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...)


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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The Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley

Uasin Gishu County is one of the 47 counties of Kenya. The city of Eldoret (capital and largest town in the county) is the county's administrative and commercial centre. Eldoret is the second largest urban centre in midwestern Kenya and the 5th largest urban centre in Kenya.

Uasin Gishu is located on a plateau and has a cool and temperate climate. It borders Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya. (Read more...)

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

The 2013 CECAFA Cup (known as the GOtv CECAFA Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 37th edition of the annual CECAFA Cup, an international football competition consisting of the national teams of member nations of the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA). The tournament was held in Kenya from 27 November to 12 December.

Contested by twelve national teams, the tournament had Zambia invited as a guest nation to fill in for Djibouti, who failed to participate for a second consecutive year. This followed the tournament's recent tradition of inviting other African nations to take part once a CECAFA nation pulled out; Malawi were invited to take part in the previous edition held in Uganda, while they and Zimbabwe took part in 2011 after Eritrea withdrew from the competition. (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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  • ... that Kenyan coffee farmer "Pinkie" Jackson amassed Africa's largest collection of native butterflies?
  • ... that in 2009, Doreen Nabwire became the first Kenyan woman to play professional football in Europe?
  • ... that Anthony Vaz was the first flag bearer and team captain for Kenya at the Olympics?
  • ... 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 Tropical Storm Eliakim enhanced rainfall and brought flooding to Kenya despite the storm making landfall on Madagascar?
  • ... that KOKO Networks has used more than $100 million in carbon financing to subsidise cooking fuels in Kenya?

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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