Kenya
Kenya has a very diverse population that includes three of Africa's
major sociolinguistic groups: Bantu (67%), Nilotic (30%), and
Cushitic (3%). Kenyans are deeply religious. About 80% of Kenyans
are Christian, 10% Muslim, and 10% follow traditional African
religions or other faiths. Most city residents retain links with
their rural, extended families and leave the city periodically to
help work on the family farm. About 75% of the work force is engaged
in agriculture, mainly as subsistence farmers. The national motto of
Kenya is Harambee, meaning "pull together." In that spirit,
volunteers in hundreds of communities build schools, clinics, and
other facilities each year and collect funds to send students
abroad.
Kenya has six full-pledged public universities: University of
Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology,
Egerton University, Moi University, Maseno University, Masinde
Muliro University (most of these universities also have constituent
colleges); Private universities: approximately 13, including United
States International University.
Enrollment: Public and private universities have a total enrollment
of approximately 50,000 students with about 80% of these being
enrolled in public universities (representing 25% of students who
qualify for university admission). In addition more than 60,000
students enroll in middle-level colleges, where they study career
courses leading to certificate, diploma, and higher diploma awards.
International universities and colleges have also established
campuses in Kenya where students enroll for distance learning and
other flexible programs. Other Kenyan students pursue their
university education abroad. |
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Fossils found in East Africa suggest that protohumans roamed the
area more than 20 million years ago. Recent finds near Kenya's Lake
Turkana indicate that hominids lived in the area 2.6 million years
ago.
Cushitic-speaking people from what is now Sudan and Ethiopia moved
into the area that is now Kenya beginning around 2000 BC. Arab
traders began frequenting the Kenya coast around the first century
AD. Kenya's proximity to the Arabian Peninsula invited colonization,
and Arab and Persian settlements sprouted along the coast by the
eighth century. During the first millennium AD, Nilotic and Bantu
peoples moved into the region, and the latter now comprise two
thirds of Kenya's population. The Swahili language, a Bantu language
with significant Arabic vocabulary, developed as a trade language
for the region.
Arab dominance on the coast was interrupted for about 150 years
following the arrival of the Portuguese in 1498. British exploration
of East Africa in the mid-1800s eventually led to the establishment
of Britain's East African Protectorate in 1895. The Protectorate
promoted settlement of the fertile central highlands by Europeans,
dispossessing the Kikuyu and others of their land. Some fertile and
well watered parts of the Rift Valley inhabited by the Maasai and
the western highlands inhabited by the Kalenjin were also handed
over to European settlers. For other Kenyan communities, the British
presence was slight, especially in the arid northern half of the
country. The settlers were allowed a voice in government even before
Kenya was officially made a British colony in 1920, but Africans
were prohibited from direct political participation until 1944 when
a few appointed (but not elected) African representatives were
permitted to sit in the legislature.
From 1952 to 1959, Kenya was under a state of emergency arising from
the "Mau Mau" insurgency against British colonial rule in general
and its land policies in particular. This rebellion took place
almost exclusively in the highlands of central Kenya among the
Kikuyu people. Tens of thousands of Kikuyu died in the fighting or
in the detention camps and restricted villages. British losses were
about 650. During this period, African participation in the
political process increased rapidly.
The first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative Council
took place in 1957. Kenya became independent on December 12, 1963,
and the next year joined the Commonwealth. Jomo Kenyatta, an ethnic
Kikuyu and head of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), became
Kenya's first President. The minority party, Kenya African
Democratic Union (KADU), representing a coalition of small ethnic
groups that had feared dominance by larger ones, dissolved itself in
1964 and joined KANU.
A small but significant leftist opposition party, the Kenya People's
Union (KPU), was formed in 1966, led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a
former Vice President and Luo elder. The KPU was banned shortly
thereafter, however, and its leader detained. KANU became Kenya's
sole political party. At Kenyatta's death in August 1978, Vice
President Daniel arap Moi, a Kalenjin from Rift Valley province,
became interim President. By October of that year, Moi became
President formally after he was elected head of KANU and designated
its sole nominee for the presidential election.
In June 1982, the National Assembly amended the constitution, making
Kenya officially a one-party state. Two months later, young military
officers in league with some opposition elements attempted to
overthrow the government in a violent but ultimately unsuccessful
coup. In response to street protests and donor pressure, Parliament
repealed the one-party section of the constitution in December 1991.
In 1992, independent Kenya's first multiparty elections were held.
Divisions in the opposition contributed to Moi's retention of the
presidency in 1992 and again in the 1997 election. Following the
1997 election Kenya experienced its first coalition government as
KANU was forced to cobble together a majority by bringing into
government a few minor parties.
In October 2002, a coalition of opposition parties formed the
National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). In December 2002, the NARC
candidate, Mwai Kibaki, was elected the country's third President.
President Kibaki received 62% of the vote, and NARC also won 59% of
the parliamentary seats. Kibaki, a Kikuyu from Central province, had
served as a member of parliament since Kenya's independence in 1963.
He served in senior posts in both the Kenyatta and Moi governments,
including Vice President and Finance Minister. In 2003, internal
conflicts disrupted the NARC government. In 2005 these conflicts
came into the open when the government put its draft constitution to
a public referendum--key government ministers organized the
opposition to the draft constitution, which was defeated soundly. In
2007 two principal leaders of the movement to defeat the draft
constitution, Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka--both former Kibaki
allies--were presidential candidates for the Orange Democratic
Movement (ODM) party and the Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya
(ODM-K) party, respectively. In September 2007, President Kibaki and
his allies formed the coalition Party of National Unity (PNU). KANU
joined the PNU coalition, although it was serving in parliament as
the official opposition party.
On December 27, 2007, Kenya held presidential, parliamentary, and
local government elections. While the parliamentary and local
government elections were largely credible, the presidential
election was seriously flawed, with irregularities in the vote
tabulation process as well as turnout in excess of 100% in some
constituencies. On December 30, the chairman of the Electoral
Commission of Kenya declared incumbent Mwai Kibaki as the winner of
the presidential election. Violence erupted in different parts of
Kenya as supporters of opposition candidate Raila Odinga and
supporters of Kibaki clashed with police and each other. The
post-election crisis left more than 1,000 Kenyans dead and about
600,000 people became refugees or were internally displaced. In
order to resolve the crisis, negotiation teams representing PNU and
ODM began talks under the auspices of former UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan and the Panel of Eminent African Persons (Benjamin Mkapa
of Tanzania and Graca Machel of Mozambique). On February 28, 2008,
President Kibaki and Raila Odinga signed a power-sharing agreement,
which provided for the establishment of a prime minister position
(to be filled by Odinga) and two deputy prime minister positions, as
well as the division of an expanded list of cabinet posts according
to the parties' proportional representation in parliament. On March
18, 2008, the Kenyan parliament amended the constitution and adopted
legislation to give legal force to the agreement. On April 17, 2008
the new coalition cabinet and Prime Minister Odinga were sworn in.
Negotiations are ongoing regarding longer-term reform issues,
including constitutional reform, land tenure reform, judicial
reform, and the need to address poverty and inequality. |
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