Battle of Backbone Mountain

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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. A member of the African Union 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, 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...)


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A male Rothschild's giraffe at Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda
Rothschild's giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi) is a subspecies of the Northern giraffe. It is one of the most endangered distinct populations of giraffe, with 1,399 mature individuals estimated in the wild in 2018. (Full article...)
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Cheetah
Cheetah
Sunrise over the Indian Ocean at Mombasa. Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya, lying on the Indian Ocean.

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Hot Air Balloon Safari in Maasai Mara
Hot Air Balloon Safari in Maasai Mara

Narok County is a county in Kenya. Narok County has a population of 850,920. Its capital and largest town is Narok. (Read more...)

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This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

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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Dame Daphne Marjorie Sheldrick, DBE (née Jenkins; 4 June 1934 – 12 April 2018) was a Kenyan of British descent, author, conservationistand expert in animal husbandry, particularly the raising and reintegrating of orphaned elephants into the wild for over 30 years. She was the founder of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. (Full article...)
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In the news

Wikinews Kenya portal
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1 March 2024 – Haitian crisis
Kenyan president William Ruto announces an agreement with Haiti to deploy 1,000 police officers as part of a mission approved by the United Nations to combat gang violence in the Caribbean nation. (Reuters)
1 February 2024 –
A gas truck explodes in a residential area of Nairobi, Kenya, killing three people and injuring 297 others. (BBC News)
18 January 2024 – Shakahola Forest incident
Ninety-five people are charged in Kenya over the deaths by 429 followers of a religious cult in 2023. (Al Jazeera)
22 December 2023 –
Kenya's anti-corruption commission charges the country’s former tourism minister and two others with economic crimes for the alleged fraud of tens of millions of dollars in inflated costs for the construction of a hospitality college. (AP)
12 December 2023 – Visa policy of Kenya
Kenyan President William Ruto announces that all tourists will no longer require a travel visa to enter the country from January, with the visa being replaced by electronic travel authorisation. (Reuters)
10 December 2023 –
A nationwide power outage occurs in Kenya as a result of possibe sabotage of the country's electrical grid, according to Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen. (BBC News)

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Credit: kathrynbullock
Panorama of Mount Kenya around Shipton's Camp

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