With a long history of musical and artistic expression, Kenya enjoys a rich tradition of oral and written literature, including many fables that speak to the virtues of determination and perseverance, important and widely shared values, given the country's experience during the struggle for independence. Kikuyu writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o, one of the country's best-known authors internationally, addresses these concerns in his remarks on one folkloric figure:

Kenya's many peoples are well known to outsiders, largely because of the British colonial administration's openness to study. Anthropologists and other social scientists have documented for generations the lives of the Maasai, Luhya, Luo, Kalenjin, and Kikuyu peoples, to name only some of the groups. Adding to the country's ethnic diversity are European and Asian immigrants from many nations. Kenyans proudly embrace their individual cultures and traditions, yet they are also cognizant of the importance of national solidarity; a motto of “Harambee” (Swahili: “Pulling together”) has been stressed by Kenya's government since independence.

The 38th meridian divides Kenya into two halves of striking contrast. While the eastern half slopes gently to the coral-backed seashore, the western portion rises more abruptly through a series of hills and plateaus to the Eastern rift valley, known in Kenya as the Central Rift. West of the Rift is a westward-sloping plateau, the lowest part of which is occupied by Lake Victoria. Within this basic framework, Kenya is divided into the following geographic regions: the Lake Victoria (Victoria, Lake) basin, the Rift Valley and associated highlands, the eastern plateau forelands, the semiarid and arid areas of the north and south, and the coast.

The Lake Victoria basin is part of a plateau rising eastward from the lakeshore to the Rift highlands. The lower part, forming the lake basin proper, is itself a plateau area lying between 3,000 and 4,000 feet (900 and 1,200 metres) above sea level. The rolling grassland of this plateau is cut almost in half by the Kano Plain, into which an arm of the lake known as Winam Gulf (Kavirondo Gulf) extends eastward for 50 miles (80 km). The floor of the Kano Plain merges north and south into highlands characterized by a number of extinct volcanoes. These include Mount Elgon (Elgon, Mount), rising to 14,178 feet (4,321 metres) at the Ugandan border on the extreme north of the basin.

The Rift Valley splits the highland region into two sections: the Mau Escarpment to the west and the Aberdare Range to the east. The valley itself is 30 to 80 miles (50 to 130 km) wide, and its floor rises from about 1,500 feet (450 metres) in the north around Lake Turkana (Lake Rudolf (Rudolf, Lake)) to over 7,000 feet (2,100 metres) at Lake Naivasha (Naivasha, Lake) but then drops to 2,000 feet (600 metres) at the Tanzanian border in the south. The floor of the Rift is occupied by a chain of shallow lakes separated by extinct volcanoes. Lake Naivasha is the largest of these; the others include Lakes Magadi (Magadi, Lake), Nakuru (Nakuru, Lake), Bogoria, and Baringo (Baringo, Lake). West of the valley the diverse highland area runs from the thick lava block of the Mau Escarpment–Mount Tinderet complex northward to the Uasin Gishu Plateau. East of the Rift the Aberdare Range rises to nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 metres). The eastern highlands extend from the Ngong Hills and the uplands bordering Tanzania northward to the Laikipia Escarpment. Farther east they are linked by the Nyeri saddle to Mount Kenya (Kenya, Mount), the country's highest peak, at 17,058 feet (5,199 metres). The relief of both highlands is complex and includes plains, deep valleys, and mountains. Important in the historic and economic development of Kenya, the region was the focus of European settlement.

The eastern plateau forelands, located just east of the Rift highlands, constitute a vast plateau of ancient rocks gently sloping to the coastal plain. They are a region of scattered hills and striking elevated formations, the most prominent being the hills of Taita, Kasigau, Machakos, and Kitui. These hills, containing the area of more favourable climate, are surrounded by regions historically prone to famine.

The semiarid and arid areas in the north and northeast are part of a vast region extending from the Ugandan border through Lake Rudolf to the plateau area between the Ethiopian and Kenyan highlands. (The area from Lake Magadi southward, though not as arid, has the same characteristics.) Although tree and grass cover is scanty there, the areas of true desert are limited to the Chalbi Desert east of Lake Rudolf. The movement of people and livestock is strictly limited by the availability of water.

The coastal plain proper, which runs for about 250 miles (400 km) along the Indian Ocean, is a narrow strip only about 10 miles (16 km) wide in the south, but in the Tana River lowlands to the north it broadens to about 100 miles (160 km). Farther northeast it merges into the lowlands of Somalia. The excellent natural harbours include that of Mombasa, which is one of the best in East Africa.

Kenya's drainage pattern originated when a large oval dome of rock arose in the west-central part of the country and created the Central Rift. This dome produced a primeval watershed from which rivers once drained eastward to the Indian Ocean and westward to the Congo River system and the Atlantic Ocean. Still following this ancient pattern are the Tana (Tana River) and Galana rivers, which rise in the eastern highlands and flow roughly southeast to the Indian Ocean. West of the Central Rift, however, the major streams now drain into Lake Victoria. These include the Nzoia, Yala, Mara, and Nyando rivers. Between the eastern and western systems, the rifting of the dome's crust has created a complex pattern of internal streams that feed the major lakes.

There are no major groundwater basins, and, apart from the Tana River, most of the rivers in Kenya are short and often disappear during the dry season. Lake Victoria, with a surface area of 26,828 square miles (69,484 square km), is the largest lake in Africa, the second largest freshwater body in the world, and a major reservoir of the Nile River. Lake Rudolf (Rudolf, Lake), some 150 miles (240 km) long and 20 miles (30 km) wide, is the largest of the country's Rift Valley lakes. Other lakes are rather small, and their surface areas fluctuate considerably.

