{ken'-yuh} Kenya, a republic of East Africa, is bordered by the Indian Ocean on the southeast, Somalia on the east, Ethiopia on the north, Sudan on the northeast, Uganda on the west, and Tanzania on the south. It is named for Mount Kenya, the second highest mountain in Africa, located in the south central part of the country at the equator. Kenya was a colony of Great Britain before becoming independent on Dec. 12, 1963. LAND AND RESOURCES The only lowlands in Kenya are located along the Indian Ocean in a narrow belt that is 3 to 16 km (2 to 10 mi) wide in the south and widens to about 160 km (100 mi) north of the Tana River. Inland are three upland areas, which include a belt of low plateaus in the east, the Kenya Highlands and the \TGreat Rift Valley\t in the west central regions, and the broad uplands of the Lake Victoria Basin in the west. The low eastern plateaus begin abruptly at the edge of the coastal plain and rise gradually westward to 1,525 m (5,000 ft) in the Yatta Plateau. Located west of the Yatta Plateau, the Kenya Highlands are divided by the spectacular tectonic trough of the eastern arm of the Great Rift Valley, which cuts across the highlands from north to south. The Kenya Highlands rise to more than 3,950 m (13,000 ft) in the Aberdare Range, which forms the steep eastern edge of the rift valley, and to more than 3,000 m (10,000 ft) in the Mau Escarpment, which forms the western edge of the rift; they rise to a high point of 5,199 m (17,058 ft) in Mount \TKenya\t. The Great Rift Valley varies in width from 50 to 65 km (31 to 40 mi), and the floor of the trough, which is 600 to 900 m (2,000 to 3,000 ft) below the surrounding landscape, falls from an elevation of between 900 and 1,800 m (3,000 and 6,000 ft) in the south to 385 m (1,280 ft) in the north near Lake \TRudolf\t, where it is broader and less well defined. West of the highlands, elevations drop to about 1,200 m (4,000 ft) in the Lake Victoria Basin, which is part of a broad uplifted area between the eastern and western arms of the Great Rift Valley. The Lake Victoria Basin is composed of the Kericho Highlands in the south; the Nandi and Elgeyo plateaus in the north; the Kano Plain, located at an elevation of 1,130 m (3,720 ft) on Lake \TVictoria\t's Kavirondo Gulf; and the Kisii and Luyla highlands, located to the south and north, respectively, of the Kavirondo Gulf. Soils Thin sandy soils cover about three-fourths of Kenya; because of dry climatic conditions, these soils are unsuitable or marginally suitable for agriculture. By contrast, the soils of the Lake Victoria Basin are generally fertile, well watered, and of high agricultural potential. The rich volcanic soils of the Kenya Highlands are also good for agriculture. Climate Kenya's low-lying coastal plain has a humid equatorial type of climate characterized by high humidity and little temperature variation from month to month. Inland the northern region has a semiarid climate with near-desert conditions in the drier areas. The higher inland regions receive more rainfall, and temperatures range from subtropical to temperate depending on elevation. The average annual temperature along the coast is 27 deg C (80 deg F), but in the Kenya Highlands it is only 14 deg C (57 deg F). The average annual temperature for the Lake Victoria Basin and the Great Rift Valley is 21 deg C (70 deg F), and for the low plateaus in the eastern parts of the nation it is 20 deg C (68 deg F). About three-fourths of Kenya is semiarid and receives less than 500 mm (20 in) of rain a year; many northern and eastern sections along the borders with Ethiopia and Somalia receive less than 250 mm (10 in) of rain a year. Rainfall is greater in the narrow coastal belt near Mombasa, where 1,000 to 1,525 mm (40 to 60 in) of rain falls every year, and in the Kenya Highlands, where total precipitation varies from 900 to 1,525 mm (35 to 60 in), according to elevation and exposure to moisture-bearing winds. Most precipitation occurs during the "long rains," the rainy season from March to May. Drainage Kenya's principal river is the Tana, which rises in the Highlands and flows southeastward to the Indian Ocean. Western sections of Kenya are drained by the Nzoia and Kuja rivers. Lake Victoria, Lake Rudolf, and other smaller lakes in the Great Rift Valley drain much of the interior of Kenya. Vegetation and Animal Life Tropical savanna grasslands cover most of the low-altitude regions of Kenya; the savanna takes on a semidesert aspect in the dry northern areas. Trees increase in size and number in better-watered areas, and dense forests are found along some water courses. In the highlands, savanna predominates at lower altitudes, giving way to forest at altitudes between 1,500 m (5,000 ft) and 3,300 m (11,000 ft). Herbivores, ranging in size from the small dik-dik to the eland, and carnivores, such as lions, leopards, and cheetahs, are abundant in Kenya, and large areas have been set aside as national parks and wildlife preserves. The principal national parks--where tourists may see a wide range of animals in a natural setting--are Tsavo, Mount Kenya, Amboseli, and Aberdare. Poaching of protected species, however, remains a major problem in Kenya, as in other African nations. Black