Kenya
From dKosopedia
The stereotypical African country for many in the advanced industrial democracies, Kenya is a country in East African bordering Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the northeast, Uganda to the west and Tanzania to the south.
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Background
The country has an estaimted population in 2005 of 33,829,590.
Ethnic Groups
- Kikuyu or Gikuyu
- Luo
- Maasai
Government
The Chief of State and Head of Government is President Mwai Kibaki. The national legislature is the unicameral National Assembly or Bunge with 224 seats.
The total U.S. DSCA Foreign Military Sales to Kenya for Fiscal Year 2004 were only $ 4.36 million.
November 21, 2005 Referendum to Approve New Constitution
referendum Question: "Are you for or against the ratification of the proposed new Constitution?' (Je, unakubali au unapinga kuidhinishwa kwa katiba mpya?) A simple majority was needed for the referendum to pass. Thirty days of campaigning for or againt the referendum were permitted.
Political History
Britain ruled Kenya as Kenya Colony from 1895 to 1960. The British colonial project was to establish a white European settlement or "white man's country" in the temperate highlands or "White Highlands." The lands of large numbers of ethnic Kikuyu farmers and ethnic Maasai herders were seized in the process. From 1952 to 1959 Britain waged a brutal counter-insurgency-including mass internment and the execution of surrendering rebels-against ethnic Kikuyu Mau Mau rebels. Kenya won its independence in December 1963.
Further Reading
- Caroline Elkins. 2005. Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0805076530.
- Marshall S. Clough. 1998. Mau Mau Memoirs: Hisdtory, Memory & Politics. Boulder: Lynne Reinner. ISBN 1555875378.
Links
External Links
- Oneworld.net Country Guides: Kenya
- The Constant Gardener a 2005 film set in Kenya