Kenya straddles the equator on Africa's east coast. Its central plateau is bisected by the Great Rift Valley. The land to the north is desert, while to the east lies a fertile coastal belt. After independence from the UK in 1963, politics was dominated by Jomo Kenyatta, who was succeeded as president in 1978 by Daniel arap Moi, whose divide-and-rule policies have drawn accusations of favoritism and of fomenting ethnic hatreds. His KANU won elections easily in 1992 and 1997, amid accusations of electoral fraud. Economic mainstays are tourism and agriculture, but high population growth is a major problem.

Kenya's ethnic diversity, with about 70 different groups, reflects its past as a focus of population movements. Asians, Europeans, and Arabs form 1% of the population. The rural majority retains strong clan and extended family links, although these are being weakened by urban migration. Poverty, severe drought, and a high population growth rate are the root causes of the land hunger, which has fueled a surge in ethnic violence. Much violence is concentrated in western Kenya, where Kikuyu, the formerly dominant tribe, are the main targets of attacks by Kalenjin, Masai, and Pokor groups. Several hundred thousand Kikuyu are believed to have been displaced from their villages.

The practice of female genital mutilation was criminalized in December 2001, but remains widespread.

Strengths

Tourism – largest foreign exchange earner. Broad agricultural base, especially cash crops such as coffee and tea. East Africa's largest, most diversified manufacturing sector.

Weaknesses

Fluctuating world prices for coffee and tea. Corruption. Poor recent GDP growth. High population growth. Land shortage means uneconomic small units. Country's image problem affects tourism.

Profile

Kenya has been hailed as an example to the rest of Africa of the benefits of a mainly free-market economy. Government involvement has been relatively limited, and recently further reduced by privatization. Foreign investment has been encouraged, with some success. Tourism has become the leading foreign exchange earner over the past 20 years, despite suffering serious setbacks in the 1990s. Manufacturing now accounts for 21% of GDP, and is the most diversified sector in east Africa, but needs to expand rapidly so as to create more jobs.

Economic growth was good by African standards during the 1980s, averaging over 4% a year. However, it was barely sufficient to compensate for one of the world's highest population growth rates, approximately 3.5%, although the UN estimates that this rate will fall to 2.2% in the early 2000s. For the majority of Kenyans, farming ever-smaller landholdings or earning a living in the informal sector, life has become harsher. The situation was exacerbated in 2001 by a ban on all trade with Somalia, which affects exports of the mild narcotic, qat, widely grown in Kenya. Severe drought since 2000 has crippled the agricultural sector and put 20 million people at risk of starvation.

Other problems, including inflation, a heavy debt burden ($7.4 billion in 1997), and growing dependence on balance-of-payments support had come to a head in the early 1990s, when economic growth gave way to recession. Real GDP growth fell to 0.4% in 1992 and has remained low, typically at 1.2% in 1997. The rise in poverty-linked violence and political unrest hit tourism; earnings fell by 15% in the early 1990s, and the industry has yet to recover fully.

Partly as a response to pressure from donors, including the 1991–1993 freeze on balance-of-payments support, the government has implemented some economic liberalization measures. These include floating the Kenya shilling, raising interest rates, and giving exporters direct access to their hard currency earnings. However, sustained growth is likely to remain elusive until Kenya overcomes the official corruption which drains vital resources, and the poor image affecting its tourist industry.

Kenya has been led by President Daniel arap Moi since 1978, and became a multiparty democracy in 1992.

Profile

After 1982, President Moi's efforts to entrench KANU in power provoked demands at home for the introduction of multiparty politics, and condemnation abroad for the human rights abuses committed. Forced in 1992 to concede free elections, Moi helped ensure KANU's victory by curtailing the campaign period. His reelection in December 1997 was marred by widespread allegations of intimidation and electoral fraud.

Moi has attempted to break down barriers with some opponents. In 1999 he appointed paleontologist Richard Leakey, a former political opponent, to head a drive against official corruption, which was completed in 2001. In 2002, KANU absorbed the "opposition" NDP, which had joined the government the previous year.

Main Political Issue

Ethnic violence

The ethnic polarization of political parties in Kenya and rising poverty are fueling ethnic violence. Determined to ensure KANU dominance, President Moi, a Kalenjin, is turning the party into an alliance of smaller ethnic groups opposed to the once dominant Kikuyu. The latter are the largest ethnic group, the main victims of violence, and the main supporters of the opposition.

Relations with neighboring states and with key Western donors are Kenya's priorities. The US embassy closed temporarily in 1998 after a terrorist bombing caused carnage there. In 1991, human rights concerns were partly responsible for a two-year suspension of aid. Talks were held in spring 2001 in an effort to end Kenya's border dispute with Sudan. Relations with Rwanda improved in 2000, when it was agreed to reopen the Kenyan embassy in Kigali and to establish a joint commission for bilateral relations. Kenya is greatly concerned by the situation in Burundi and the DRC, as well as by tensions in Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia.

