Kenya

History

• Early History

  It is known that human history in Kenya dates back millions of years, because it is there that some of the earliest fossilized remains of hominids have been discovered. Among the best-known finds are those by anthropologist Richard Leakey and others in the Koobi Fora area along the shore of Lake Rudolf that have included portions of Australopithecus boisei and Homo habilis skeletons. The first inhabitants of present-day Kenya were hunter-gatherer groups, akin to the modern Khoisan speakers.  These people were later replaced by agro pastoralist Cushitic speakers from the Horn of Africa. During the early Holocene, the regional climate shifted from dry to wetter climatic conditions, providing an opportunity for the development of cultural traditions, such as agriculture and herding, in a more favorable environment.

  Around 500 BC, Nilotic-speaking pastoralists (ancestral to Kenya’s Nilotic speakers) started migrating from present-day Southern Sudan into Kenya. Nilotic groups in Kenya include the Samburu, Luo, Turkana, Maasai. By the first millennium AD, Bantu-speaking farmers had moved into the region.[25] The Bantus originated in West Africa along the Benue River in what is now eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon.[26] The Bantu migration brought new developments in agriculture and iron working to the region.[26] Bantu groups in Kenya include the Kikuyu, Luhya, Kamba, Kisii, Meru, Kuria, Aembu, Ambeere, Wadawida-Watuweta, Wapokomo and Mijikenda among others.

  The coast of East Africa was mentioned in the first and second centuries A.D. Greek writings as a trading place for items like ivory, tortoiseshell, and spices. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, Arab and Persian merchants founded settlements along the coast. These towns, stretching from the coasts of Somalia to the coasts of Mozambique, became links in an extensive commercial network between East Africa, Southwest Asia, and
  the Indies. Settlements in Mombassa, Malindi, Lamu, and Pate in present-day Kenya exported slaves and ivory that had been exchanged by Africans from the interior of the country for salt, cloth, beads, and metal goods.
  The larger Arab towns developed into autonomous sultanates, competing with each other.

  During the 15th century, the Coast is rich and the cities are great in this period. It becomes the first center of trade out of Africa. The African groups on the coast gradually forms the Swahili culture adapting Islam as their religion. The common religion makes way for better understanding and business with the Arabs. Religious beliefs (Islam and later Christianity) also gives status in society (this can still be seen in the pride of many religious people in Africa). Some Africans may have turned to Islam simply to avoid being sold as slaves. The Swahili were mainly black Africans and it were these people who build the great cities along the coast.

  Arab families continued to migrate to East Africa, and due to intermarriages between indigenous Bantu-speaking Africans and Arab settlers, a distinctive Islamic culture emerged. This also led to the development of the Swahili (Arabic for “coastal”) language, serving as the main language on the East African coast, and as the native tongue of the mixed population. By the end of the fifteenth century, Malindi was the most prosperous trading center on the Kenyan coast, surpassing Mombasa.

• The Swahilis and Arrival of the Portuguese

  The Kenyan coast had served host to communities of iron workers and communities of Bantu subsistence farmers, hunters and fishers who supported the economy with agriculture, fishing, metal production and trade with foreign countries. These communities formed the earliest city states in the region which were collectively known as Azania. By the 1st century CE, many of the city-states such as Mombasa, Malindi,  and Zanzibar began to establish trade relations with Arabs. This led to the increase economic growth of the Swahili states, introduction of Islam, Arabic influences on the Swahili Bantu language, cultural diffusion, as well as the Swahili city-states becoming a member of a larger trade network.

  Arabian and Persian traders are the first to visits the East Africa 8th century AD are made. Some Arab traders stays in the region and brings a Muslim influence to the culture. Most areas of Kenya are inhabited at this time, but most trade and development takes place in the coastal region. Trade with ivory, rhino horn, gold, shells and slaves makes Mombasa, Malindi and the Islands Lamu, and Pate into important centers of trade. Evolving from a mixture of Bantu and Arabic, the Swahili language then developed as a lingua franca for trade between the different peoples.

