History
[edit]
Main article: History of Kenya
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Kenya.
Prehistory[edit]
Turkana Boy, a 1.6-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil
Hominid species, such as Homo habilis (fl. 1.8 to 2.5 million years ago) and Homo erectus (fl. 1.9 million to 350,000 years ago), possibly the direct ancestors of modern Homo sapiens, had lived in Kenya in the Pleistocene epoch. East Africa, including Kenya, is one of the earliest regions where modern humans (Homo sapiens) are believed to have lived. In 1984, during excavations at Lake Turkana palaeoanthropologist Richard Leakey, assisted by Kamoya Kimeu, discovered the Turkana Boy, a 1.6-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil. Further evidence of Kenya's prehistory was found in 2018, namely the early emergence of modern behaviours, including long-distance trade networks (involving goods such as obsidian), the use of pigments, and possibly the making of projectile points, about 320,000 years ago. The authors of three 2018 studies on the site suggest that complex and modern behaviours had already begun in Africa around the time of the emergence of Homo sapiens.
The first inhabitants of present-day Kenya were ancestral hunter-gatherer groups, akin to the modern Khoisan speakers. They were subsequently joined by Southern Nilotic hunter-gatherers, such as the Ogiek, who established a deep, indigenous presence in the highland forests long before the arrival of later migrating groups. These people were later largely replaced by agropastoralist Cushitic (ancestral to Kenya's Cushitic speakers), who originated from the Horn of Africa. During the early Holocene, the region's climate shifted from drier to wetter conditions. This provided an opportunity for the development of cultural traditions such as agriculture and herding in a more favourable environment.
Nilotic-speaking pastoralists began migrating into Kenya from the Nile Valley and the Ethiopian Highlands as early as 2000 BC. The earliest arrivals were Southern Nilotes (ancestors of the Kalenjin), followed by subsequent waves of Eastern and Western Nilotes. Today, the country's Nilotic ethnic groups include the Kalenjin, Samburu, Luo, Turkana, Maasai and others.
By the first millennium AD, Bantu-speaking farmers had moved into the region, initially along the Kenyan coast. The Bantus had originated in West Africa along the Benue River in what is now eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. The Bantu migration brought new developments in agriculture and ironworking to the region. Today, the country's Bantu groups include the Kikuyu, Luhya, Kamba, Kisii, Meru, Kuria, Aembu, Ambeere, Wadawida-Watuweta, Wapokomo, and Mijikenda, among many others.
Notable prehistoric sites in the interior of Kenya include the (possibly archaeoastronomical) site Namoratunga on the west side of Lake Turkana and the walled settlement of Thimlich Ohinga in Migori County.
Swahili trade period[edit]
Further information: Swahili culture and Sultanate of Zanzibar
A traditional Swahili carved wooden door in Lamu
The coastline of Kenya was home to communities of ironworkers and Bantu subsistence farmers, hunters, and fishers who supported the region's 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. The Swahili people were of mixed African and Asian (particularly Persian) ancestry, as DNA evidence has revealed.
By the 1st century CE, many of the area's city-states, such as Mombasa, Malindi, and Zanzibar, began to establish trading relations with the Arabs. This led to increased economic growth of the Swahili states, the introduction of Islam, Arabic influences on the Swahili language, cultural diffusion, as well as the Swahili city-states becoming members of a larger trade network. Many historians had long believed that the city-states were established by Arab or Persian traders, but archaeological evidence has led scholars to recognise 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. Beginning in the 10th century, the rulers of Kilwa would go on to build elaborate coral mosques and introduce copper coinage.
Swahili, a Bantu language with Arabic, Persian, and other Middle-Eastern and South Asian loanwords, later developed as a lingua franca for trade between the different peoples. Since the turn of the 20th century, Swahili has also adopted numerous loanwords and calques from English, many of which originated during the era of British colonial rule.
Early Portuguese presence[edit]
Portuguese presence in Kenya lasted from 1498 until 1730. Mombasa was under Portuguese rule from 1593 to 1698 and again from 1728 to 1729.