rhinoceros, elephant, leopard, zebra, and giraffe populations have been so reduced in number in recent years that a government ban on the sale of skins, tusks, and other hunting trophies went into effect in 1978. In 1985 the government began moving the still-endangered black rhinoceroses into heavily guarded sanctuaries to protect them from poachers. PEOPLE Kenya's population is divided by language and culture into more than 40 different ethnic groups. The largest and most important group politically is the \TKikuyu\t, who constitute about 21% of the population and are one of the Bantu-speaking peoples. Other important Bantu peoples are the \TKamba\t, who constitute 11% of the total population, the Luhya (14%), and the Kisii. The \TLuo\t, a people of Nilotic origin who speak a non-Bantu language, constitute about 13% of the total population. The second largest non-Bantu ethnic group comprises several tribes of Nilotic origin who have in recent years taken the name Kalenjin to indicate their common identity and cultural origins. The Kalenjin, about 11% of the total population, include among its members the Kipsigis, Nandi, Elgey, Tugen, and Marakwet. The \TMasai\t, a cattle-herding people of the Great Rift Valley, are also of Nilotic origin. Arabs and \TSwahili\t, a people of mixed Arab and black-African origin, predominate in the coastal areas, and there are small numbers of nomadic Somali and Galla in northern sections of the nation. Several thousand Europeans, most of them of British origin, and Asians live in Nairobi and other cities. Language and Religion Swahili, which became the official language of Kenya in 1974, is grammatically a Bantu language, although it is heavily influenced by Arabic and is written with the Roman alphabet. English is also an official language and is still widely used. Bantu and Nilo-Hamitic languages, consisting of numerous dialects associated with individual ethnic groups, predominate in the highlands. Kenya has no official religion. The majority of Kenyans follow traditional religious practices, but more than 50% of the population is nominally Christian. Islam is prevalent in areas of Arab and Asian influence along the coast and among the nomadic tribes of the north. Demography The overall density figure for Kenya obscures the fact that four-fifths of the country is occupied by less than 15% of the total population, and the remaining one-fifth is occupied by 85% of the total population. The most densely populated areas are the Kenya Highlands and the Lake Victoria Basin, where densities in some places reach 407 persons per sq km (1,055 per sq mi). More than eight out of every ten Kenyans live in rural areas, and most live as farmers or pastoralists in dispersed settlements rather than villages. Some 70% of the population is concentrated in the cities of \TNairobi\t, the capital, and \TMombasa\t. Kenya has one of the highest rates of population growth in the world, and it is predicted that the population may reach 120 million by 2050. This rapid rate of increase is due primarily to the high birth rate and low death rate; more than half the population is under the age of 15. Education and Health Kenya's educational goal is the provision of 8 years of primary education for all children, but only about 75% of school-age children in urban areas, and a much lower percentage in rural areas, attend classes. The University of Nairobi (1956) is the oldest of Kenya's four universities. Rapid population growth has placed great strains on health facilities and other social services, particularly in rural areas. The Arts Although black Africa has no ancient traditions of written literature, traditional oral histories of the tribal peoples have had a significant effect on literature in Kenya, as elsewhere in Africa. Among the country's best-known contemporary authors are James NGUGI WA THOINGO, Muga Gicaru, and Josiah Kariuki. The Kamba are known for their wood carvings and the Kisii for soapstone carvings. Drums and plucked instruments accompany traditional dancing. The principal cultural institutions are in Nairobi and include the National Museum, which is noted for its collections in paleontology and prehistory, the Kenya Cultural Center, and the National Theater. ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES The Kenyan economy is predominantly agricultural. Although less than 5% of the land is under cultivation, farming provides about 30% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and accounts for more than 50% of all export earnings. The rapid economic growth of the first postindependence decade later slowed, due chiefly to pressures created by the rapidly growing population. Once able to feed itself and sell surplus to its neighbors, Kenya now imports large quantities of food, particularly wheat. Unemployment is high, especially in urban areas. Agriculture About 45% of the total area under cultivation is occupied by large farms. These large farms and cooperatives involving about 20% of smallholders grow cash crops for export markets, and their income from farming is thus subject to the wide price swings associated with world trade in agricultural commodities. Some 20% of the best agricultural land was reserved for whites until 1960; About 60% of