  The Swahili built Mombasa into a major port city and established trade links with other nearby city-states, as well as commercial centers in Persia, Arabia, and even India. During the 15th century, the Coast is rich and the cities are great in this period. It becomes the first center of trade out of Africa. The African groups on the coast gradually forms the Swahili culture adapting Islam as their religion. The common religion makes way for better understanding and business with the Arabs. Religious beliefs (Islam and later Christianity) also gives status in society (this can still be seen in the pride of many religious people in Africa). Some Africans may have turned to Islam simply to avoid being sold as slaves. The Swahili were mainly black Africans and it were these people who build the great cities along the coast.

  When the Portuguese arrived in 1498 in Mombasa and Malindi under Vasco da Gama, the Arab dominance on the coast was clipped, as the Port of Mombasa became an important resupply stop for ships bound for the Far East. While the sultanate of Malindi established friendly relations with the Portuguese, the leaders of Mombasa reacted with hostility. After several attacks on the town, they were forced to recognize the rule of the Europeans and pay an annual tribute. In order to strengthen their power on this stretch of the East African coast, the Portuguese constructed a massive defense fort, Fort Jesus, at the entrance to Mombasa harbor in 1593. Their dominance went unchallenged for the next few decades, until the imam of Oman gained power. Fort Jesus fell in 1699 after a three-year siege.  The Portuguese gave way in turn to Islamic control under the Imam of Oman in the 1600s until another European influence came along, this time from the United Kingdom during the 19th century.

• Colonial British 

  On 7 August 1885 five German warships steam into the lagoon of Zanzibar and train their guns on the sultan’s palace. They have arrived with a demand from Bismarck that Sultan Barghash cede to the German emperor his mainland territories or face the consequences. This crisis is immediately on desks in London. Britain, eager not to offend Germany, suggests a compromise. The two nations should mutually agree spheres of interest over the territory stretching inland to the Great Lakes. In September a joint Anglo-German boundary commission starts work in the interior.  By November 1886 the task is done and the result is agreed with the other main colonial power, France. The sultan is left a strip ten miles wide along the coast. The British sphere of influence is to be to the north, the German to the south. The line remains to this day the border between Kenya and Tanzania.

  As with the areas being colonized by Rhodes at this same period in southern Africa, the British government is reluctant to take active responsibility for the region of east Africa which is now its acknowledged sphere of interest. Instead it assigns to a commercial company the right to administer and develop the territory. The Imperial British East Africa Company is set up for the purpose in 1888, a year ahead of Rhodes’s British South Africa Company. The Imperial British East Africa Company opened the fertile highlands to white settlers. Even before it was officially declared a British colony in 1920, these settlers were allowed a voice in government, while the Africans and the Asians were banned from direct political participation until 1944. During this period thousands of Indians were brought into Kenya to work on building the Kenya Uganda Railway Line and subsequently settled there, whilst inviting many of their kith and kin who were mainly traders from India to join them.

  It is evident to all that the development of this region depends on the construction of a railway from the coast to Lake Victoria, but circumstances conspire to make this task far beyond the abilities of the East Africa Company. However,the British were highly interested in controlling the rich resources of Uganda. In order to facilitate this, they built a railroad between Mombasa and Kampala, using Indian laborers. Many of them remained in the country and became today‟s merchant class. The climate and fertility of the Kenya Highlands made this region ideal for European settlement and for plantations producing export crops. Vast stretches of the country‟s best land were reserved for the white minority, with restrictions of African and Asian land use. Many Africans lost their land during this process and were forced onto inferior land or into the labor market as a result of the hut taxes imposed by the colonial administration.

  During the early part of the 20th century, the interior central highlands were settled by British and other European farmers, who became wealthy farming coffee and tea. By the 1930s, approximately 30,000 white settlers lived in the area and gained a political voice because of their contribution to the market economy.

• Resistance to Colonialism and  Mau Mau Uprising

  The establishment of the colony of Kenya brings in its train racial hostilities. New legislation on land tenure shamelessly favors the settlers. In many areas Africans are now formally dispossessed of their land and are confined in reservations (the Kikuyu, the largest tribe, being the main losers), while the ‘white highlands’ policy restricts the ownership of the best farming land to Europeans. These and other tensions are reflected in the developing political scene.  From 1919 the white settlers are allowed to elect members to the legislative council. The other two communities of the colony demand similar rights. However, the Indians, enjoying a greater economic strength than their African Peers. As early as 1920 they turn down the offer of two seats on the legislative council, since this is not representative of the size of their community. Tension remains high until 1927, when the Indians win the right to five seats on the council. The Africans are almost as prompt in asserting their claims. As early as 1921 the Young Kikuyu Association (also known as the East Africa Association) is established to assert African rights and, more specifically, to recover appropriated Kikuyu land.