In the Lake Victoria basin, lava deposits have produced fertile and sandy loam soils in the plateaus north and south of Winam Bay, while the volcanic pile of Mount Elgon (Elgon, Mount) produces highly fertile volcanic soils well known for coffee and tea production. The Rift Valley and associated highlands are composed of fertile dark brown loams developed on younger volcanic deposits.

The most widespread soils in Kenya, however, are the sandy soils of the semiarid regions between the coast and the Rift highlands. To the north of the Rift are vast areas covered by red desert soils, mainly sandy loams. Kenya's soils are subject to widespread erosion largely because of the lack of forest cover; overgrazing and cultivation, especially in the arid and semiarid regions, also contribute to soil loss.

Seasonal climatic changes are controlled by the large-scale pressure systems of the western Indian Ocean and adjacent landmasses. From December to March, northeast winds predominate north of the Equator, while south to southeast winds dominate south of it. These months are fairly dry, although rain may occur locally. The rainy season extends from late March to May, with air flowing from the east in both hemispheres. From June to August there is little precipitation, and southwest winds prevail north of the Equator as southeast winds prevail in the south.

In the Lake Victoria basin, annual precipitation varies from 40 inches (1,000 mm) around the lakeshore to more than 70 inches (1,800 mm) in the higher elevations in the eastern areas. The lakeshore has excellent agricultural potential because it can expect 20 to 35 inches (500 to 900 mm) in most years. Daily maximum temperatures range from 80 °F (27 °C) in July to 90 °F (32 °C) in October and February.

In the Rift Valley, average temperatures decrease from about 84 °F (29 °C) in the north to just over 61 °F (16 °C) around Lakes Nakuru and Naivasha in the south. The adjacent highlands are generally moderate, with average temperatures ranging between 56 and 65 °F (13 and 18 °C). The floor of the Rift Valley is generally dry, while the highland areas receive more than 30 inches (760 mm) of rain per year. The reliable precipitation and fertile soils of the Mau Escarpment form the basis for a thriving agricultural sector.

In the eastern plateau region, annual precipitation in most areas averages 20 to 30 inches (500 to 760 mm), although agriculture is hampered by extremely variable precipitation. The semiarid and arid regions of northern, northeastern, and southern Kenya have high temperatures but very erratic precipitation. Most places experience average temperatures of 85 °F (29 °C) or more, while annual precipitation is only about 10 inches (250 mm) in the north and less than 20 inches (500 mm) in the south.

In most parts of the coast, average temperatures exceed 80 °F (27 °C) and relative humidity is high year-round. From the humid coast, where annual precipitation is between 30 and 50 inches (760 and 1,270 mm), precipitation decreases westward to about 20 inches (500 mm) per year. Only on the southern coast is precipitation reliable enough for prosperous agriculture.

In the highlands between elevations of 7,000 and 9,000 feet (2,100 and 2,700 metres), the characteristic landscape consists of patches of evergreen forest separated by wide expanses of short grass. Where the forest has survived human encroachment, it includes economically valuable trees such as cedar (Juniperus procera) and varieties of podo. Above the forest, a zone of bamboo extends to about 10,000 feet (3,000 metres), beyond which there is mountain moorland bearing tree heaths, tree groundsel (a foundation timber of the genus Senecio), and giant lobelia (a widely distributed herbaceous plant). East and west of the highlands, forests give way to low trees scattered through an even cover of short grass.

Almost one-third of Kenya, particularly the western regions and the coastal belt, is infested with tsetse flies (tsetse fly) and mosquitoes, which are responsible for the spread of, respectively, sleeping sickness ( trypanosomiasis) and malaria.

There is a close link between the vegetation of each region and the differentiation and distribution of its wildlife. The highland rainforests support a variety of large mammals, dominated by elephants and rhinoceroses, although both species have been reduced significantly because of poaching and deforestation. Bushbuck, colobus monkeys, and, occasionally, galagos (bush babies) are also found. The bamboo zone contains varieties of duiker and some species of birds. Highland predators include lions, leopards, and wildcats.

In the thornbushes and thickets of the arid regions are elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, leopards, giraffes, gerenuk, impalas, dik-diks, and various kinds of kudu; suni antelope, buffalo, and elephants are found in the coastal forest. Hippopotamuses, crocodiles, and many varieties of fish are found in the large rivers, while the coastal waters contain abundant marine life, including butterfly fish, angelfish, rock cod, barracuda, and spiny lobsters.

The African peoples of Kenya, who comprise virtually the entire population, are divided into three language groups: Bantu (Bantu languages), Nilo-Saharan (Nilo-Saharan languages), and Afro-Asiatic (Afro-Asiatic languages). Bantu is by far the largest, and its speakers are mainly concentrated in the southern third of the country. The Kikuyu, Kamba, Meru, and Nyika people occupy the fertile Central Rift highlands, while the Luhya and Gusii inhabit the Lake Victoria basin.

Nilo-Saharan—represented by the languages of Kalenjin, Luo, Maasai, Samburu, and Turkana—is the next largest group. The rural Luo inhabit the lower parts of the western plateau, and the Kalenjin-speaking people occupy the higher parts of it. The Maasai are pastoral nomads in the southern region bordering Tanzania, and the related Samburu and Turkana pursue the same occupation in the arid northwest.

The Afro-Asiatic peoples, who inhabit the arid and semiarid regions of the north and northeast, constitute only a tiny fraction of Kenya's population. They are divided between the Somali, bordering Somalia, and the Oromo, bordering Ethiopia; both groups pursue a pastoral livelihood in areas that are subject to famine, drought, and desertification. Another Afro-Asiatic people is the Burji, some of whom are descended from workers brought from Ethiopia in the 1930s to build roads in northern Kenya.

