History History

A tectonic collapse takes place at the meeting of the African and Somali plates, leading to the formation of many lakes (Assal, Kivu, Tanganyika, Malawi ...) and an intense volcanic activity

The pioneer australopithecines (Lucy) gradually gave way to the first humans. Their diet diversified and the first tools appeared about 2.2 million years ago in Kenya. This is the age ofHomo habilis, shaping stone and mastering nature

Thanks to its technology and its social organization,Homo erectus leaves to conquer the whole world. We are at 800 000 years BC. The Rift Valley is the cradle of Humanity

Persian and Arab populations settled on the Indian Ocean coast. A string of trading posts (Lamu, Malindi, Mombasa, Pemba, Zanzibar, Kilwa) came into being. These trading posts were organized into small and unusual sultanates, against a background of Islam evolving in symbiosis with the local populations. The Swahili "civilization" was born with its language, its writings, its urban architecture, its mosques, its music and its cuisine. Its domain quickly attracted the covetousness of Venice whose opulence depended almost exclusively on its trade with the East

The interior of the country is occupied by pastoral and agricultural peoples. The Bantu appeared in the Kenyan region during the^1st millennium AD. The Nilotic Maasai and Samburu peoples migrated there in the 13th and 14th centuries. On the coast, apogee of the Swahili civilization with its trading posts

The control of the silk and spice routes, not to mention the gold route, was a major challenge for Europe. The Cape Verde Islands, Angola and Mozambique were easy conquests for the Portuguese who colonized these regions. But the Swahili coast was much more difficult to conquer. On his arrival, Vasco da Gama was refused entry to the port of Mombasa but was welcomed with open arms in Malindi, then in conflict with the latter. The Portuguese will fight for almost 200 years to keep a hold on this highly strategic region. It was not until 1729 and the eviction of the Portuguese by the Omani fleet that Swahili prosperity was reborn until the end of the 19th century

After the fall of Napoleon, the European powers meeting in Vienna officially recognized the abolition of the slave trade. England immediately took advantage of this to ensure its supremacy on the seas, particularly in the Indian Ocean, under the pretext of fighting against the slave trade which had become illegal. It officially abolished the trade in 1873.

The English, and especially the Germans, ventured inland, while the slave trade flourished on the Swahili coast. Krapf and Rebmann discovered Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. Joseph Thomson, a 26-year-old adventurer, confirmed the "discoveries" of the two missionaries, adding his own: the central highlands, "lands of honey and milk. Thomson's last expedition took place in 1882. In 1857, Speke discovered Lake Victoria. England now had a relatively precise idea of the potential of the interior of the continent

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave a strategic interest to the eastern coasts of the continent. Colonialist fever took hold of Europe. The method used was identical everywhere: the explorers signed or imposed dupe treaties with the local chiefs who recognized their sovereignty over their territories. In East Africa, the British and Germans play for time

In order to prevent the rivalries caused by these distant lands from degenerating into open conflict in Europe, the Congress of Berlin, meeting in 1885 to settle the Congo question, defined the "rules" for the division of Africa by the European powers. The zones of influence became possessions. Borders were drawn between German Tanganyika and British East Africa (present-day Kenya and Uganda).
As elsewhere in Africa, the management of these distant possessions was entrusted to private companies, which received a monopoly on the exploitation and administration of these territories. The British Crown entrusted the administration of its East African sphere of influence to the Imperial British East African Company (IBEAC), a private consortium of capitalists. But the company quickly went bankrupt. England had no choice but to officially take over the management and administration of these territories, which became a British protectorate in 1895.

The British government authorizes the alienation of African land to European settlers, but also from Australia and New Zealand or South Africa. Beginning of the white colonization of the central highlands. Major colonial crops were organized: tea, coffee, sisal, cereals

The Crown offers its demobilized soldiers new land. Thus, one million Kikuyu live on 5,500 square kilometers, while 9,600 whites share 42,000 square kilometers, although they do not cultivate even half of it. The Africans of the Highlands were confined to reserves that were soon too small to support the strong demographic pressure that characterized the inter-war period. In this context, many Africans, especially young people and unmarried women, left the reserves to settle illegally in the first "slums" of Nairobi: Pangani, Kileleshwa and Kibera.