  The central highlands were already home to over a million members of the Kikuyu people, most of whom had no land claims in European terms and lived as itinerant farmers. To protect their interests, the settlers banned the growing of coffee, introduced a hut tax, and the landless were granted less and less land in exchange for their labor. A massive exodus to the cities ensued as their ability to provide a living from the land dwindled. There were 80,000 white settlers living in Kenya in the 1950s. In October 1952 there is a sudden outbreak of sabotage and assassination in Kenya. The perpetrators using terrorist tactics are Kikuyu, and their ritual oaths of loyalty to their secret organization reflect the customs of Jomo Kenyatta’s political group, the Kikuyu Central Association. 

  The meaning of their name for themselves, Mau Mau, is at the time and remains today a mystery. The colonial government reacts rapidly, declaring a state of emergency and arresting Jomo Kenyatta. Charged with planning the Mau Mau uprising, he is sentenced in March 1953 to seven years’ imprisonment. But his absence in British custody does nothing to lessen the campaign of terror. During this period, African participation in the political process increased rapidly and in 1954 all three races (European, Asian and African) were admitted into the Kenya Legislative Council on a representative basis.

  The capture of Warũhiũ Itote (also known as General China) on 15 January 1954 and the subsequent interrogation led to a better understanding of the Mau Mau command structure. Operation Anvil opened on 24 April 1954; The operation effectively placed Nairobi under military siege. Nairobi’s occupants were screened and the Mau Mau supporters moved to detention camps. The Home Guard formed the core of the government’s strategy as it was composed of loyalist Africans, not foreign forces such as the British Army and King’s African Rifles. By the end of the emergency, the Home Guard had killed 4,686 Mau Mau, amounting to 42% of the total insurgents. The capture of Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 in Nyeri signified the ultimate defeat of the Mau Mau and essentially ended the military offensive. During this period, substantial governmental changes to land tenure occurred. The most important of these was the Swynnerton Plan, which was used to both reward loyalists and punish Mau Mau.

• Jomo Kenyatta

  Jomo Kenyatta was born Kamau to parents Moigoi and Wamboi, his father was the chief of a small agricultural village in Gatundu Division, Kiambu District, one of five administrative districts in the Central Highlands of British East Africa. Moigoi died when Kamau was very young and he was, as custom dictated, adopted by his uncle Ngengi to become Kamau wa Ngengi.   In 1912, having completed his mission school education, Kamau became an apprentice carpenter. The following year he underwent initiation ceremonies. In August 1914 Kamau was baptized at the Church of Scotland mission, initially taking the name John Peter Kamau, but swiftly changing it to Johnson Kamau. He then departed the mission for Nairobi to seek employment.

  In 1919 he met and married his first wife Grace Wahu, according to Kikuyu tradition. When it became apparent that Grace was pregnant, his church elders ordered him to get married before a European magistrate, and undertake the appropriate church rites. Amongst other jobs he undertook during this period, Kamau served as an interpreter in the Nairobi High Court, and ran a store out of his Dagoretti home. In 1922 Kamau adopted the name Jomo (a Kikuyu name meaning ‘burning spear’) Kenyatta, and began working for the Nairobi Municipal Council Public Works Department  as a store clerk and water-meter reader. It was also the start of his political career the previous year Harry Thuku, a well educated and respected Kikuyu, had formed the East African Association (EAA) to campaign for the return of Kikuyu lands given over to white settlers when the country became the British Crown Colony of Kenya in 1920. Kenyatta joined the EAA in 1922.

  In 1925 the EAA disbanded under governmental pressure, but its members came together again as the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA), formed by James Beauttah and Joseph Kangethe. In May 1928 Kenyatta launched a monthly Kikuyu-language newspaper called Mwigwithania (Kikuyu word meaning ‘he who brings together’) which was intended to draw all sections of the Kikuyu together. The Kenyan Crown Colony was still dominated by white settler interests, and the dangerous explosion he had predicted in The Times in 1930 became a reality — the Mau Mau Rebellion. Seen as a subversive from his call for independence and support for nationalism, Kenyatta was implicated in the Mau Mau movement by the British authorities, and on 21 October 1952 he was arrested. The trial, which lasted several months, was a travesty ”” witnesses perjured themselves, and the judge was openly hostile to Kenyatta. The trial achieved worldwide publicity; despite the colonial authorities trying to claim is was simply a ‘criminal’ matter.

