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Kenya is a country on the eastern coast of Africa, right on the equator. It is a land of striking landscapes, ranging from snow-capped Mount Kenya to rich farmlands, barren deserts and tropical beaches. A former British colony, Kenya is now made up of eight provinces in that range in geographical size from the small Nairobi Province to the much larger Eastern and Rift Valley Provinces. The Provinces also range in population from the densely populated Nairobi Province, to the sparsely populated North East. The eight provinces are: Central, Coast, Eastern, Nairobi, North East, Nyanza, Rift Valley and Western Province. Each Province is subdivided into districts.
Kenya borders Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan in the north, Uganda in the west, Tanzania in the south, and the Indian Ocean in the East. Kenya's capital city is Nairobi with a population of approximately 1. 4 million people. The other major towns are Mombasa the main port on the Indian Ocean with an estimated population of 1 million and Kisumu on Lake Victoria with an estimated population of 400, 000 people. Kenya's population is growing rapidly. Most Kenyans are country people small-scale, independent farmers and ranchers. Only about 25 % of the people live in urban areas, one of the lowest percentages in the world.
For thousands of years, ships have sailed to the coast of Kenya from Arabia and southern Asia exploiting Africa's natural resources for the sole purpose of bringing money back to their homelands so their countries businesses and economies could flourish. Because of the extensive exploitation and dependence on other countrys materials and agriculture, there has been a tremendous impact on Kenya's economy, society, and government especially since Kenya's independence in 1960. Before the turn of the twentieth century, Kenya was mainly inhabited by the African peoples and its economy was almost entirely at a subsistence level. Because money as we know it today did not exist, any exchange of domestic production was done predominantly on a barter form of arrangement. Trade with the outside world was almost non-existent except for some Asian and Arab traders along the coast. The construction of the Uganda Railway and the coming to Kenya of the white settlers at the beginning of the 20 th century marked a major development in the Kenyan economy.
The settlers introduced plantation agriculture, the main crops including, coffee, tea, sisal, wheat and pyrethrum. The settlers also introduced livestock ranching. The colonial government developed, in a limited way, road, telephone and postal networks to supplement the railway line. In conjunction with the missionaries it also established medical and educational facilities.
This infra-structural and human development was, however, essentially intended to achieve the rather narrow objective of serving the colonial government and the settler community. Any form of education of the African community was intended to produce a low-level, unskilled labor force. The first priority, as far as the Imperial Government in London was concerned, was to make the new colony pay its way. The political and economic set-up during the colonial period thus did little for the economic development of the African peoples.
However towards the end of the colonial era some economic development had started. Africans were gradually allowed to grow cash crops such as coffee and tea, although to a limited extent. Nevertheless, participation of Africans in the modern economy remained limited. In addition almost the entire African labor force was unskilled. The coming of independence in 1963, therefore, generally involved accelerating trends which had already started to emerge, and altering the emphasis given to different objectives.
A member of the Kikuyu tribe, John Kenyatta, became the first president in 1960, and is said to be Kenya's founding father. He founded the Kenya African Union (KAU), the first truly nationalist party. By putting economic pragmatism above political posturing, Kenyatta adopted a conciliatory policy towards the white settlers, a capitalist economic policy, and a staunchly pro-Western foreign policy. He convinced most of the settlers to stay and made Kenya into a center of Western business. He used British financial help to buy up land for African peasants, which in turn, bolstered the government without alienating the Europeans. During Kenyatta's reign, two trends began that bedevil Kenya today.
The first was the growth of corruption, and the second was the intolerance of opposition. He allowed an inner circle of family, fellow tribesman, and members of tribes related to the Kikuyu to shamelessly take advantage of their knowledge and connections. Their behavior set an example that became standard practice throughout Kenyan society. Today, the government controls the media, and the law forbids expression that might excite disaffection against the government. Critical publications are being covered up as the new regime harasses and pressures the printers not to print. They confiscate objectionable issues, arrest editors for sedition, and beat journalists that cover opposition activities.
Western pressure may have pushed the people of Kenya toward democracy and respect for human rights, but these gestures are clearly just a facade covering up continued corruption and repression.
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