Portal:Kenya

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Kenya portal
Kenya portal

Introduction

Location of Kenya
The flag of Kenya

Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya (Swahili: Jamhuri ya Kenya), is a country in East Africa. With a population of more than 47.6 million in the 2019 census, Kenya is the 28th-most-populous country in the world and 7th most populous in Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi, while its oldest and second-largest city, is the major port city of Mombasa, situated on Mombasa Island in the Indian Ocean and the surrounding mainland. Mombasa was the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate, which included most of what is now Kenya and southwestern Somalia, from 1889 to 1907. Other important cities include Kisumu and Nakuru. Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, Uganda to the west, Tanzania to the south, and the Indian Ocean to the southeast. Kenya's geography, climate and population vary widely, ranging from cold snow-capped mountaintops (Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya) with vast surrounding forests, wildlife and fertile agricultural regions to temperate climates in western and rift valley counties and further on to dry less fertile arid and semi-arid areas and absolute deserts (Chalbi Desert and Nyiri Desert).

Kenya's earliest inhabitants were hunter-gatherers, like the present-day Hadza people. According to archaeological dating of associated artifacts and skeletal material, Cushitic speakers first settled in Kenya's lowlands between 3,200 and 1,300 BC, a phase known as the Lowland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic. Nilotic-speaking pastoralists (ancestral to Kenya's Nilotic speakers) began migrating from present-day South Sudan into Kenya around 500 BC. Bantu people settled at the coast and the interior between 250 BC and 500 AD.

European contact began in 1500 AD with the Portuguese Empire, and effective colonisation of Kenya began in the 19th century during the European exploration of the interior. Modern-day Kenya emerged from a protectorate established by the British Empire in 1895 and the subsequent Kenya Colony, which began in 1920. Numerous disputes between the UK and the colony led to the Mau Mau revolution, which began in 1952, and the declaration of independence in 1963. After independence, Kenya remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The current constitution was adopted in 2010 and replaced the 1963 independence constitution.

Kenya is a presidential representative democratic republic, in which elected officials represent the people and the president is the head of state and government. Kenya is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, COMESA, International Criminal Court, as well as other international organisations. With a GNI of 1,840, Kenya is a lower-middle-income economy. Kenya's economy is the second largest in eastern and central Africa, after Ethiopia, with Nairobi serving as a major regional commercial hub. Agriculture is the largest sector; tea and coffee are traditional cash crops, while fresh flowers are a fast-growing export. The service industry is also a major economic driver, particularly tourism. Kenya is a member of the East African Community trade bloc, though some international trade organisations categorise it as part of the Greater Horn of Africa. Africa is Kenya's largest export market, followed by the European Union. (Full article...)


The COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was confirmed to have reached Kenya on 12 March 2020, with the initial cases reported in the capital city Nairobi and in the coastal area Mombasa. (Full article...)
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Safari Sunrise at Masai Mara
Safari Sunrise at Masai Mara
Safari Sunrise at Masai Mara.

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Sunset at Tsavo East National Park mostly located in Kitui County
Sunset at Tsavo East National Park mostly located in Kitui County

Kitui County is a county of Kenya. Its capital and largest town is Kitui, although Mwingi is also another major urban centre. The county has a population of 1,012,709 (2009 census) and an area of 20,402 km². (Read more...)

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Ruins of the Great Mosque at Gedi

The ruins of Gedi are a historical and archaeological site near the Indian Ocean coast of eastern Kenya. The site is adjacent to the town of Gedi (also known as Gede) in the Kilifi District and within the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest.

Gedi is one of many medieval Swahili coastal settlements that stretch from Barawa, Somalia to the Zambezi River in Mozambique. There are 116 known Swahili sites stretching from southern Somalia to Vumba Kuu at the Kenya-Tanzania border. Since the rediscovery of the Gedi ruins by colonialists in the 1920s, Gedi has been one of the most intensely excavated and studied of those sites, along with Shanga, Manda, Ungwana, Kilwa, and the Comoros. (Full article...)

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Kipchoge at the 2015 Berlin Marathon

Eliud Kipchoge EGH (born 5 November 1984) is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in the marathon and formerly specialized in the 5000 metres. Regarded as one of the greatest marathon runners of all time, he is the 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathon champion, and was the world record holder in the marathon from 2018 to 2023, with a time of 2:01:09 set at the 2022 Berlin Marathon, until that record was broken by Kelvin Kiptum at the 2023 Chicago Marathon with a time of 2:00:35. He has run four of the 10 fastest marathons in history.

Kipchoge claimed his first individual world championship title in 2003 by winning the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships and setting a world junior record for the 5000m. At the age of eighteen, he became the senior 5000 m world champion at the 2003 World Championships with a championship record, then followed by an Olympic bronze for Kenya in 2004 and a bronze at the 2006 World Indoor Championships. A five-time World Championship 5000 m finalist, Kipchoge took silver medals at the 2007 World Championships, 2008 Beijing Olympics, and 2010 Commonwealth Games. (Full article...)
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  • ... that Anthony Vaz was the first flag bearer and team captain for Kenya at the Olympics?
  • ... that Kenyan coffee farmer "Pinkie" Jackson amassed Africa's largest collection of native butterflies?
  • ... that Gloria Orwoba raised awareness about period poverty by appearing in the Senate of Kenya in apparently blood-stained trousers?
  • ... that British outrage at the sentencing of a white Kenyan settler to just two years' imprisonment for the 1923 killing of a black employee eventually led to the replacement of the colony's legal code?
  • ... that Kenya Grace shot her first music video after becoming a finalist in a competition?
  • ... that Kenyan theologian Mary Getui was named a Moran of the Burning Spear?

In the news

Wikinews Kenya portal
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5 May 2024 – 2024 Kenya floods
The death toll from the ongoing flooding in Kenya increases to 228. (Reuters)
1 May 2024 – 2024 Kenya floods
The death toll from ongoing flooding in Kenya increases to 181, as more homes and roads are destroyed. (Reuters)
30 April 2024 – 2024 Kenya floods
The death toll from ongoing flooding in Kenya increases to 169, with 91 people reported missing. (The Washington Post)
29 April 2024 – Somali civil war
Five people are killed and five more injured in a bomb attack in El Wak town in Mandera County, northern Kenya, near the border with Somalia. (AP)
29 April 2024 – 2024 Kenya floods
2024 Kenya dam failure
At least 45 people are killed and dozens of others are missing following a dam burst in Mai Mahiu, Kenya, amid ongoing heavy rains and flash floods in the country, which have killed more than 120 people. (Al Jazeera) (The New York Times)

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Panorama of Kisumu from Lake Victoria
Panorama of Kisumu from Lake Victoria
Credit: Victor Ochieng
Kisumu is the largest city in the Western region of Kenya and the third largest city in the country.

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The following are images from various Kenya-related articles on Wikipedia.

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