news.asp?nid=71528
#http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=18686
#https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ke.html
#http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1992/BHK.htm
#https://web.archive.org/web/20090608141216/http://kenyaun.org/polhistory.html
#http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7344816.stm
#https://www.cmi.no/publications/2368-of-oranges-and-bananas
#https://web.archive.org/web/20120104173650/http://www.kbc.co.ke/news.asp?nid=71528
#http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=18686
#https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ke.html
#http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1992/BHK.htm
#https://web.archive.org/web/20090608141216/http://kenyaun.org/polhistory.html
#http://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/sub-saharan-africa/kenya/business-corruption-in-kenya.aspx
#http://wits.worldbank.org/CountryProfile/Country/KEN/Year/2010/Summary
#http://allafrica.com/stories/201708170003.html
#https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001251242/president-uhuru-dp-ruto-to-be-sworn-in-on-august-29
#https://www.tuko.co.ke/249209-list-barack-obama-11-world-leaders-invited-uhurus-swearing-ceremony.html
#https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001251182/jubilee-party-national-super-alliance-battle-now-heads-to-parliament
#https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001251242/president-uhuru-dp-ruto-to-be-sworn-in-on-august-29
#http://thecommonwealth.org/media/press-release/kenyan-elections-credible-fair-and-inclusive-chair-commonwealth-observer
#http://allafrica.com/stories/201708170003.html
[[Category:Countries]]
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[[Category:Sub-Saharan Africa]]
[[Category:Kenya]]