The Swahili built Mombasa into a major port city and established trade links with other nearby city-states, as well as commercial centres in Persia, Arabia, and even India. By the 15th century, Portuguese voyager Duarte Barbosa wrote that "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."
One major city on the Kenyan coast is Malindi. It has been an important Swahili settlement since the 14th century, and the city once rivalled Mombasa for dominance in the African Great Lakes region. Malindi has traditionally been a friendly port city for foreign powers. In 1414, the Chinese trader and explorer Zheng He, representing the Ming Dynasty, visited the East African coast on one of his last 'treasure voyages'. Malindi also welcomed the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498.
In the 17th century, the Swahili coast was conquered by the Omani Arabs, who expanded the slave trade to meet the demands of plantations in Oman and Zanzibar. Initially, these traders came mainly from Oman, but later many came from Zanzibar (such as Tippu Tip). In addition, the Portuguese started buying slaves from the Omani and Zanzibari traders in response to the interruption of the transatlantic slave trade by British abolitionists.
18th and 19th centuries[edit]
During the 18th and 19th century, the Masai people moved into the central and southern Rift Valley plains of Kenya, from a region north of Lake Rudolf (now Lake Turkana). Although there weren't many of them, they managed to conquer a great amount of land in the plains, where people did not put up much resistance.[citation needed] The Nandi peoples managed to oppose the Masai, while the Taveta peoples fled to the forests on the eastern edge of Mount Kilimanjaro, although they later were forced to leave the land due to the threat of smallpox. An outbreak of either rinderpest or pleuropneumonia greatly affected the Masai's cattle, while an epidemic of smallpox affected the Masai themselves. After the death of the Masai Mbatian, the chief laibon (medicine man), the Masai split into warring factions. The Masai caused much strife in the areas they conquered; however, cooperation between such groups as the Luo people, Luhya people, and Gusii people is evidenced by shared vocabulary for modern implements and similar economic regimes. Although Arab traders remained in the area, trade routes were disrupted by the hostile Masai, though there was trade in ivory between these factions.
The first foreigners to successfully get past the Masai were Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann, two German missionaries who established a mission in Rabai, not too far from Mombasa. The pair were the first Europeans to sight Mount Kenya.
German Protectorate (1885–1890)[edit]
The German Empire established a protectorate over the Sultan of Zanzibar's coastal possessions in 1885, followed by the arrival of the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1888. Imperial rivalry was prevented by the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty, so Germany handed its East African coastal holdings to Britain in 1890.
Nandi Resistance (1890–1906)[edit]
Main article: Nandi Resistance
Sculpture of Koitalel Arap Samoei in the Kenya National Library Service building.
The Nandi Resistance (1890–1906), also known as the Kalenjin Resistance, was the most prolonged military challenge to British colonial establishment in East Africa. For nearly two decades, the Nandi and Kipsigis peoples—led by the Orkoiyot Koitalel Arap Samoei defended their territories in the western highlands of Kenya's Rift Valley. By utilizing effective guerrilla warfare and sabotage against the construction of the Uganda Railway, they successfully stalled British administrative control for nearly two decades.
Despite several "punitive expeditions," the British were unable to achieve a conventional military victory over the Kalenjin warriors. The resistance was broken through an act of treachery on October 19, 1905, when Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen lured Samoei to a purported truce meeting and assassinated him. Following this, Samoei's body was decapitated and his head was taken to London as a colonial trophy, marking the end of the fierce military opposition by the Kalenjin and allowing the British to finally establish administrative control over the region.
British Kenya (1888–1962)[edit]
Main article: Kenya Colony
British East Africa in 1909
The transfer by Germany to Britain was followed by the building of the Uganda Railway passing through the country.
The building of the railway was resisted by some ethnic groups—notably the Nandi, led by Orkoiyot Koitalel Arap Samoei from 1890 to 1900—but the British eventually built it. The Nandi were the first ethnic group to be put in a native reserve to stop them from disrupting the building of the railway.