The weakness of the British colonial administration made it necessary to use local intermediaries. Among them were Africans educated by missionaries, an indigenous elite without rights and powers. It is in their ranks that the first nationalist demands will appear. In 1921, Harry Thuku founded the Young Kikuyu Association (YKA) in Nairobi to defend the rights of the Kikuyu expelled from the central highlands and to pave the way for Kenyan nationalist resistance. He was arrested in 1922

A native press developed, one of whose main editors was Johnstone Kamau, later known as Jomo Kenyatta. In 1929, Kenyatta left for England to plead the African cause, on behalf of the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA), to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He was rejected and stayed in Britain until 1946, when he devoted himself to his studies. When Kenyatta returned to Kenya, he became the leader of the independence movement Kenya African Union (KAU). The Mau Mau revolt began in the wake of this. Kenyatta was imprisoned from 1952 to 1961

Nationalist fervor rumbles. Although a few timid concessions were made in 1957, the wind of decolonization blew over Kenya as it did everywhere else in the world. Too little, too late: "Uhuru sasa" (independence now) became the slogan of the Kenyan people. Finally, the first Lancaster House Conference was held with the aim of establishing a constitution leading to independence. The result was a general election in 1961, in which two newly formed political parties were represented: the centralist Kenya African National Union (KANU), representing the majority ethnic groups (Luo, Kikuyu), and the federalist Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU), headed by Ronald Ngala. Kenyatta was released from British custody

On December 12, 1963, Kenya gained its independence. The election confirmed the strength of KANU and, in fact, Jomo Kenyatta became the Prime Minister of Kenya under a dominion status (like Canada or Australia).

Within a year, KADU dissolved and joined the KANU party, a unanimous House of Assembly voted for the Republic, and Jomo Kenyatta became the first president of independent Kenya on December 12, 1964. The unity of the nationalists who had achieved independence was gradually eroded by the conservative policies of the Kenyatta government. A radical movement emerged within KANU, led by Luo Odinga Odinga, the party's vice-president, and the Republic. It demanded the return of white land without compensation, the Africanization of land in the form of community cooperatives, as well as political alignment with the East and the nationalization of businesses.
The accounts were settled in 1966 at the Limuru congress: Odinga lost his vice-presidency of KANU, left the government and formed the Kenya Peoples' Union (KPU), an opposition party; a mini-general election was held, after which the KPU remained in the minority in Parliament

Despite the political conflicts, the new Kenya showed remarkable stability in its early years and became a model in Africa, although the equitable distribution of land remained problematic, as many did not own land, and despite an alarming unemployment rate.

Kenyatta was re-elected president after banning opposition parties. Political assassinations and repression were the order of the day in the early 1970s. In 1974, he was the only candidate for the presidential elections and was re-elected for a final term. Ill, he let his clan reign - and get rich. Swahili was declared the national language.

He is then his vice president. Moi belongs to a minority tribe and was chosen to balance the Kikuyu-Luo ethnic balance. Moi wants to give a new image, far from the cult of personality maintained by his predecessor. He travels around the country to have direct contact with the population, releases all political prisoners, emphasizes the development of health and education infrastructures, reassures the population and investors, and the business world is relieved. But in the end, nothing really changes.

An attempted coup, organized within the air force by Luo and Kikuyu officers, united for the occasion, failed in bloody fashion. Moi tightened his regime. The Kenyan economy is gradually losing momentum, undermined by rampant corruption and population growth. The population is getting poorer

Popular uprising following several political assassinations. Bloody repression and international threats. Repeal of the one-party laws, the president could only run for two five-year terms, in preparation for the 1992 elections

The opposition, which had regrouped in the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD), failed to name a candidate and a single team against KANU. This front broke up at the last hour, fracturing along ethnic lines: Moi and his KANU regime won out over a divided opposition.

Re-election of Moi, but the opposition is becoming more present. A proliferation of increasingly free media. His previous mandate was marked by a plundering of the economy: the country is impoverished, the road infrastructure is deteriorating, agricultural production is decreasing, the state hospitals are turning into nursing homes, urban security is becoming precarious with the influx of populations displaced by poverty. This does not prevent the regime's vampires from embezzling fabulous amounts of money.

The National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (NARC) rallied behind Mwai Kibaki (an early politician, Minister of Economy under Kenyatta, First Vice President under Moi, and an unsuccessful opposition presidential candidate in 1992 and 1997). He was elected by a landslide and became the third president of independent Kenya. Kibaki tried to maintain Kenya's stability (with the fight against corruption as his main focus) and to create a new economic momentum. But the results of his five-year term are mixed.

