Kenya

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Country in east Africa, bounded to the north by Sudan and Ethiopia, to the east by Somalia, to the southeast by the Indian Ocean, to the southwest by Tanzania, and to the west by Uganda.

Government
The 1963 constitution, amended in 1964, 1969, 1982, and 1992, provides for a president, elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term, and a single-chamber national assembly, serving a similar term. The president must be endorsed by at least 25% of voters in at least five of the country's eight provinces. The assembly has 202 members, 188 elected by universal suffrage, 12 nominated by the president, and the attorney general and speaker as members by virtue of their office.

From 1969 to 1982 Kenya was effectively a one-party state, and in 1983 it became so legally, the only legitimate party being the Kenya African National Union (KANU), with the state president as its leader. Since 1991 a multiparty system has operated.

History
Archaeological evidence shows that the area now known as Kenya was inhabited by early hominids, the australopithecines, who lived between 4.4 and 3.5 million years ago. African tribal groups inhabited the area when, in the 8th century AD, the coast was settled by Arabs, and during the 15th–18th centuries the coastal region was under Portuguese rule.

The establishment of British rule
The first Europeans to penetrate the interior were German and British missionaries. In 1880 the area was prospected by the Imperial East Africa Company. Fifteen years later, the coastal area, leased from the sultan of Zanzibar, was established as a British protectorate under the name of the East African Protectorate (1895). It came under the administration of the British Colonial Office in 1905, and in the next few years many British and South African farmers settled on the fertile plateaux (the ‘White Highlands’), obtaining grants of land from the Kikuyu (Kenya's largest ethnic group). The latter regarded the transaction as a lease, while the Europeans considered it a freehold sale, and this was later to cause extreme bitterness.

In 1920 the protectorate was united with the protectorate of Zanzibar, renamed Kenya, and made a crown colony, the coastal strip being known as the Kenya Protectorate. There were frontier modifications in 1924, when Jubaland was ceded to Italy, and in 1926, when some territory from Uganda was added. Kenya became a prosperous country. The immigration of large numbers of Indians caused some friction, and from the end of World War I there were signs of embryonic African nationalism, led principally by a minority of educated Kikuyu, who resented the white occupation of their traditional lands and the political and social supremacy of the European settlers.

In 1923 the Devonshire White Paper confirmed the special position of European settlers in the highlands, but declared that Kenya was primarily an African country, and that African interests must be paramount in case of conflict.

Nationalist agitation
The nationalist movement came to be concentrated in the Kenya African Union (KAU, founded 1944). The KAU gained strength after World War II, African bitterness being increased by an influx of European settlers from the newly independent India and Pakistan. In 1947 Jomo Kenyatta, a member of the Kikuyu, became its president.

In 1952 a secret society of young Kikuyu militants was formed, called Mau Mau, which had the same aims as the KAU but sought to achieve them by violent means. Mau Mau launched a campaign of terrorist anti-European violence, in which both Europeans and Africans were killed. A state of emergency was proclaimed. Kenyatta was found guilty of managing Mau Mau and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1953. By 1957 Mau Mau had been crushed, and the emergency was lifted.

Towards independence
Britain now acknowledged the African desire for a self-governing Kenya, with majority (in other words, African) rule, and from 1957 onwards there were informal talks on Kenya's future with African leaders. In elections held in 1961 the Kenya African National Union (KANU, the successor of the KAU), whose acknowledged leader was Kenyatta, was returned as the biggest single party. In August 1961 Kenyatta was freed and attended constitutional talks in London between February and April 1962. Throughout the 1950s African politicians had continued to regard him as the nationalist leader, despite the fact that he was imprisoned.

The constitutional talks ended with agreement between Britain and the two main parties in Kenya – the Kikuyu-dominated KANU and KADU (the Kenya African Democratic Union) – on a draft constitution for a future self-governing dominion of Kenya. In May 1963 KANU won overwhelmingly at the general election, and confirmed the dominance of the Kikuyu, KADU having been representative largely of the other tribal parties, who were fearful of Kikuyu political monopoly. In 1961 KADU had exposed itself to criticism by participating in a coalition government, led by Ronald Ngala.

Independence achieved
Kenya became independent on 12 December 1963, with Kenyatta as premier. Zanzibar had become independent two days earlier; but the ‘coastal strip’ had been ceded by the sultan of Zanzibar to Kenya in October. The country voluntarily became a one-party state in November 1964, and in December 1964 became a republic within the Commonwealth, with Kenyatta as president.

Kenyatta maintained the British policy of administrative centralization and reform, and in 1965 he revitalized the provincial administration by restoring to it the prestige it had enjoyed during the colonial period. But the government was hypersensitive to threats of internal opposition and the 1965 legislation giving the government a tighter hold on trade-union activities was an attempt to suppress, at source, any political opposition organized through the trade unions.

Political conflicts in the 1960s
Initially much of the internal political debate had been based on tribal loyalties (for example, there was widespread resentment at the disproportionate share of development funds allotted to the Kikuyu), but gradually the controversy polarized to conflicting ideological positions on the best policy for the welfare and economic development of the independent Kenya.

The ‘radical’ wing, represented by Oginga Odinga (?1911–94), demanded a more equitable wealth distribution and a policy of nationalization as the best means of achieving this end; but the ‘conservative’ viewpoint, as expressed by Tom Mboya, was that Kenya would be jeopardizing its export capacity and potential by such severe measures. The ideological debate became first a political rift and then an open clash in 1966.