During the railway construction era, there was a significant influx of Indian workers, who provided the bulk of the skilled labour required for construction. They and most of their descendants later remained in Kenya and formed the core of several distinct Indian communities, such as the Ismaili Muslim and Sikh communities. While building the railway through Tsavo, a number of the Indian railway workers and local African labourers were attacked by two lions known as the Tsavo maneaters.
At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the governors of British East Africa (as the protectorate was generally known) and German East Africa initially agreed on a truce in an attempt to keep the young colonies out of direct hostilities. But Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the German military commander, determined to tie down as many British resources as possible. Completely cut off from Germany, Lettow-Vorbeck conducted an effective guerrilla warfare campaign, living off the land, capturing British supplies, and remaining undefeated. He eventually surrendered in Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia) 14 days after the Armistice was signed in 1918.
The Kenya–Uganda Railway near Mombasa, about 1899
To chase von Lettow, the British deployed the British Indian Army troops from India but needed large numbers of porters to overcome the formidable logistics of transporting supplies far into the interior on foot. The Carrier Corps was formed and ultimately mobilised over 400,000 Africans, contributing to their long-term politicisation.
In 1920, the East Africa Protectorate was turned into a colony and renamed Kenya after its highest mountain.
During the early part of the 20th century, the interior central highlands were settled by British and other European farmers, who became wealthy farming coffee and tea. One depiction of this period of change from a colonist's perspective is found in the memoir Out of Africa by Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, published in 1937. By the 1930s, approximately 30,000 white settlers lived in the area and gained a political voice because of their contribution to the market economy.
The central highlands were already home to over a million members of the Kikuyu people, most of whom had no land claims in European terms and lived as itinerant farmers. To protect their own interests the settlers banned the growing of coffee and introduced a hut tax, and the landless were granted less and less land in exchange for their labour. A massive exodus to the cities ensued as their ability to make a living from the land dwindled. By the 1950s there were 80,000 white settlers living in Kenya.
Throughout World War II, Kenya was an important source of manpower and agriculture for the United Kingdom. Kenya itself was the site of fighting between Allied forces and Italian troops in 1940–41, when Italian forces invaded. Wajir and Malindi were bombed as well.
Mau Mau Uprising[edit]
Further information: Mau Mau Uprising
A statue of Dedan Kimathi, a Kenyan leader with the Mau Mau who fought against the British colonial system in the 1950s
From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was in a state of emergency arising from the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule. The Mau Mau, also known as the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, were primarily Kikuyu, Embu and Meru people. During the colonial administration's crackdown, over 11,000 freedom fighters had been killed, along with 100 British troops and 2,000 Kenyan loyalist soldiers. War crimes were committed on both sides of the conflict, including the publicised Lari massacre and the Hola massacre. 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 Waruhiu Itote (nom de guerre "General China") on 15 January 1954 and the subsequent interrogation led to a better understanding of the Mau Mau command structure for the British. 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 suspected Mau Mau supporters moved to detention camps. More than 80,000 Kikuyu were held in detention camps without trial, often subject to brutal treatment. 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.
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. This left roughly 1/3rd of Kikuyu bereft of any tenancy land arrangement and thus propertyless at the time of independence.
Somalis of Kenya referendum, 1962[edit]
Further information: Somalis in Kenya
Before Kenya got its independence, Somali ethnic people in present-day Kenya in the areas of Northern Frontier Districts petitioned Her Majesty's Government not to be included in Kenya. The colonial government decided to hold Kenya's first referendum in 1962 to check the willingness of Somalis in Kenya to join Somalia.
The result of the referendum showed that 86% of Somalis in Kenya wished to join Somalia, yet the British colonial administration rejected the result and the Somalis remained in Kenya.
Early independence period[edit]
The first president and founding father of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta
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 conferred on all of Kenya. The UK ceded sovereignty over the Colony of Kenya. The Sultan of Zanzibar agreed that simultaneously with the independence of the Colony he would cease to have sovereignty over the Protectorate of Kenya, so that all of Kenya would become one sovereign state. In this way, Kenya became an independent country under the Kenya Independence Act 1963 of the United Kingdom. On 12 December 1964, Kenya became a republic under the name "Republic of Kenya".
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 ceasefire was eventually reached with the signing 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.
