Crosslinks Kenya facts

Kenya has a rich variety of landscapes, including deserts, high mountains, rich grasslands and tropical forest. The northern third of the country is semi-arid and only supports nomadic tribes. The main population settlement is in the central uplands where the soils are fertile and the climate moderate.
Kenya has six national parks including the famous Masai Mara and Aberdare parks. The largest tribe is the Kikuyu, followed by the Luhya, Luo, Kamba and Kalenjin. There are fifty different language groups. English and Swahili are national languages: they are widely spoken and taught in schools.

Nairobi is the capital city with a population of over one million.The other major towns are Kericho, Nakuru, Mombasa, Eldoret and Kisumu. Click here to go to the East Africa Standard newspaper web site for current news

Like neighbouring Tanzania, Kenya has some of the oldest human remains yet found. The present tribes probably began to occupy the country from the 11th century. The coast developed trading links with the Arabs and as far away as India and Indonesia. Gradually Arab influence grew, culminating in the emergence of Mombasa as a major trading centre by 1500 AD. Contact with Europe began in 1498 when the Portuguese arrived and after a period of friendly relations tried to gain control over coastal trading. They were driven out at the end of the 17th century.

British influence dates from the beginning of the 19th century. The interior was opened up to European trade towards the end of the 19th century when the railway from the coast to Uganda was built. Nairobi was founded as a temporary railhead but quickly became the main centre for the interior. In 1895 the British East African Protectorate was declared and European settlement began in earnest. Some of the most fertile farming areas in the centre, known as the white highlands, grew tea and coffee.

From the 1920's African resistance movements grew, culminating in the Mau Mau movement in the 1950's. In 1961 the Kenya Africa National Union was formed and Jomo Kenyatta, a resistance leader who had spent many years in prison, became its leader. Independence was granted in 1963 and Kenyatta became the first president. Kenyatta died in 1978 and was succeeded by Daniel Arap Moi. Today Kenya is an independent republic within the Commonwealth. The one-party system of parliamentary government was abandoned in 1992 and multi-party elections took place.

	Kenya	UK equivalent
Population	30 million	59 million
Area	582,646 sq km	245000 sq km
Urban population	21 %	90 %
Life expectancy	54 years	75 years
Income per person	$340	$20,870
Christians % pop´n	79	68

Most Kenyans depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Many are subsistence farmers but also grow a few cash crops while large tea and coffee plantations are the main employers. Other crops grown for export are sugar, cotton, vegetables, flowers and fruit.

The fall of the price of tea and coffee on the international commodity markets, together with several periods of drought, have created major problems for the Kenyan economy. This is exacerbated by the population growth of about 3.8% per annum (one of the largest in the world), which means that the population is expected to double in the last decade of this century.

Kenya has a relatively large industrial sector but lack of investment means that it is now operating well below capacity. Unemployment, especially in the big towns, is rising rapidly leading to increasing corruption and robbery.

Some 77% of Kenyans claim to be Christians, with the remainder following Islam or traditional African religions. The main missionary thrust began with CMS missionary Ludwig von Krapf in 1844. Today the Church is equally divided between Roman Catholics and Protestants, with the African Inland Church and the Anglican Church the largest Protestant denominations. Recent years have seen the rapid growth of a wide range of independent churches, some orthodox in doctrine, others with a mixture of Christian and other beliefs.

The Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) has 28 dioceses with more in the process of formation. All but one have Kenyan bishops. In many of them the church is greatly involved in social work as well as evangelism and Bible teaching.

The Church of the Province of Kenya is engaged in liturgical revision to produce worship which reflects and expresses valuable aspects of local culture.

Not all language groups have the whole Bible in their own language yet. The Kenya Bible Society is concerned to meet this need, alongside Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Missionaries first went to Kenya in 1931 and pioneered work among some of the unevangelised tribes in the west and north. Today Crosslinks is involved in education and administration. Crosslinks also provides bursaries for theological training.