In addition to the African population, Kenya is home to groups who immigrated there during British colonial rule. People from India and Pakistan began arriving in the 19th century, although many left after independence. A substantial number remain in urban areas such as Kisumu, Mombasa, and Nairobi, where they engage in various business activities. European Kenyans, mostly British in origin, are the remnant of the colonial population. Their numbers were once much larger, but most emigrated at independence to Southern Africa, Europe, and elsewhere. Those who remain are found in the large urban centres of Mombasa and Nairobi.

The Swahili (mostly the products of marriages between Arabs (Arab) and Africans) live along the coast. Arabs introduced Islam into Kenya when they entered the area from the Arabian Peninsula about the 8th century AD. Although a wide variety of languages are spoken in Kenya, the lingua franca is Swahili (Swahili language). This multipurpose language, which evolved along the coast from elements of local Bantu languages, Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, Hindi, and English, is the language of local trade and is also used (along with English) as an official language in the Kenyan legislative body, the National Assembly, and the courts.

Most of Kenya's population is rural and lives in scattered settlements, the location and concentration of which depend largely on climatic and soil conditions. Before European colonization, virtually no villages or towns existed except along the coast, while urbanization was confined to fishing villages, Arab trading ports, and towns visited by dhows (dhow) from the Arabian Peninsula and Asia. The modern cities of Mombasa, Lamu, and Malindi were among the preexisting urban areas that were expanded during the colonial period. Nairobi, originally a Maasai watering hole, became important because of its connection to the railroad, which came through the area at the beginning of the 20th century. Other towns, such as Eldoret, Embu, Kisumu, and Nakuru, were established by Europeans as administrative centres, mission stations, and markets.

The migration from rural to urban areas has accelerated since independence, spurred by greater economic development in urban areas. In the late 1960s about one-tenth of the national population lived in urban areas of 1,000 or more people; by the turn of the 21st century the figure had more than doubled. The largest coastal city is Mombasa, while the majority of Kenyans in the interior live in the capital city, Nairobi. The influx of people has placed a major burden on the provision of such services as education, health and sanitation, water, and electricity.

Kenya's accelerating population growth from the early 1960s to the early 1980s seriously constrained the country's social and economic development. During the first quarter of the 20th century, the total population was fewer than four million, largely because of famines, wars, and disease. By the late 1940s the population had risen to more than five million, and at independence in 1963 it was more than eight million and growing rapidly. The population exceeded 20 million by the mid-1980s, after which the growth rate began slowing dramatically. Nonetheless, in the early 21st century the rate of natural increase was still above the world average. The pressure of such a population explosion produced limited employment opportunities; rising costs for education, health services, and food imports; and an inability to generate the resources to build housing in both urban and rural areas.

The most important causes of the country's explosive growth in population were a sharp fall in mortality rates—especially infant mortality—and the traditional preference for large families. The slower population growth of the late 20th and early 21st centuries occurred in part because fertility and birth rates were lower but also because the number of deaths from AIDS was increasing. In the early 21st century, life expectancy in Kenya was below the world average.

Since independence was achieved in 1963, Kenya's economy has contained both privately owned and state-run enterprises. Most of the country's business is in private hands (with a large amount of foreign investment), but the government also shapes the country's economic development through various regulatory powers and “parastatals,” or enterprises that it partly or wholly owns. The aim of this policy is to achieve economic growth and stability, generate employment, and maximize foreign earnings by achieving high levels of agricultural exports while substituting domestically produced goods for those that have been imported. For a decade after independence this policy showed great promise as rising wages, employment, and government revenue provided the means for expanding health services, education, transportation, and communication. But problems that arose with the rise of global oil prices in 1973 have been aggravated by periodic drought and accelerating population growth, and Kenya's economy has been unable to maintain a favourable balance of trade while addressing the problems of chronic poverty and growing unemployment. The country's ability to industrialize has been hampered by, among other factors, limited domestic purchasing power, shrinking government budgets, increased external and internal debt, poor infrastructure, and massive governmental corruption and mismanagement.

In an effort to decrease its dependence on volatile agricultural markets, Kenya attempted to diversify its exports in the last decade of the 20th century, adding horticultural products, clothing, cement, soda ash, and fluorspar. The country also made the export of manufactured goods such as paper and vehicles a priority. Domestic restrictions on imports have been removed slowly, however, and this policy has been only partially successful. Kenya's economy, which did not grow at a constant rate during the last two decades of the 20th century, continued to be dominated by the external market; tourism and agricultural exports were still the major source of foreign exchange for the country in the early 21st century.

In the first years after independence, the government sought to redistribute the land on which most of the agricultural exports were produced. Although there are now thousands of large farms, ranches, and plantations, the majority of the farms are smaller than five acres (two hectares). Tea and fresh flowers are the key foreign-exchange earners. Sisal, cotton, and fruits and vegetables also are important cash crops. Coffee, historically an important foreign exchange earner, still contributes to the economy but began declining in importance and earnings in the 1990s, owing in part to market instability and deregulation. Kenya supplies the majority of the pyrethrum (a flower used to create the nonsynthetic pesticide pyrethrin) to the world market; demand for this product fluctuates depending upon the level of interest in the United States, which is the largest consumer of this commodity. National boards that controlled key export crops such as coffee, tea, and cotton were deregulated beginning in the early 1990s.

The major crops for domestic consumption are corn (maize) and wheat. Sugarcane was an export crop in the 1970s and '80s, but by the '90s domestic demand exceeded the supply, and it had to be imported. Livestock (including cattle and goats) is raised and dairy goods are produced primarily for domestic use, and the government maintains a reserve supply of such commodities as skim milk powder, cheese, and butter. Surplus animal and dairy products are exported.

