A Brief Introduction to KENYA   

The Republic of Kenya is a relatively large country.  Its 224,000 square miles (580,000 square kilometers) make it slightly smaller than Texas, or slightly larger than France.  Located in East Africa, it is bordered to the southeast by the Indian Ocean, to the South by Tanzania, and to the east by Somalia.   Uganda and Lake Victoria form the western border, and Sudan and Ethiopia are in the north.  Kenya's coast and its western border with Uganda are natural borders of water and mountains.  But the eastern, southern, and northern borders are products of colonial history, straight lines drawn across undifferentiated wilderness by a ruler placed on a map.

Kenya can be divided into six distinct geographic regions.  Moving generally from east to west across the country they are:  The coastal plain, the eastern plateau region, the northern plateau region, the Kenya Highlands, the Rift Valley, and the western plateau region.   Within Kenya's boarders are nearly every type of landscape found on Earth.  Although most people in Kenya are subsistence farmers, economic pressures, a burgeoning population, and a shortage of land are driving more and more people to seek work in the cities.  Here the pressures of change, globalization and modernization are most deeply felt.

The capital, Nairobi is one of the world's great cosmopolitan cities.  It is a commercial center for East Africa and reflects the racial and cultural diversity that is Kenya.   African, Europeans, Arabs, and people from the Indian subcontent live and work in Nairobi.  

Of the more than 22 million people who live in Kenya, those of European, Asian, and Arab origin make up only around 2% of the population, although they retain a disproportionately greater share of economic power - a legacy from colonial times.  The majority of the African population comes from more than forty different ethnic groups, which in turn can be divided into more than a hundred subethnic groups, each of which has its home in a different part of the country, each with its own language or dialect, and each with its own customs and traditions.

The official language of Kenya is English.  However, most people also speak Swahili and their tribal language. Kenya is a Republic with a President and is governed by an elected National Assembly comprised of 158 legislators that are elected every five years.  As a result of a contested Presidential election in December, 2007, the country experienced significant social unrest that has abated with the establishment of a coalition government comprised of the President and the Prime Minister.  However, Kenya still is challenged with many of the social issues that are faced by other developing countries;   issues similar in many respects to those experienced in the US in the 1960's.

- _{Sources:  Much of the information in this section came from The Land and People of Kenya by Michael Maren, 1989 and local informants.}