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...)


Hell's Gate National Park, December 2014
Hell's Gate National Park lies south of Lake Naivasha in Kenya, north west of Nairobi. Hell's Gate National 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. A small national park, it is known 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 is equipped with three basic campsites and includes a Maasai Cultural Center, providing education about the Maasai tribe's culture and traditions. (Full article...)
List of selected articles

Selected picture - show another

Lake Naivasha sunset
Lake Naivasha sunset
Lake Naivasha is one of the many lakes located in the Mid-Western in Kenya due to the Great Rift Valley. It is located in Nakuru County.

Selected location - show another

Tea in Kericho
Tea in Kericho

Kericho County is a county of Kenya. It has a population of 752,396 (2009 census) and an area of 2,111 km² [1]. Its capital and largest town is Kericho.

Kericho County is home to the best of Kenyan Tea which is renowned worldwide for its taste with its town square even known as Chai (Tea) Square. Some of the largest tea companies including Unilever Kenya, James Finlay and Williamson tea are based here. It is also home to the popular Ketepa brand. (Read more...)

Good article - show another

This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

Mount Kenya (Kikuyu: Kĩrĩnyaga, Kamba, Ki Nyaa, 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...)

Selected biography - show another

Kibaki in 2012

Emilio Mwai Kibaki CGH (15 November 1931 – 21 April 2022) was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.

He had previously served as the fourth Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi governments, including as minister for Finance (1969–1981) under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991) under Moi. (Full article...)
List of selected biographies

Related portals

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

In the news

Wikinews Kenya portal
Read and edit Wikinews
18 April 2024 –
A Kenya Air Force Bell UH-1H Huey II crashes in Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya, killing ten people, including Chief of Defence Forces Francis Omondi Ogolla. President William Ruto declares three days of national mourning. (BBC News)
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)

Selected panorama - show another

General images - show another

The following are images from various Kenya-related articles on Wikipedia.

Topics in Kenya

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Discover Wikipedia using portals