Bunson Travel - Info Pages

Bunson Travel Service

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the coast

safaris

nairobi

outbound

Anthropological discoveries indicate that humans, perhaps the first on earth, probably inhabited southern Kenya some 2 million years ago.

In the Kenya highlands farming and domestic herds can be dated to 1000 BC Arab traders settled on the coast by the 8th cent. AD, establishing several autonomous city-states.

The Portuguese, who first visited the Kenya coast in 1498, gained control of much of it but were expelled by Arabs in 1729. In 1886, under a British-German agreement on spheres of influence in E Africa, most of present-day Kenya passed to Britain, and in 1903, after a railroad opened up the interior, the first European settlers moved in.

Under Britain, Europeans controlled the government, and Indians, who had arrived earlier, were active in commerce, while black Africans were largely confined to subsistence farming or to work as laborers.

Protests by blacks over their inferior status reached a peak in the so-called MAU-MAU emergency (1952–56), an armed revolt against British rule. After the rebellion Britain increased black African representation in the legislative council, and in 1963 Kenya gained independence.

The country became a republic in 1964, with Jomo KENYATTA as president.

The first decade of independence was marked by disputes among ethnic groups (especially the Kikuyu and the Luo), by the exodus of many Europeans and Asians, and by sporadic fighting with Somalia over boundary issues. Daniel arap Moi, candidate of Kenya African National Union, succeeded to the presidency after Kenyatta's death in 1978.