Despite the importance of agriculture to the economic well-being of the country, the lack of water, infrastructure, and arable land (less than one-tenth of Kenya can be used for agriculture) seriously constrains further expansion. Although the government has made efforts to increase irrigation, it is estimated that only one-fifth to one-fourth of potentially irrigable area has been developed.

Forests occupy only a small portion of the land but are extremely important in the domestic economy. Most of the area of forest reserves is wooded bush, bamboo, and grass; the remainder consists of planted softwoods, which now support a domestic paper industry. Forests are vital for conserving Kenya's soil and water resources, but they are increasingly threatened by a fast-growing population that constantly demands more fuel and settlement areas. As fuel, wood is used primarily for domestic cooking, but deforestation threatens the supply. A tree-planting program has been initiated to grow quick-maturing indigenous and exotic species in ecologically suitable areas.

Soda ash (used in glassmaking) is Kenya's most valuable mineral export and is quarried at Lake Magadi (Magadi, Lake) in the Rift Valley. Limestone deposits at the coast and in the interior are exploited for cement manufacture and agriculture. Vermiculite, gold, rubies, topazes, and salt are also important, as is fluorite (also known as fluorspar and used in metallurgy), which is mined along the Kerio River in the north. Deposits of titanium- and zirconium-bearing sands were found in multiple locations northeast of Mombasa and to the south of the city. Exploration for petroleum has so far met with limited success.

Kenya's economic development has been tied to its ability to improve energy resources. The emphasis since independence has been on producing hydroelectricity (hydroelectric power), but access to energy is limited in rural areas, since the bulk of electricity is consumed by the two major urban centres of Nairobi and Mombasa. There are hydroelectric plants located on the Tana and Turkwel rivers. Geothermal resources in the Rift Valley have been tapped since the early 1980s to generate electricity and have come to supply a significant amount of Nairobi's total needs. While the expansion of generating capacity continued through grants from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, a severe drought occurred in the northwest part of the country at the end of the 20th century. This led to blackouts that continued into the beginning of the 21st century.

Kenya is the most industrially developed country in East Africa, but it has not yet produced results to match its potential. Manufacturing is based largely on processing imported goods, although the government supports the development of export-oriented industries. Major industries include agricultural processing, publishing and printing, and the manufacture of textiles and clothing, cement, tires, batteries, paper, ceramics, and leather goods. Assembly plants, which utilize imported parts, produce various kinds of commercial and passenger vehicles and even export a small quantity to other African countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi.

Steel processing for reexport and for the construction industry is a growing sector, with about a dozen steel mills in operation. The petroleum industry, which was deregulated in 1994, produces diesel and jet fuel from imported crude oil at a refinery near Mombasa and provides a major source of foreign exchange.

Agricultural products such as tea, fresh flowers, fruits and vegetables, and coffee constitute the greatest proportion of Kenya's exports. The remainder of the exports consists of petroleum products, cement, hides and skins, and soda ash. Imports include machinery and transport equipment, chemical products, petroleum and petroleum products, and food and beverages. The chief trading partners are Uganda, the countries of the European Union (notably the United Kingdom), the United Arab Emirates, and Tanzania. Kenya is a member of the East African Community Customs Union.

Kenya is home to some of the rarest and most interesting species of wildlife in the world. Because of this, tourism is one of the country's major sources of foreign exchange, with visitors coming largely from countries of the European Union. Tourism revolves around a basic framework of national parks, game reserves, and game sanctuaries, where a wide variety of animals and cultural attractions can be enjoyed. The number of tourists began to vary annually in the early 1990s, however, following a period of political unrest and attacks on tourists, and again in the early 2000s, owing partially to the threat of terrorism.

Following agriculture, the next largest employment sectors are trade- and service-related industries. Women perform most of the agricultural work, but they participate largely in the informal sector of the economy. The Central Organization of Trade Unions was founded in 1965. Many professions are unionized, including metal workers, airline pilots, game hunting and safari workers, jockeys and betting workers, journalists, and textile workers. Government revenue is derived from taxes on income and profits and on goods and services, from excise duties, and from value-added taxes.

The transportation infrastructure that developed both before and after independence allowed Kenya to emerge as a viable state. Roads became the major link between the urban areas and the rural hinterlands, although they were developed in colonial times as a subsidiary to the railway line running from Mombasa to the western parts of the country. The heavily utilized trunk and primary roads were upgraded from dirt to bitumen and gravel after independence. As this network was expanded, freight traffic within Kenya as well as to Tanzania, Uganda, The Sudan, and Ethiopia increased rapidly. The heavy traffic has severely damaged Kenyan roads, requiring expensive repairs.

Railways (railroad), the second most important mode of transport after roads, are operated by Kenya Railways. The main line runs northwest from Mombasa through Nairobi, Nakuru, and Eldoret to the Ugandan border. Major branchlines run from Nakuru to Kisumu on Lake Victoria and from Nairobi to Nanyuki near Mount Kenya, and another goes into Tanzania. Privatization of Kenya Railways began early in the 21st century, and efforts were undertaken to make the railways more competitive in the freight market. Passenger service constitutes a very small share of railway business.

The strategic location of Kenya on the western shores of the Indian Ocean, with easy connections to different parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, has greatly enhanced the role of the international airports at Nairobi and Mombasa. Another international airport is located at Eldoret. There are domestic airports at Kisumu and Malindi and many smaller airfields throughout the country. Kenya Airways, established in 1977, privatized its operations and financial control in 1996.

Mombasa, the country's principal port, handles the bulk of the import and export traffic not only of Kenya but of Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The ports of Lamu and Malindi serve mainly the coastal trade and fisheries.

Telephone service has greatly expanded since the early 1980s, but, while the number of telephones more than doubled between 1984 and 1995, the great majority of the population still does not have access to local telephone lines. Cellular telephone service experienced rapid growth around the turn of the century, as did Internet access—by the mid-2000s, the country had one of the highest numbers of Internet users in sub-Saharan Africa. Like other industries in Kenya, telecommunications were being privatized at the start of the 21st century.