all smallholders are subsistence farmers. Population growth and drought have led to soil erosion on marginal lands. Kenya's altitudinal and climatic differences allow for cultivation of a wide variety of subtropical and temperate cash and subsistence crops. The most valuable crop is coffee, which is grown mainly in the Kenya Highlands on both large and small farms. Tea is the other principal cash crop grown in the highlands, in areas where conditions are unsuitable for coffee; it is the nation's second most valuable crop. Tea and coffee together accounted for 47% of all foreign exchange earnings in 1988. Corn (the chief subsistence crop), pyrethrum, and wheat are also grown in the highlands. Kenya is the world's leading producer of pyrethrum extract, which is used in the manufacture of pesticides. The principal crops grown on the subtropical coastal lowlands are sisal, cashew nuts, sugar cane, cotton, and rice. Stock raising is the chief activity in the three-fourths of Kenya that is too dry for cultivation. Forestry and Fishing Forests cover only about 6% of the total land area and are located mostly on the slopes of Mount Kenya, the Aberdare Range, Mount \TElgon\t, and other high areas. In 1988, Kenya produced 36,214,000 cu m of roundwood, mostly softwoods used domestically for fuel. Fishing is locally important along the shores of Lake Victoria, Lake Rudolf, and the Indian Ocean. Manufacturing and Energy After independence Kenya pursued a policy of fast growth and industrialization aimed at meeting domestic demand for industrial products and providing an exportable surplus. Although the growth of the industrial sector has slowed, Kenya is the most highly industrialized nation in East Africa, and industry accounted for about 31% of the GDP in 1988. Industries include agricultural processing plants; a petroleum refinery at Mombasa; a pulp and paper mill at Webuye; and several textile and automobile assembly plants. Among the chief manufactured products are processed foods, petroleum products (from imported petroleum), chemicals, cement, and consumer goods. Kenya has no coal or petroleum. There are hydroelectric plants along the Tana River and an oil-fired plant on the coast. About 10% of the nation's power supply is imported from the Owen Falls project in Uganda. A geothermal plant, the first in Africa, began operation near Lake Naivasha in 1981. Tourism With its many national parks and wildlife preserves and the added attractions of the Indian Ocean coast, Kenya draws more visitors than any other country in tropical Africa. Tourism became the nation's largest foreign-exchange earner in 1987. Transportation and Trade In 1967, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda formed the East African Community (EAC). By 1977, however, the organization's once-flourishing customs unit, common market, and joint postal, air, rail, and telecommunications systems had collapsed due to political and economic differences between the three countries. Kenya, which took control of its railways and harbors in 1976 and its airways in 1977, suffered from the loss of the regional trade and transportation network in which it had provided the larger share of manufactured goods and services. In 1983 agreement was reached on the disposition of EAC assets and liabilities. Although the border between Kenya and Tanzania, closed in 1977, was reopened, it was again closed briefly in 1987. Kenya's principal exports are primarily agricultural products, as in the colonial period, but processed industrial goods are also economically important. In 1988 the principal exports were coffee, which accounted for 27% of all exports by value; tea, 20%; refined petroleum products, 12%; vegetables and fruit, 4%; and hides and skins, 3%. The leading imports were machinery and transportation equipment, 32%; crude petroleum, 12%; and iron and steel, 6%. Since the early 1970s Kenya has generally had an unfavorable balance of trade and has borrowed to finance food imports for the growing urban population. A shortage of foreign exchange has led to restrictions on the import of raw materials and equipment by industry. GOVERNMENT Independence was achieved on Dec. 12, 1963, and in 1964, Kenya became a republic within the British Commonwealth of Nations. The president leads the nation; Daniel Arap \TMoi\t was elected to this office in 1978. Kenya has a unicameral National Assembly consisting of 158 members who are elected by universal adult suffrage at least once every 5 years and 14 members appointed by the president. Kenya effectively became a one-party state of the Kenya African National Union (\TKanu\t) in 1964, when the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) joined \TKanu\t. Another party, the Kenya People's Union (KPU), was proscribed in 1969. In 1982 the constitution was changed to legalize Kenya's status as a one-party state. HISTORY Bantu tribes are believed to have migrated eastward and southward across the continent from West Africa and to have entered Kenya about 1,000 years ago. The Nilotic peoples began to enter from the north at about the end of the 15th century and were still migrating when the Europeans arrived. Arabs dominated the coastal areas from the 7th century until the Portuguese