First presidency[edit]
Further information: Presidency of Jomo Kenyatta and Jomo Kenyatta
On 12 December 1964, the Republic of Kenya was proclaimed, and Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya's first president. Under Kenyatta, corruption became widespread throughout the government, civil service, and business community. Kenyatta and his family were tied up with this corruption as they enriched themselves through the mass purchase of property after 1963. Their acquisitions in the Central, Rift Valley, and Coast Provinces aroused great anger among landless Kenyans. His family used his presidential position to circumvent legal or administrative obstacles to acquiring property. The Kenyatta family also heavily invested in the coastal hotel business, with Kenyatta personally owning the Leonard Beach Hotel.
Kenyatta's mixed legacy was highlighted at the 10-year anniversary of Kenya's independence. A December 1973 article in The New York Times praised Kenyatta's leadership and Kenya for emerging as a model of pragmatism and conservatism. Kenya's GDP had increased at an annual rate of 6.6%, higher than the population growth rate of more than 3%. But Amnesty International responded to the article by stating the cost of the stability in terms of human rights abuses. The opposition party started by Oginga Odinga—Kenya People's Union (KPU)—was banned in 1969 after the Kisumu Massacre and KPU leaders were still in detention without trial in gross violation of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. The Kenya Students Union, Jehovah Witnesses and all opposition parties were outlawed. Kenyatta ruled until his death on 22 August 1978.
Moi era[edit]
Further information: Daniel arap Moi, Presidency of Daniel Moi, 1978 Kenyan presidential election, 1988 Kenyan general election, and 1992 Kenyan general election
Daniel arap Moi, Kenya's second President, and George W. Bush, 2001
After Kenyatta died, Daniel arap Moi became president. He retained the presidency, running unopposed in elections held in 1979, 1983 (snap elections), and 1988, all of which were held under the single-party constitution. The 1983 elections were held a year early, and were a direct result of a failed military coup on 2 August 1982.
The 1982 coup was masterminded by a low-ranking Air Force serviceman, Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka, and was staged mainly by enlisted men of the Air Force. It was quickly suppressed by forces commanded by Chief of General Staff Mahamoud Mohamed, a veteran Somali military official. They included the General Service Unit (GSU)—a paramilitary wing of the police—and later the regular police.
On the heels of the Garissa Massacre of 1980, Kenyan troops committed the Wagalla massacre in 1984 against thousands of civilians in Wajir County. An official probe into the atrocities was later ordered in 2011.[clarification needed]
The election held in 1988 saw the advent of the mlolongo (queuing) system, where voters were supposed to line up behind their favoured candidates instead of casting a secret ballot. This was seen as the climax of a very undemocratic regime and led to widespread agitation for constitutional reform. Several contentious clauses, including the one that allowed for only one political party, were changed in the following years.
Transition to multiparty democracy[edit]
In 1991, Kenya transitioned to a multiparty political system after 26 years of single-party rule. On 28 October 1992, Moi dissolved parliament, five months before the end of his term. As a result, preparations began for all elective seats in parliament as well as the president. The election was scheduled to take place on 7 December 1992, but delays led to its postponement to 29 December. Apart from KANU, the ruling party, other parties represented in the elections included FORD Kenya and FORD Asili. This election was marked by large-scale intimidation of opponents and harassment of election officials. It resulted in an economic crisis propagated by ethnic violence as the president was accused of rigging electoral results to retain power. This election was a turning point for Kenya as it signified the beginning of the end of Moi's leadership and the rule of KANU. Moi retained the presidency and George Saitoti became vice president. Although it held on to power, KANU won 100 seats and lost 88 seats to the six opposition parties.
The 1992 elections marked the beginning of multiparty politics after more than 25 years of KANU rule. Following skirmishes in the aftermath of the elections, 5,000 people were killed and another 75,000 displaced from their homes. In the next five years, many political alliances were formed in preparation for the next elections. In 1994, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga died and several coalitions joined his FORD Kenya party to form a new party, United National Democratic Alliance. This party was plagued with disagreements. In 1995, Richard Leakey formed the Safina party, but it was denied registration until November 1997.