  On 8 April 1953 Kenyatta was sentenced to seven for Managing the Mau Mau, the trial achieved worldwide publicity; despite the colonial authorities trying to claim is was simply a ‘criminal’ matter. On 8 April 1953 Kenyatta was sentenced to seven-years hard labour for “managing the Mau Mau terrorist organization”. He spent the next six years at Lokitaung before being moved to ‘permanent restriction’ at Lodwar (a particularly remote desert army post) on 14 April 1959. The Mau Mau Rebellion had been crushed by the British Army, and the State of Emergency was lifted on 10 November. By 1960 the British government had conceded the principle of one man-one vote for Kenya, and in 1962 Kenyatta went to the Lancaster Conference in London to negotiate the terms of Kenya’s independence. In May 1963 KANU won the pre-independence election and formed a provisional government. When independence was achieved on 12 December that year, Kenyatta was prime minister. Exactly one year later, with the proclamation of a republic, Kenyatta became Kenya’s first president.

• Independent Kenya

  Jomo Kenyatta is still in detention in 1960, but his colleagues elect him president of their newly formed political party KANU (Kenya African National Union). He is released by the British in 1961. In London in 1962 he leads Kenya’s delegation in the negotiations for independence. The new nation is to include the coastal strip which until this time has been leased from the sultan of Zanzibar. In elections in May 1963 KANU wins the majority of the seats. Independence is achieved in December 1963, with Kenyatta as prime minister. A year later, under a new constitution, Kenya becomes a republic (soon to be a one-party republic, when opposition leaders agree to end party faction and cooperate with KANU). In 1964 Kenyatta is elected president. 

  To many in the white community it seems a terrifying prospect that almost unfettered power is now in the hands of a politician widely held responsible for Kikuyu violence in the Mau Mau period.  But Kenyatta confounds his critics. He rules even-handedly in relation to the African, Asian and European communities. He carefully involves ministers from tribes other than the Kikuyu in his administration. And he develops a successful free-market economy open to foreign investment. When he dies, in 1978, Kenya ranks high among African countries both in terms of political stability and economic growth.   Kenyatta is succeeded peacefully from within the ranks of KANU by his deputy, Daniel arap Moi (not himself a Kikuyu, but from one of the smaller Kalenjin tribes). Moi continues Kenyatta’s pro-western policies and his one-party rule, with little tolerance of any form of opposition. But in the early 1990s, as in most other African countries, there is strong pressure for multi party elections. These are held in December 1992. Moi is elected president and KANU wins the majority of seats in the national assembly, victory in both cases being eased by the fragmented nature of the opposition.

  The 1990s prove a difficult time; Kenya flounders economically, there are ominous outbreaks of ethnic conflict between Kalenjin and Kikuyu, and the nation’s troubles are compounded by evidence of widespread corruption. In 1997, with little sign of Moi taking effective measures to curb these abuses, the IMF suspends its promised programme of loans. At the same time the international community presses unsuccessfully for constitutional reform to give opposition parties a fair chance against KANU. Elections in December 1997 confirm Moi in the presidency and KANU as the ruling party.

  Moi announced in 2002 that he would not run again for the presidency, and Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Jomo Kenyatta, was chosen to be KANU’s presidential candidate. Kibaki, this time representing a coalition of opposition groups (the National Rainbow Coalition [NARC]), soundly defeated Kenyatta in the 2002 presidential elections, thus ending KANU’s long period of uninterrupted rule. In August 2010 Kenyan voters passed a referendum on the adoption of a new constitution, one rewritten to deactivate the country’s long-standing patterns of political tension and corruption. The referendum, which was conducted relatively peacefully, passed with a significant majority of the vote. The new constitution limited the power of the presidency and passed more control into the hands of the country’s local governments. In addition to restructuring the distribution of power, the constitution provided for a bill of rights and land reform.