Kenya became independent on Dec. 12, 1963, under a constitution that placed the prime minister at the head of a cabinet chosen by a bicameral National Assembly. Significant power was granted to assemblies elected in each of the country's regions, and multiparty contests were allowed. Beginning in the early 1960s, however, a series of amendments abolished the regional assemblies in favour of provincial commissions appointed by the national government, made the National Assembly a unicameral body, proclaimed the Kenya African National Union (KANU) the only legal political party, and replaced the prime minister with an executive president who has the power to dismiss at will the attorney general and senior judges. The effect of these changes was to establish the central government—in particular, the presidency—as the principal locus of political power in the country. Although the constitution guarantees a number of rights, such as the freedoms of speech, assembly, and worship, it also allows the president to detain without trial persons who have been deemed a threat to public security.

Constitutional reforms allowed multiparty politics once again in 1991 and granted greater freedom to political parties before the December 1997 elections. In 2008, in the aftermath of the disputed December 2007 presidential election, legislation was passed that provided for the creation of a coalition government and amended the constitution to alter the structure of the executive branch, allowing for the re-creation of the prime minister post and the creation of two deputy minister posts.

Those seeking election or appointment to public office must be members of a political party; presidential appointments are the only exception. Several candidates from a party may contest a single office, but any candidate who receives more than 70 percent of the vote in a nominating election enters the final election unopposed.

The executive branch consists of the president, the prime minister, two deputy prime ministers, and other cabinet ministers. The president, who is elected by direct popular vote to a term of five years, must receive a minimum of one-fourth of the votes cast in five of the eight provinces and must be a member of the National Assembly. The president is the head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces, appoints the vice president, and, with the agreement of the prime minister, selects cabinet ministers from among the members of the National Assembly. Through the cabinet, the president exercises control over the passage of legislation as well as over the huge bureaucracies directing the economy and provincial affairs.

Most members of the National Assembly are elected to five-year terms by universal adult suffrage; however, 12 members are appointed by the president, and there are 2 ex officio members—the speaker and the attorney general, of whom only the speaker has voting privileges.

Kenya contains eight provinces: Nyanza, Western, Rift Valley, Central, Eastern, North Eastern, Coast, and Nairobi. All provinces, except for Nairobi, are divided into districts. Local government consists of appointed provincial and district commissioners, elected county, municipal, and town councils, and elected township or municipal authorities. The provincial commissioners are responsible for education, transport, and health in their provinces, while the councils are concerned with services and public works funded by local taxes and grants from the central government.

The High Court, appointed by the president, consists of the chief justice and at least 11 puisne, or associate, justices. The High Court has full civil and criminal jurisdiction and rules on constitutional matters. The Kenya Court of Appeal, consisting of the chief justice and at least two associates, is the highest appeals court in the country. At lower levels are resident magistrates' and district magistrates' courts. Kenya's judicial system acknowledges the validity of Islamic law and indigenous African customs in many personal areas such as marriage, divorce, and matters affecting dependents. To that end, the Muslim community uses judicial venues known as Kadhis' (qadi) courts to resolve issues concerning Islamic law.

The Kenya African National Union (KANU (Kenya African National Union)) has dominated Kenyan politics since its founding in 1960. Its principal opposition, the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU), merged with KANU in 1964. Since Kenya's transformation from single-party KANU rule back into a multiparty state in the early 1990s, many political parties have been created, often reflecting ethnic alliances. The major parties are the Democratic Party, the National Development Party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy–Kenya. In 1997 a woman, representing the SDP, ran for president—a first for Kenya—and received almost 8 percent of the vote. However, at the legislative level, women constituted less than 10 percent of the National Assembly in the early 21st century.

Kenya's armed forces consist of air force, navy, and army contingents. Military service is voluntary. Kenyan troops have participated in several United Nations-sponsored peacekeeping missions.

Together with improved housing, education, sanitation, and nutrition, health care programs have drastically reduced mortality rates from preindependence levels, especially for infants. High rates of malaria, gastroenteritis, diarrhea and dysentery, trachoma, amebiasis, and schistosomiasis continue, however, and illustrate how difficult it is to eradicate mosquitoes and provide clean water, especially in the countryside. By the beginning of the 21st century, AIDS had become the major disease in Kenya and threatened to reverse the declining death rate. Kenya, like other countries in Africa suffering under the AIDS pandemic, has utilized a number of strategies to combat the disease, including drug therapy. Some drug companies lowered their prices in Kenya by more than half in the early 21st century, but this was not enough to make drugs available to all who needed them. Inadequate supply of drugs is also a problem.

Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi is the country's chief referral and teaching institution, and there are also provincial and district hospitals. In rural areas, health centres and dispensaries offer diagnostic services, obstetric care, and outpatient treatment, although they often lack adequate facilities, trained personnel, and medications.

In rural areas, the average home consists of a two-room dwelling made with wood siding and a roof of sheet iron; for the very poor, simple grass-thatched huts are typical. In urban areas, the representative middle-class home has two bedrooms, indoor plumbing, a kitchen, and a living area.

Providing housing for the urban poor has been increasingly difficult since independence. Most of the urban population lives in informal housing areas not recognized by the government, which often razes slums without warning. In an effort to provide better-quality affordable housing, new building materials are being developed. One such product is brick made from a combination of water, soil, and a small amount of cement.

The national educational system consists of three levels: eight years of compulsory primary education (beginning at age six), four years at the secondary level, and four years of higher education. The government provides free primary and secondary education. Entrance into secondary school is contingent upon obtaining the Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education by passing a national exam.