In 1996, KANU revised the constitution to allow Moi to remain president for another term. Subsequently, Moi stood for reelection and won a 5th term in 1997. His win was strongly criticised by his major opponents, Kibaki and Odinga, as fraudulent. Following this win, Moi was constitutionally barred from another presidential term. Beginning in 1998, he attempted to influence the country's succession politics to have Uhuru Kenyatta elected in the 2002 elections.
President Kibaki and the road to a new constitution[edit]
Further information: Mwai Kibaki, Presidency of Mwai Kibaki, 2002 Kenyan general election, and 2007 Kenyan general election
Moi's plan to be replaced by Uhuru Kenyatta failed, and Mwai Kibaki, running for the opposition coalition "National Rainbow Coalition" (NARC), was elected president. David 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. As a result, the elections of 2007 took place following the procedure set by the old constitution. Kibaki was reelected in highly contested elections marred by political and ethnic violence. The main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, claimed the election was rigged and that he was the rightfully elected president. In the ensuing violence, 1,500 people were killed and another 600,000 internally displaced, making it the worst post-election violence in Kenya. To stop the death and displacement of people, Kibaki and Odinga agreed to work together, with the latter taking the position of a prime minister. This made Odinga the second prime minister of Kenya.
In July 2010, Kenya partnered with other East African countries to form the new East African Common Market within the East African Community. In 2011, Kenya began sending troops to Somalia to fight the terror group Al-Shabaab. In mid-2011, two consecutive missed rainy seasons precipitated the worst drought in East Africa 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.
In August 2010, Kenyans held a referendum and passed a new constitution, which limited presidential powers and devolved the central government. Following the passage of the new constitution, Kenya became a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Kenya is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. The new constitution also states that executive powers are exercised by the executive branch of government, headed by the president, who chairs a cabinet composed of people chosen from outside parliament. Legislative power is vested exclusively in Parliament. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Kenyatta and Ruto presidencies[edit]
Main articles: Presidency of Uhuru Kenyatta and Presidency of William Ruto
Uhuru KenyattaIn 2013, Kenya held its first general elections under the 2010 constitution. Uhuru Kenyatta won, though the result was unsuccessfully challenged at the Supreme Court by opposition leader Raila Odinga. Kenyatta was re-elected in 2017 in another disputed election. Odinga accused the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of mismanaging the election and Kenyatta and his party of rigging. The Supreme Court overturned the results in a landmark ruling that established its position as an independent check on the president. In the repeated election, Kenyatta won after Odinga refused to participate, citing irregularities.
In March 2018, a historic handshake between Kenyatta and Odinga signaled a period of reconciliation followed by economic growth and increased stability. Between 2019 and 2021, the two combined efforts to promote major changes to the Kenyan constitution, labelled the "Building Bridges Initiative" (BBI). They said their efforts were to improve inclusion and overcome the country's election system that often resulted in post-election violence. The BBI proposal called for broad expansion of the legislative and executive branches, including the creation of a prime minister with two deputies and an official leader of the opposition, reverting to selecting cabinet ministers from among the elected Members of Parliament, establishing up to 70 new constituencies, and adding up to 300 unelected members of Parliament (under an "affirmative action" plan).
William Ruto
Critics saw this as an attempt to reward political dynasties and blunt Deputy President William Ruto's efforts to seek the presidency, and bloat the government at a high cost to the debt-laded country. Ultimately, in May 2021, the Kenyan High Court ruled the BBI unconstitutional, because it was an effort of the government rather than a popular initiative. The court sharply criticized Kenyatta, laying out grounds for his being sued or even impeached. The ruling was seen as a major defeat for both Kenyatta and Odinga, but a boon to Odinga's future presidential-election rival, Ruto. In August 2021, Kenya's Court of Appeal upheld the High Court's judgement in an appeal from the BBI Secretariat .
Ruto narrowly won the 2022 presidential election, defeating Odinga to become Kenya's fifth president. In 2024, Ruto and the Kenya Kwanza coalition faced popular protests over the Kenyan Finance Bill 2024.