took possession of the coast following Vasco da \TGama\t's visit to Mombasa in 1498 and reestablished their control after the Portuguese were ousted in 1729. From then until 1963 the Arabs retained nominal control of the coastal regions, first as part of the sultanate of Muscat (Oman) and after 1861, when the Muscat empire was divided, as part of the sultanate of Zanzibar. Modern European interest in Kenya began in the 1850s, when Europeans explored the interior in search of the source of the Nile and Christian missionaries began their efforts to convert the inhabitants and to end the Arabs' flourishing trade in slaves. By 1855 there were about 300 missionaries in East Africa, and the slave trade was ended by the sultan in 1873. In 1885, Karl Peters received a charter for his German East Africa Company and initiated a scramble among the European nations to establish colonies in East Africa. The Anglo-German agreements of 1886 recognized the sultan's authority over the coastal areas and placed the southern coastal strip (now Tanzania) in the German sphere of influence and the northern coastal strip (now Kenya) in the British sphere of influence. In 1887 the sultan leased the northern coastal strip to the Imperial British East Africa Company, and when that company was dissolved in 1895 the British government established the East Africa Protectorate. The railroad from Mombasa to Nairobi and Lake Victoria was built in the last decade of the 19th century, and as white settlers began to enter Kenya, large areas of the Kenya Highlands--later known as the White Highlands--were subsequently alienated from the Africans and reserved for white-only settlement. In 1920 the interior regions were organized as the British crown colony of Kenya while the coastal strip remained a British protectorate over lands nominally ruled by the sultan of Zanzibar. The African population did not submit easily to British authority, and there were countless clashes between the two groups. The British appointed African chiefs and village headmen to carry out some administrative duties, but efforts to enlist black leaders into legislative bodies met with little success. An educated African elite began to emerge, however, from the schools established primarily by the Christian missionaries, and in 1944 black Kenyans, especially Kikuyu, concerned about their political future formed the Kenya African Union (KAU), which 3 years later came under the leadership of Jomo \TKenyatta\t. In the early 1950s open revolt against the British took the form of a terrorist campaign against the settlers by the so-called \TMau Mau\t movement. Jomo Kenyatta was imprisoned in 1953, but the terrorism continued and a state of emergency was in effect from 1952 to 1960. In 1960 a constitutional change replaced the system of multiracial representation in the government with one of majority rule. Kenyatta was freed in 1961 and in May 1963 led the Kenya African National Union (\TKanu\t) in a decisive victory at the polls, thereby establishing black control of the government and paving the way for independence. Kenya became internally self-governing on June 1, 1963, and full independence was achieved on Dec. 12, 1963, with Jomo Kenyatta as the first prime minister. On Dec. 12, 1964, Kenya became a republic and Kenyatta the first president. Kenyatta remained head of the highly centralized government until his death in August 1978. He was succeeded by his vice-president, Daniel Arap Moi, a member of the Kalenjin minority. Moi, who ran unopposed in the 1979 presidential elections, gradually reduced Kikuyu dominance of political life. Since independence Kenya has followed a policy of nonalignment with a definite westward tilt. Kenya has been unusual among African nations in that the highly nationalistic and socialistic route to economic development has been shunned, and private ownership and investment in land and industry actively encouraged. By the 1980s, however, the land reforms undertaken in 1963 had failed. Rural poverty and poor nutrition remained widespread. An inability to care for a growing populace, which had in turn placed pressure on agriculture to provide adequate food, employment, and foreign trade, led to an attempted (1982) coup against Kenya's government--the first in 19 years. Moi cracked down on dissent and was reelected in 1983 and 1988. He stressed the role of foreign investment and the private sector in improving the economy, but he faced growing opposition from students and the underground Mwakenya movement. Ronald D. Garst Bibliography: American University, Kenya: A Country Study (1984); Arnold, G., Modern Kenya (1981); Fedders, A., and Salvadori, C., Peoples and Cultures of Kenya (1980); Gertzel, C., The Politics of Independent Kenya (1970); Hazelwood, A., The Economy of Kenya (1979); Huxley, Elspeth, and Perham, Margery, Race and Politics in Kenya (1956; repr. 1975); Kitching, G., Class and Economic Change in Kenya (1980); Knappert, J., East Africa (1987); Leys, N., Kenya, 4th ed. (1973); Miller, N., Kenya (1984); Robson, Peter, The Mountains of Kenya (1971); Spenser, J., The Kenya African Union: 1944-1953 (1985); Zwanenberg, R. M. van, and King, Anne, An Economic History of Kenya and Uganda, 1800-1970, rev. ed. (1975).