Education for the indigenous population was not a priority of the British colonial government. After independence, however, primary and secondary school enrollment expanded markedly. Jomo Kenyatta (Kenyatta, Jomo), Kenya's first president, promised free primary education to all citizens in 1963, a promise only partially fulfilled when fees for the first four years of primary school were abolished in 1974. One consequence of this educational expansion was that underemployment and unemployment increased as better-educated citizens entered the job market. The government responded by expanding the civil service beginning in the late 1970s, but by the early 1990s it could no longer absorb this population. The problem was compounded as the number of secondary schools grew. Because the government could not provide enough government-funded schools, community-built harambee secondary schools were developed. These schools were supposed to receive government assistance to provide for teachers and learning materials, but such support did not always materialize. The government simultaneously pursued a policy of “education for self-reliance,” whereby education was oriented toward preparing students for employment in agriculture as well as in business. Universal free education was introduced for all years of primary schooling in 2002. In the following years, primary schools were not able to accommodate the increased demand for services and faced such problems as overcrowding and a lack of resources.

Education is still highly valued in Kenya, with many of the students pursuing strategies such as “shadow education” (after-school and weekend tutoring) and remaining in a grade more than one year in order to pass the Certificate of Primary Education exam. Because of the country's continuing economic problems, however, many of these students have not been able to attend school beyond the primary level; free secondary schooling was introduced in 2008 to help address this issue. Kenya's literacy rate, at more than four-fifths of the population, is high for sub-Saharan Africa.

Public universities include the University of Nairobi (1956) and Kenyatta University (1972) in Nairobi, Moi University (1984) in Eldoret, and Egerton University (1939) in Njoro, as well as the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (1981) in Nairobi. Specialized colleges include Kenya Conservatoire of Music (1944), Kenya Medical Training College (1924), and Kenya Polytechnic (1961) in Nairobi and Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology (1972) in Nakuru.

As is true of many developing African countries, there is a marked contrast between urban and rural culture in Kenya. Attracting people from all over the country, Kenya's cities are characterized by a more cosmopolitan population whose tastes reflect practices that combine the local with the global. Nairobi's nightlife, for instance, caters to youth interested in music that varies from American rhythm and blues, hip-hop, and rock to Congolese rumba. The city contains movie theatres and numerous nightclubs where patrons can dance or shoot pool; for children there are water parks and family amusement centres.

For all the modernization and urbanization of Kenya, however, traditional practices remain important. Rituals and customs are very well documented, owing to the intense anthropological study of Kenya's peoples during the period of British colonial rule; oral literature is safeguarded, and several publishing houses publish traditional folktales and ethnographies.

Kenyan cooking reflects British, Arab, and Indian influences. Foods common throughout Kenya include ugali, a mush made from corn (maize) and often served with such greens as spinach and kale. Chapati, a fried pitalike bread of Indian origin, is served with vegetables and stew; rice is also popular. Seafood and freshwater fish are eaten in most parts of the country and provide an important source of protein. Many vegetable stews are flavoured with coconut, spices, and chilies. Although meat traditionally is not eaten every day or is eaten only in small quantities, grilled meat and all-you-can-eat buffets specializing in game, or “bush meat,” are popular. Many people utilize shambas (vegetable gardens) to supplement purchased foods. In areas inhabited by the Kikuyu, irio, a stew of peas, corn, and potatoes, is common. The Maasai, known for their herds of livestock, avoid killing their cows and instead prefer to use products yielded by the animal while it is alive, including blood drained from nonlethal wounds. They generally drink milk, often mixed with cow's blood, and eat the meat of sheep or goats rather than cows.

Urban life in Kenya is by no means uniform. For example, as a Muslim town, Mombasa stands in contrast to Nairobi. Although there are numerous restaurants, bars, and clubs in Mombasa, there are also many mosques, and women dressed in bui buis (loose-fitting garments that cover married Muslim women from head to toe) are common.

Rural life is oriented in two directions—toward the lifestyles of rural inhabitants, who still constitute the majority of Kenya's population, and toward foreign tourists who come to visit the many national parks and reserves. Although agricultural duties occupy most of the time of rural dwellers, they still find occasion to visit markets and shopping centres, where some frequent beer halls. Mobile cinemas also provide entertainment for the rural population.

Kenya observes most Christian holidays, as well as the Muslim festival ʿId al-Fitr (Īd al-Fiṭrʿ), which marks the end of Ramadan (Ramaḍān). Jamhuri, or Independence Day, is celebrated on December 12. Moi Day (recognizing Daniel arap Moi (Moi, Daniel arap)) and Kenyatta Day, both in October, honour two of the country's presidents, while Madaraka (Swahili: Government) Day (June 1) celebrates Kenya's attainment of self-governance in 1964.

The Kenya National Theatre, a part of the Kenya Cultural Centre, is the country's premier venue for drama. The affiliated National Theatre School (founded 1968) provides professional training for Kenyan playwrights and performers of traditional music and dance. Independent art facilities, such as the GoDown Arts Centre in Nairobi, offer alternative spaces for artists to express themselves.

Kenya's pop music is among the most varied in Africa, drawing on diverse sources, including African rumba, traditional Indian musical forms, and a wide range of European and American styles. Popular since the 1960s is an indigenous pop style that emerged in the area around Lake Victoria inhabited by the Luo; called benga, it is perhaps the most distinctly Kenyan form in the musical repertoire. Taarab, a popular music of the eastern coastal region heavily influenced by Arabic styles, is also played throughout the country.