In the December 27, 2007, presidential election, incumbent Mwai Kibaki and his opponent, Raila Odinga, each declared victory and refused to acknowledge the other's victory. The situation degenerated. Clashes broke out across the country, killing more than 1,500 people and displacing 300,000 into hundreds of refugee camps. Locally, the violence took on the aspect of inter-ethnic conflict: the Kikuyu, traditional supporters of the president, were attacked by the supporters of the opposition: the Luo. The African Union and the European Union are calling for a return to dialogue between representatives of both parties

On February 28, 2008, a peace agreement was signed to form a coalition government with President Mwai Kibaki (Kikuyu) and his rival Raila Odinga (Luo) as Prime Minister. This is the first major inter-ethnic coalition in the country. The country came close to an ethnic conflict, but once again, a national compromise was reached

A constitutional change was passed by referendum. This constitutional change endorses a reduction in the powers of the president, along with increased delegation of power to local governments, and a bill of rights. The new constitution was promulgated on August 27, 2010.

The drought, combined with rising commodity prices, is causing Kenya to suffer a severe crisis, part of the worst crisis in East Africa in 60 years. Kenya, which has been allied with the U.S. since 2007 in the fight against Islamism in Somalia, also has to take in more refugees from the Somali civil war. It is above all the northeast, an already sensitive area, that is suffering the full force of these two crises. These two aspects underline the fragility of the northeast of the country, which has a very precarious stability and over which the central state exercises very relative control.

The son of Jomo Kenyatta, indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity for his responsibility in the post-election violence of 2007, was elected in the first round of the presidential election with 50.07% of the vote.

On September 21, 2013, terrorism struck at the heart of Nairobi with the attack on the Westgate shopping mall, blamed on the Somali Shebabs and some foreigners from that country. At least 67 people were killed, with several attackers killed. On April 2, 2015, Somali Shebabs attacked Garissa University, killing 152 people, mostly Christian students. This is the deadliest attack attributed to the Shebabs in Kenya

In the August 8 presidential election, voters returned Uhuru Kenyatta with 54.27 percent of the vote. But in early September, the Supreme Court, for the first time, annulled the presidential election for irregularities. Raila Odinga, the only opponent (only two candidates are allowed to run), attempted on October 17 to overthrow the incumbent president, as he had already failed to do in 1997, 2007, and 2013. On October 30, Uhuru Kenyatta was officially reinstated for a second term. On November 6, appeals were filed in the Supreme Court challenging the presidential election and calling for the results to be invalidated. They were dismissed. The court validated the re-election of incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta. End of the presidential soap opera. Or almost

In January, the final report of the European Union's observation mission on the Kenyan elections was harsh. Democratic rights are being violated, and politicians on all sides are to blame. The opponent Raila Odinga still does not want to recognize the results of the presidential elections and the victory of Uhuru Kenyatta. Eleven embassies signed a joint communiqué to encourage a national dialogue between the government and the opposition. On March 9, the Kenyan president and his opponent Raila Odinga announced an end to their divisions

During his official trip, Emmanuel Macron demonstrated his willingness to reorient France's African policy towards the most dynamic countries, particularly those in English-speaking Africa. Economic cooperation will be discussed again in September 2020 during President Kenyatta's official visit to France.

The former president of Kenya (1978-2002) died at the age of 95. The record of his long presidency remains controversial.

Kenya's public debt has increased by more than $11 billion in one year, according to the Central Bank (2021), exceeding $66 billion. A record figure. The Covid-19 pandemic has only worsened the government's fiscal situation. In April 2021, Kenya reached an agreement in principle with the IMF to disburse US$ 410 million for reforms.

On January^1, 2021, Kenya joins the United Nations Security Council as a non-permanent member for a period of two years

On May 13, Kenya's High Court handed down its verdict on the status of President Uhuru Kenyatta's constitutional reform bill. The bill, called the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), was to be adopted by referendum before the 2022 presidential election, amid tensions between President Kenyatta and his deputy president William Ruto. The reform is intended to replace the current rules, which the head of state says are the cause of repeated post-election conflicts. But the High Court has clearly ruled the process "illegal and unconstitutional.

The two countries are on trial before the International Court of Justice. At issue is a dispute over the delineation of their maritime borders. A case that mixes nationalism, economic interests and suspicions of interference.

The 2022 general elections saw Uhuru Kenyatta's former vice-president, William Ruto, win the presidential election by a very narrow margin. Ruto's opponent was once again Raila Odinga, who contested the results in vain, as they were made official. The Ruto clan also won the National Assembly, but without an absolute majority.

William Ruto's five-year term seems to be bogged down by the same issues and problems as his predecessor. Since 2023, and in particular with a peak in tensions in the summer of 2024, anti-government demonstrations have followed one another, often prevented or repressed with violence. At issue is the reform of the Finance Act to introduce new taxes, a subject that has raised the hackles of job-hungry youth against a backdrop of economic crisis and a general rise in the cost of living.