The Republic of Kenya
is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia (north), Somalia (northeast), Tanzania (south), Uganda plus Lake Victoria (west), and Sudan (northwest). The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas. The population has grown rapidly in recent decades to nearly 38 million. Kenya has numerous wildlife reserves, containing thousands of animal species.
The country is named after Mount Kenya, a significant landmark and the second among the highest mountain peaks of Africa, [1] [2] and both were originally usually [3] in English, though the native pronunciation and the one intended by the original transcription Kenia
was . [4] During the presidency of Jomo Kenyatta in the 1960s, the current English pronunciation of became widespread because his name retained the native pronunciation. [5] Before 1920, the area now known as Kenya was known as the British East Africa Protectorate and so there was no need to mention mount
when referring to the mountain.[
]
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KENYA TICKETS
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History
Prehistory
Giant crocodile fossils have been discovered in Kenya, dating from the
Mesozoic Era, over 200 million years ago. The fossils were found in an excavation conducted by a team from the
University of Utah and the
National Museums of Kenya in July–August 2004 at Lokitaung Gorge, near
Lake Turkana.
[6]
Fossils found in East Africa suggest that primates roamed the area more than 20 million years ago. Recent finds near Kenya's Lake Turkana indicate that
hominids such as
Homo habilis
(1.8 and 2.5 million years ago) and
Homo erectus
(1.8 million to 350 000 years ago) are possible direct ancestors of modern
Homo sapiens
and lived in Kenya during the
Pleistocene epoch. In 1984 one particular discovery made at
Lake Turkana by famous palaeoanthropologist
Richard Leakey and
Kamoya Kimeu was the skeleton of a
Turkana boy belonging to
Homo erectus
from 1.6 million years ago. Previous research on early hominids is particularly identified with
Mary Leakey and
Louis Leakey, who were responsible for the preliminary archaeological research at
Olorgesailie and
Hyrax Hill. Later work at the former was undertaken by
Glynn Isaac.
Pre-colonial history
Cushitic-speaking people, as termed by Schloezer, from
northern Africa, moved into the area that is now Kenya beginning around 2000 BCE.
[7] Arab traders began frequenting the Kenya coast around the 1st century CE. Kenya's proximity to the
Arabian Peninsula invited colonisation, and
Arab and
Persian settlements sprouted along the coast by the 8th century, though some of the "Arabs", like in much of East Africa, were
Afro-Arabs. During the first millennium CE,
Nilotic and
Bantu-speaking peoples moved into the region, and the latter now comprise three-quarters of Kenya's population. The Kenyan coast had served host to communities of
ironworkers and communities of subsistence farmers, hunters and fishers who supported the economy with agriculture, fishing, metal production and trade with foreign countries.
Around the 6th or 9th century CE Kenya switched to a maritime-based economy and began to specialize in shipbuilding to travel south by sea to other port cities such as Kilwa and Shanga along the East African coast.
Mombasa became the major port city of pre-colonial Kenya in the Middle Ages and was used to trade with other African port cities, Persia, Arab traders, Yemen and even India.
[8] 15th century Portuguese voyager
Duarte Barbosa claimed, "[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."
[9]
In the centuries preceding colonisation, the Swahili coast of Kenya was part of the east African region which traded with the Arab world and India especially for
ivory and
slaves (the
Ameru tribe is said to have originated from slaves escaping from Arab lands some time around the year 1700. Initially these traders came mainly from
Arab states, but later many also came from
Zanzibar (such as
Tippu Tip).
[10]
Swahili, a Bantu language with
Arabic,
Persian and other Middle Eastern and South Asian loan words, later developed as a
lingua franca
for trade between the different peoples.
The
Luo of Kenya descend from early agricultural and herding communities from western Kenya's early pre-colonial history. The Luo along with other tribes associated with the
Nilotic language group, are known to have originated from the north of Kenya, probably the northern regions of modern Sudan. The
Nilotes as they are known, are an anthropological group that originated from the northeastern regions of Africa. They may have moved south because of the wars that characterized the growth of territories such as
Kush and Egypt. In Kenya, this group comprises the Luo,
Kalenjin, the
Turkana and the
Maasai as the main groups. This is clearly evidenced by the presence of similar dialects among certain tribes in modern day Sudan. These tribes, include the
Acoli and
Lwo (not same as Luo) who occupy modern
Darfur region.
There are also other tribes belonging to this group in Uganda and Tanzania. This is attributed mainly to the Luo's affinity to
Lake Victoria, which they have stuck to throughout the three countries (Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya). In Uganda, they are known to have established the
Buganda Kingdom and the
Toro Kingdom. The Luo in Kenya are known to have fought numerous wars with their neighbors, notably the Kalenjin, for control of the lake.
Throughout the centuries, the Kenyan Coast has played host to many merchants and explorers. Among the cities that line the Kenyan coast is the City of Malindi. It has remained an important Swahili settlement since the 14th century and once rivaled Mombasa for dominance in this part of East Africa. Malindi has traditionally been a friendly port city for foreign powers. In 1414, the Arab Sultan of Malindi initiated diplomatic relations with
Ming Dynasty China during the voyages of the explorer
Zheng He.
[11] Malindi authorities welcomed the great
Portuguese explorer,
Vasco da Gama, in 1498.
Colonial history
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