Kenyan literature includes a large body of oral and written folklore, much of the latter collected by British anthropologists. During the colonial era, writers of European origin residing in Kenya, such as Elspeth Huxley (The Flame Trees of Thika, 1959) and Isak Dinesen (Dinesen, Isak) (Out of Africa, 1937), introduced indigenous themes and settings to broad audiences. The Swahili literary (Swahili literature) tradition (see also Swahili literature), both oral and written, dates to the 18th century and is represented by authors such as Muyaka bin Haji al-Ghassaniy (Ghassaniy, Muyaka bin Haji al-) and Kupona Mwana. Contemporary novelists, including Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Grace Ogot (Ogot, Grace), Meja Mwangi (Mwangi, Meja), Hilary Ngweno, Margaret Ogola, and R. Mugo Gatheru, address problems in colonial and postcolonial society. Many of these writers publish in English, although Thiong'o has insisted on publishing first in his native Kikuyu, saying:

Visual arts are largely confined to the mass production of wood sculpture and Maasai beadwork. Elimo Njau, Etale Sukuro, and Kivuthi Mbuno are noted Kenyan artists employing a variety of mediums. The country's film industry is small but growing, though viewings of indigenous films are usually confined to theatres in the cities; in smaller towns and villages, film fare is likely to come from either Hollywood or India. Many foreign productions have been filmed in Kenya—such as Out of Africa (1985), To Walk with Lions (1999), Nowhere in Africa (2001), and The Constant Gardener (2005)—owing to its scenic, varied landscapes and generally clement weather.

The Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service in Nairobi, housed in a building that was originally the Bank of India, holds an increasing number of government and historical documents and also contains exhibits of arts and crafts and photographs. A national library service board has been established to equip, maintain, and develop libraries in Kenya, including a branch library service. The McMillan Memorial Library in Nairobi has holdings of books as well as newspapers and a parliamentary archive. The National Museum, also in Nairobi, contains archaeological remains and objects of traditional material culture.

Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Kenya, although the national team, the Harambee Stars, has had little international success. Basketball, volleyball, and netball are also popular sports. Social clubs often offer the opportunity for Kenyans to play football and volleyball. Netball is played exclusively by women. Internationally, Kenyan athletes are known for their dominance of distance running (long-distance running). Since the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, at which Kip Keino (Keino, Kip), Naftali Temu, and Amos Biwott all won gold medals, Kenyan distance runners have continually won Olympic medals and major races throughout the world. Catherine Ndereba, for example, repeatedly won marathons in Boston and Chicago.

The media have flourished in Kenya as the economy has become more liberalized. Rigid state restrictions on radio and television broadcasting were gradually loosened in the 1990s, and commercial radio has become an integral part of Kenyan popular culture. The Daily Nation and the East African Standard are among the daily newspapers; daily papers are also published in African languages such as Luo and Kikuyu. Kenya has numerous weekly and monthly periodicals.

It is known that human history in Kenya dates back millions of years, because it is there that some of the earliest fossilized remains of hominids have been discovered. Among the best-known finds are those by anthropologist Richard Leakey (Leakey, Richard) and others in the Koobi Fora area along the shore of Lake Rudolf (Rudolf, Lake) that have included portions of Australopithecus boisei (Australopithecus) and Homo habilis skeletons. The following discussion, however, covers the history of Kenya only from the 18th century. For coverage of earlier periods and for a treatment of the country in its regional context, see Eastern Africa (eastern Africa, history of).

The Maasai moved into what is now central Kenya from an area north of Lake Rudolf sometime in the mid-18th century. Their southward advance was checked about 1830 by the Hehe people from what is now Tanzania, but their raiding parties continued to range widely and even reached the coast south of Mombasa in 1859. The Maasai moran (“warrior”) prepared for war under the spiritual direction of the laibon (“medicine man”). Although not particularly numerous, the Maasai were able to dominate a considerable region because the Bantu-speaking inhabitants offered little effective resistance to their raids. The Nandi, who inhabited the escarpment to the west of the Maasai, were equally warlike and were relatively undisturbed by their predatory neighbours. Another group, the Taveta, took refuge in the forest on the eastern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, while the Taita, who were farther east, used the natural strongholds provided by their mountainous homeland to resist the Maasai raiders.

The Kikuyu, who were far more numerous than the Maasai, also looked to the mountains and forests for protection against Maasai war parties. The Kikuyu had expanded northward, westward, and southward from their territory in the Fort Hall area of present-day Central province, where they cleared the forests to provide themselves with agricultural land. Toward the end of the 19th century, however, they had reached the limits imposed by the presence of the Maasai to the north and south and by the upper slopes of the Aberdare Range to the west.

Famine and smallpox in the 1890s compelled the Kikuyu to vacate much of the land in what is now Kiambu district (in Central province) as they withdrew northward. The Maasai too were passing through a difficult period. An outbreak of disease, either pleuropneumonia or rinderpest, attacked their cattle in 1883; further infestations in 1889–90 continued to decimate their herds, while the Maasai themselves were overwhelmed by epidemics of smallpox. Simultaneously, the death of Mbatian, their great laibon, split the group into warring factions, and it was some time before his younger son, Lenana, was able to restore order. power was never revived, however, since their problems coincided with the arrival of European traders and administrators who eventually gained control of the region.

Trading relations had existed for centuries between southern Arabia and the coastline of what is now Kenya; some of the Arab traders remained in the area and contributed to the language that came to be known as Swahili (Swahili language). During the 19th century Arab and Swahili caravans in search of ivory penetrated the interior. One route went from Mombasa to Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria (Victoria, Lake) and then toward Mount Elgon (Elgon, Mount), but this route was not as popular as the caravan trails farther south, both because of the difficulty of crossing the desert country of the Taru Plain and because of the hostility of the Maasai. The first Europeans to penetrate the interior were two German agents of the Church Missionary Society, Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann (Rebmann, Johannes). They established a mission station at Rabai, a short distance inland from Mombasa. In 1848 Rebmann became the first European to see Kilimanjaro, and in 1849 Krapf ventured still farther inland and saw Mount Kenya (Kenya, Mount). These were isolated journeys, however, and more than 30 years elapsed before any other Europeans attempted to explore the country dominated by the Maasai.

