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Kenya History |
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The first of many human footprints to be stamped on
Kenyan soil were left way back in 2000 BC by nomadic Cushitic tribes
from Ethiopia. A second group followed around 1000 BC and occupied
much of central Kenya. The rest of the ancestors of the country's
medley of tribes arrived from all over the continent between 500 BC
and AD 500. The Bantu-speaking people (such as the Gusii, Kikuyu,
Akamba and Meru) arrived from West Africa while the Nilotic speakers
(Maasai, Luo, Samburu and Turkana) came from the Nile Valley in southern
Sudan. As tribes migrated throughout the interior, Muslims from the
Arabian Peninsula and Shirazis from Persia (now Iran) settled along
the East African coast from the 8th century AD onwards.
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Drawn by the whiff of spices and money, the Portuguese
started sniffing around in the 15th century. After venturing further
and further down the western coast of Africa, Vasco da Gama finally
rounded the Cape of Good Hope and headed up the continent's eastern
coast in 1498. Seven years later, the Portuguese onslaught on the
region began. By the 16th century, most of the indigenous Swahili
trading towns, including Mombasa, had been either sacked or occupied
by the Portuguese - marking the end of the Arab monopoly of the Indian
Ocean trade. The Portuguese settled in for a long period of harsh
colonial rule, playing one sultan off against another. But their grip
on the coast was always tenuous because their outposts had to be supplied
from Goa in India. Control of the coast was won back by the Arabs
in 1720.
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The remainder of the 18th century saw the Omani dynasties
from the Persian Gulf dug in along the East African coast. The depredations
of the Portuguese era and constant quarrels among the Arab governors
caused a decline in trade and prosperity, which meant that economic
powerhouses such as Britain and Germany weren't interested in grabbing
a slice of East Africa until about the mid-19th century.
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With Europeans suddenly tramping all over Africa in search of fame
and fortune, even Kenya's intimidating interior was forced to give
up its secrets to outsiders. Until the 1880s, the Rift Valley and
the Aberdare highlands remained the heartland of the proud warrior
tribe, the Maasai. By the late 19th century, years of civil war
between the Maasai's two opposing factions had weakened the tribe.
Disease and famine had also taken their toll. This opened the way
for the English to negotiate a treaty with the Maasai laibon (chief,
or spiritual leader) and begin work on the Mombasa-Uganda railway
- which cut straight through the Maasai grazing lands. The halfway
point of this railway is roughly where Nairobi stands today.
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It was downhill from here for the Maasai. As white settlers
demanded more fertile land, the Maasai were herded into smaller reserves.
The Kikuyu, a Bantu agricultural tribe from the highlands west of
Mt Kenya, also had vast tracts of land ripped from under their feet.
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White settlement in the early 20th century was initially
disastrous, but - once they bothered to learn a little about the land
- the British succeeded in making their colony viable. Other European
settlers soon established coffee plantations and by the 1950s the
white-settler population had reached about 80,000. With little choice
left but to hop on the economic hamster wheel created by the Europeans,
tribes such as the Kikuyu nonetheless maintained their rage. Harry
Thuku, an early leader of the Kikuyu political association, was duly
jailed by the British in 1922. His successor, Johnstone Kamau (later
Jomo Kenyatta) was to become independent Kenya's first president.
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As opposition to colonial rule grew, the Kenya African
Union (KAU) emerged and became strident in its demands. Other such
societies soon added their voices to the cry for freedom, including
the Mau Mau, whose members (mainly Kikuyu) vowed to drive white settlers
out of Kenya. The ensuing Mau Mau Rebellion ended in 1956 with the
defeat of the rebels. The death toll stood at over 13,500 Africans
- Mau Mau guerrillas, civilians and troops - and just over 100 Europeans.
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Kenyatta spent years in jail or under house arrest but was freed
in 1961 and became leader of the reincarnated KAU, the Kenya African
National Union (KANU). He ushered in independence on 12 December
1963, and under his presidency the country developed into one of
Africa's most stable and prosperous nations. Kenyatta was succeeded
after his death in 1978 by Daniel Arap Moi, a member of the Tugen
tribe.
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Moi's rule was characterised by nepotism, rifts and
dissension. He took criticism badly and as a result oversaw the disbanding
of tribal societies, disrupted universities and harassed opposition
politicians. A coup attempt by the Kenyan Air Force in 1982 was put
down by forces loyal to Moi. With the winds of democratic pluralism
sweeping Africa in the late 1980s and early 1990s, international aid
for Moi's Kenya was suspended.
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank
and major aid donors demanded that repression cease and Moi's political
stranglehold ease. He conceded ground, but much to his delight, the
opposition in the 1993 election shot itself in the foot - The Forum
for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD) was unable to agree on a leader.
By splitting into three parties, FORD's much-vaunted cause became
hopeless. Moi, the beneficiary of his opposition's vanity, won with
just one-third of the vote. |
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In 1995, a new party was launched in an attempt to unite
the splintered opposition. The party was Safina, founded by Richard
Leakey, famed anthropologist, elephant saviour and political activist.
Elections were held in Kenya at the end of 1997. Despite widespread
allegations of vote rigging and considerable intimidation of opposition
candidates, Moi and KANU once again scraped home with a little over
40% of the vote. Although Moi promised to rid the government of corruption,
this was met by an air of resignation in the country, with Kenyans
sitting tight until the day when he retired. Then, in August 1998
terrorists bombed the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing
over 250 people and injuring more than 5000, illustrating Kenya's
vulnerability to increased social and political turmoil.
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In 2002 Moi decided to retire on very generous
retirement benefits. At the December 2002 elections, KANU was routed
by the National Rainbow Coalition, led by Mwai Mbaki. This brought
about a feeling of new optimism in the country, but there have been
signs since that the new government is as intolerant of dissent as
its predecessor.
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Meanwhile, Kenya struggled with a number
of familiar problems. HIV remains as a major problem and, as a reminder
that the threat of terrorism was ongoing, there was a suicide bomb
blast at a hotel north of Mombasa in November 2002. In recent years,
Kenya has experienced major floods, cholera and malaria epidemics,
ethnic fighting and drought, leading to food shortages in mid-2004
that were deemed a national crisis by President Kibaki.
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In March 2004, the long-awaited draft for
a new consitution was released, but it had failed to win parliamentary
approval by a deadline set for the middle of the same year. |
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