As a result of this clash Odinga – who had received much support from the poorer elements within the Kikuyu as well as from his own ethnic group, the Luo – lost his position as deputy leader of KANU. Odinga had his greatest power base in his Luo homeland, and he mobilized this support behind a new political party, the Kenya People's Union (KPU), although this party was prevented from holding the 30 parliamentary seats it won in 1966 by a constitutional amendment, an ‘obstacle’ arranged deliberately by KANU.

From the mid-1960s Kenya's political history was turbulent, with the KPU beginning the period in an uneasy, and often (according to KANU) illegal, situation. Internal dissension came to a head in 1969 when Mboya was assassinated, and with him seemed to die the hope of achieving compromise through a man not committed overtly to any one tribe. In 1969, also, the KPU was finally banned, and Odinga held in prison until 1972.

Opposition to Kikuyu domination was prevented from becoming too vigorous or violent by the fact that the 1969 general election, although contested by KANU candidates only, saw younger and better educated newcomers replace two-thirds of incumbent MPs. The 1974 general elections seemed the next likely flash point, but Kenyatta manipulated the situation to his advantage, and by disqualifying Odinga as a KANU candidate, prevented Luo opposition building up within KANU. But although all except one of the former Luo MPs were defeated, supporters of the late Tom Mboya – the ‘TJ’ movement did well at the elections, and, along with dissident Kikuyu MPs, formed an opposition movement of about 22 MPs.

Africanization and the Asian community
Although Kenyatta always adopted a practical rather than emotional approach to Africanization, the non-citizen British Asians (totalling around 24,000), saw their business position eroded by government legislation, which was passed in 1974 and was aimed at the greater involvement of Africans in business and commerce. This followed a period of ‘calm’ after the passing of the 1967 Trade Licensing Act, which had the effect of excluding 60% of the Asian community from engaging in business in certain areas and in certain commodities. The 1974 legislation was introduced because of the diminishing effect of the 1967 Act; the initial exodus of British Asians to Britain had been checked by the 1968 Commonwealth Immigration Act.

In 1977 the East Africa Community (EAC), which Kenya had joined in 1967 together with Tanzania and Uganda, collapsed. In November 1999, though, the leaders of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania signed a framework agreement for the EAC, intending it to lead to a common market similar to that of the European Union, establishing a customs union, a common market, a monetary union and a political federation.

Moi's one-party state
When Kenyatta died in 1978 he was succeeded by Vice-president Daniel arap Moi, who built on Kenyatta's achievements, but at the expense of democratic freedoms.

An attempted coup by junior air-force officers in 1982 was foiled and resulted in political detentions and press censorship. The air force and Nairobi University were temporarily dissolved. In the same year the national assembly declared Kenya a one-party state. President Moi was reelected (unopposed) in 1983 and 1988. In 1989 he unexpectedly announced the release of all known political detainees, but his rule became increasingly autocratic, and calls for multiparty politics grew.

From 1989 Kenya led the effort to ban trading in ivory after poaching of elephants became uncontrollable. The deaths of several US tourists on safari provoked Moi to declare a war against poachers.

Return to multiparty politics
In December 1991, in response to increasing domestic and international pressure for political reform, President Moi announced the introduction of multiparty politics. His commitment to full democracy, however, remained in doubt, and a constitutional amendment of 1992 appeared only to improve his chances of being reelected. In the first multiparty elections in December 1992, Moi and KANU were reelected amid claims of electoral fraud. Shortly afterwards the three largest opposition parties formed a united front to fight the next elections. In 1994 the Kenyan shilling was made fully convertible, and later in the year Moi pledged to end corruption. Meanwhile, areas of the country suffered a severe drought, with almost a fifth of the population threatened by famine.

A report by the US-based group Human Rights Watch Africa claimed in 1995 that more than 1,500 Kenyans had died as a result of political violence since 1991. A new centrist party, Safina, was formed by palaeoanthropologist Richard Leakey in May 1995, and from November it formed the hub of an anti-KANU opposition alliance. However, political disorder continued and 1997 saw the worst incidents of violence since 1991. Moi accused the opposition of fuelling tribal tensions before a general election.

In August 1998, the US embassy in Nairobi was targeted by bombers. The attack caused massive damage and civilian deaths and injuries.

President Moi appealed for international aid in June 2000, at which time it was calculated that 80% of the population of Kenya were at risk from the combined threats of drought, famine, and AIDS.

In July 1999, President Moi appointed paleontologist and politician Richard Leakey as head of the civil service, giving him the task of rooting out corruption, after MPs had filed a no-confidence motion against the government as a result of evidence of corruption at the levels of senior officials. Leakey resigned in March 2001, having completed his task of reform. Leakey had axed 25,000 public servants and sacked a string of corrupt officials, and the president's office was quick to agree that he should stand down immediately, and let most of his team of civil servants go as well.

Kenyan opposition MPs blocked an anti-corruption bill in August 2001, claiming it was too weak. Rejection of the bill – which came despite an unprecedented visit to parliament from President Moi to encourage it – resulted in the failure to meet conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the release of US$20 million of financial aid for the country.

Red and white are the colours of Bohemia, dating back to the 13th century. Blue represents Moravia. Unlike that of the Slovak Republic, the Czech flag is not based on the pan-Slav colours. Effective date: 1 January 1993. >>