Destabilization of the northeastern border by the Somali civil war is the main defense issue. The army has recently been deployed to suppress tribal fighting in the Rift Valley. Military assistance is given by the UK and the USA.

Agriculture is still the largest sector of the economy. Kenya's varied topography means that tropical, subtropical, and temperate crops may be grown. Coffee and tea, the main export crops, have been affected by falling world prices. Efforts to reduce dependence on these have led to the growth of a successful export-oriented horticultural industry.

Kenya has few mineral resources, though oil exploration has revealed deposits in Turkana District. Hydroelectric and geothermal sources are being developed to reduce energy imports – currently 70% of total requirements. However, droughts caused power shortages in 2000 and 2001, leading to the imposition of daily power cuts.

The importance to tourism of wildlife conservation is recognized, and recent elephant protection schemes have been a success, but proposed national reserves compete with agriculture for land. Opposition to government plans to reallocate some national park land to squatters is growing.

Kenya's railroads, ports, and main airport are currently being upgraded, while in addition a five-year road improvement program was begun in 2000.

The health system comprises a mixture of state and private facilities, the latter mainly run by charities and missions. The state system has been badly hit by recession, worsening the already limited access of the rural majority. Poverty-related illnesses, particularly among women and children, are increasing. HIV and AIDS reached epidemic proportions in some areas in the 1990s, and estimates of the level of infection with HIV continue to be around 14% of the adult population. Kenya has ten doctors and 23 qualified nurses for every 100,000 people.

The education system is loosely based on the British model. Primary education, from six to 14 years of age, is free and compulsory; some 85% of children attend. The drop-out rate at secondary level is high, with only about 24% attendance. In higher education, the emphasis is on vocational training. There are five state universities.

Nairobi's high crime levels are spreading countrywide, as a result of worsening poverty, ethnic violence, and rising banditry in the northeast. An increase in the use of guns underlies the rapid increase in violent crime.

Wealth disparities in Kenya are large and growing, exacerbated by land hunger and migration to the cities, where jobs are few and existence depends on the informal economy. More than half of all town dwellers live in slums, and the slum dwellers of Nairobi's Amarthi Valley are among Africa's poorest, worst-nourished people. Their lives contrast sharply with those of the country's elite – top government officials with access to patronage; white Kenyans, who derive their wealth largely from agricultural estates; and the largely Asian business community. Wealthy Kenyans often send their children abroad for higher education.

Tourism is vital to the economy and a key foreign exchange earner. However, after enjoying a boom in package safaris and beach vacations during the 1980s, Kenya saw visitor numbers decline during most of the 1990s. The main factors were world recession, reports of instability, the much-publicized murder of several tourists, and the 1998 US embassy bombing.

From the 10th century, Arab coastal settlers mixed with indigenous peoples in the region. Britain's need for a route to landlocked Uganda led to the formation in 1895 of the British East African Protectorate in the coastal region.

• 1900–1918 White settlement.
• 1920 Interior becomes British colony.
• 1930 Jomo Kenyatta goes to UK; stays 14 years.
• 1944 Kenyan African Union (KAU) formed; Kenyatta returns to lead it.
• 1952–1956 Mau Mau, Kikuyu-led violent campaign to restore African lands. State of emergency; 13,000 people killed.
• 1953 KAU banned. Kenyatta jailed.
• 1960 State of emergency ends. Tom Mboya and Oginga Odinga form KANU.
• 1961 Kenyatta freed; takes up presidency of KANU.
• 1963 KANU wins elections. Kenyatta prime minister. Full independence declared.
• 1964 Republic of Kenya formed with Kenyatta as president and Odinga as vice president.
• 1966 Odinga defects to form Kenya People's Union (KPU).
• 1969 KANU sole party to contest elections (also 1974). Tom Mboya of KANU assassinated. Unrest. KPU banned and Odinga arrested.
• 1978 Kenyatta dies. Vice President Daniel arap Moi succeeds him.
• 1982 Kenya declared a one-party state. Opposition to Moi. Abortive air force coup. Odinga rearrested.
• 1986 Open "queue-voting" replaces secret ballot in first stage of general elections. Other measures to extend Moi's powers incite opposition.
• 1988 Moi wins third term and extends his control over judiciary.
• 1990 Government implicated in deaths of foreign minister Robert Ouko and Anglican archbishop. Riots. Odinga and others form FORD, outlawed by government.
• 1991 Arrest of FORD leaders and attempts to stop prodemocracy demonstrations. Donors suspend aid. Moi agrees to introduce multiparty system. Ethnic violence on increase.
• 1992 FORD splits into factions led by ex-minister Kenneth Matiba and Odinga. Opposition weakness helps Moi win December elections.
• 1994 Odinga dies.
• 1997 December, Moi wins further term in widely criticized elections.
• 1998 Bomb at US embassy kills 230.
• 1999 Moi appoints paleontologist Richard Leakey to lead government drive against corruption.
• 2000 Worst drought since 1947.
• 2001 Leakey resigns. Drought threatens starvation for millions.
• 2002 Thousands displaced by recurrence of major floods.