Kenya

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Republic of Kenya
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Harambee"  (Swahili) "Let us all pull together"
Anthem: Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu "Oh God of All Creation"
Capital	Nairobi 1°16′S 36°48′E
Largest city	Nairobi
Official languages	Swahili, English
Government	Republic
- President	Mwai Kibaki
Independence	from the United Kingdom
- Date	December 12, 1963
- Republic declared	December 12, 1964
Area
- Total	580,367 km² (47th) 224,080 sq mi
- Water (%)	2.3
Population
- July 2005 estimate	34,707,817a (34th)
- 8 Feburary 2007 census	31,138,735
- Density	59 /km² (140th) 153 /sq mi
GDP (PPP)	2005 estimate
- Total	$48.33 billion (76th)
- Per capita	$1,445 (156th)
HDI (2004)	0.491 (low) (152nd)
Currency	Kenyan shilling (KES)
Time zone	EAT (UTC+3)
- Summer (DST)	not observed (UTC+3)
Internet TLD	.ke
Calling code	+254
a According to cia.gov, estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected.

The Republic of Kenya is a country in Eastern Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the northeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border.

History

Paleontologists have discovered many fossils of prehistoric animals in Kenya. At one of the rare dinosaur fossil sites in Africa, two hundred Cretaceous dinosaur/theropod and 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.

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 paleanthropologist 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 to Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey, who are 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 from northern Africa moved into the area that is now Kenya beginning around 2000 BC. Arab traders began frequenting the Kenya coast around the 1st century AD. Kenya's proximity to the Arabian Peninsula invited colonization, and Arab and Persian settlements sprouted along the coast by the 8th century. During the first millennium AD, Nilotic and Bantu peoples moved into the region, and the latter now comprise three-quarters of Kenya's population.

In the centuries preceding colonisation, Kenya was part of the east African region used extensively by slavers from the Muslim world to find slaves. Initially these slavers came mainly from Arab states, but later many also came from Zanzibar (such as Tippu Tip). The Ameru tribe of Kenya originates from slaves escaping from Arab lands some time around the year 1700.

Swahili, a Bantu language with many Arabic loan words, developed as a lingua franca for trade between the different peoples.

Colonial history

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore Kenya, Vasco da Gama having visited Mombasa in 1498. Portuguese rule centered mainly on the coastal strip ranging from Malindi to Mombasa. The Portuguese colonial presence in East Africa officially begins after 1505, when flagships under the command of Don Francisco De Almeida bombarded and plundered Kilwa, an island located in what is now southern Tanzania. Following this, the Portuguese sacked Mombasa following the refusal of the town's leadership to pay tribute. Attacks followed on Hoja (now known as Ungwana, located at the mouth of the Tana River), Barawa, Angoche, Pate and other coastal towns until the western Indian Ocean was a safe haven for Portuguese commercial interests and tribute was paid to the Portuguese crown by all of the city-states along the East African coast. The Portuguese colonial presence in East Africa served two primary purposes: the extraction of tribute from coastal polities and the