As Germany, Britain, and France were carving up East Africa in the mid-1880s, they recognized the authority of the sultan of Zanzibar over a coastal strip 10 miles (16 km) wide between the Tana (in Kenya) and Ruvuma (in Tanzania) rivers. The hinterland, however, was divided between Britain and Germany: the British took the area north of a line running from the mouth of the Umba River, opposite Pemba Island, and skirting north of Kilimanjaro to a point where latitude 1° S cut the eastern shore of Lake Victoria; the German sphere, Tanganyika (present-day Tanzania), lay to the south of that line. In 1887 the sultan's territory on the mainland was conceded to the British East Africa Association (later Company) for a 50-year period; this was later made a permanent grant. Because the British government was reluctant to become involved in the administration of East Africa, in 1888 it granted the company a royal charter that authorized it to accept existing and future grants and concessions relevant to the administration and development of the British sphere (British Empire) in that part of the world. The financial resources of the company, however, were inadequate for any large-scale development of the region. The company also administered territory in what is now Uganda; when it became involved with the kingdoms of Buganda and Bunyoro, it incurred a great debt and therefore was forced to limit its activities to regions nearer the coast. This financial problem was finally resolved in 1895 when the British government made Buganda a protectorate and paid the company £250,000 to surrender its charter to the area that is now Kenya. The East Africa Protectorate was then proclaimed, with Sir Arthur Hardinge as the first commissioner. Initially the British government did not attach much importance to the new protectorate because Hardinge continued to reside in Zanzibar, where he already functioned as the consul general.

The extension of British administration into the more remote areas of the protectorate was slowed by the lack of communication infrastructure and the limited financial resources available. When administration was introduced, though, it was direct rule because the British did not find the centralized African political system that had existed in other parts of Africa that they came to control.

The East Africa Protectorate was valued by Europeans as a corridor to the fertile land around Lake Victoria (Victoria, Lake), but the government's offer to lease land to British settlers was initially not popular. Two factors, however, changed this negative attitude: a railway was constructed from the coast to Lake Victoria, and the western highlands were transferred from Uganda (where regulations made it impossible to lease land to Europeans) to the East Africa Protectorate in 1902. Work on the railway began at Mombasa in December 1895, and the first locomotive reached Kisumu on Lake Victoria in December 1901; the entire line was completed by 1903. The protectorate was responsible for making the railway profitable, and the export of cash crops seemed to provide the perfect solution for generating revenue. Sir Charles Eliot (Eliot, Sir Charles), who became commissioner of the protectorate in 1901, invited South Africans to settle in the protectorate when European settlers were less than enthusiastic about the proposal, but they too were uninterested. At first only small areas of land in Kiambu district, which had formerly been occupied by Africans and which the Kikuyu regarded as part of their legitimate area of expansion, were allocated to European settlers, but by 1906 more than 1,550 square miles (4,000 square km) had been leased or sold. Some Africans, such as the Maasai, were confined to reserves; by 1911 the Maasai reserve extended south of the railway to the present-day border with Tanzania.

As more Africans were separated from their land and as more European settlers entered the region, the Europeans became concerned with maintaining an adequate supply of African labour. Because few Africans voluntarily chose whether or not to work for Europeans, the settlers wanted the government to institute a system that would compel Africans to offer their services (forced labour) to European farmers. Successive commissioners and governors responded in varying degrees to the settlers' demands, and it was not until immediately after World War I, and largely as a result of public outcry in Britain, that compulsory labour on either public or private projects was strictly forbidden.

Thousands of Indian labourers (coolie) were brought into the protectorate to construct the railway. Although most of these labourers returned to India after their contracts were completed, some remained. The opening of the railway encouraged Indian traders who had been living nearer the coast to penetrate farther into the interior, even ahead of the administration. Other Indians hoped to obtain land, but European settlers consistently opposed the Indians' claim to land and to political and economic equality.

Prior to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, European participation in political affairs was limited mainly to creating pressure groups. The most prominent of these was the Convention of Associations, which had developed in 1911 from earlier European settler organizations. An Executive Council was appointed in 1905, and the first Legislative Council convened in 1907. When the protectorate was transferred from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office in April 1905 and the settlers did not gain the increased responsibility they had desired, they launched a campaign in 1913 to elect their own representatives to the Legislative Council. The outbreak of World War I temporarily limited the settlers' legislative prospects, but the War Council, which was concerned with the effects of the war on the protectorate and included settlers, satisfied some of their desire to have elected representation in the legislature.

Germany had hoped that no battles with Britain would be fought on African soil during World War I, but Britain was concerned with its communications with India and with the safety of the Ugandan railway. Britain initiated hostilities, to which Germany responded, with Britain ultimately prevailing in East Africa. The conflict caused great hardships for the African population. Thousands of Africans were forced to serve as porters and soldiers, often with disastrous results, and a large number of Africans died, mostly from disease. The entire East African economic structure was affected, as food production became geared solely to supplying the troops. The burden of providing this food fell largely on African women, who did most of the farming anyway. Women were forced to use the same plots of land repeatedly, thereby depleting the soil, because most able-bodied men, who were responsible for clearing new land, had been conscripted. Droughts and famines recurred.

Most of the European settlers quickly joined the armed forces; they left their farms to be looked after by their wives, or else the farms were abandoned. An attempt was made immediately after the war to revive the settler sector by introducing a “soldier settler” scheme, but the hopes of prosperity encouraged by the postwar demand for agricultural produce received a severe setback in the early 1920s when a worldwide economic recession brought bankruptcy to many of those who had started out with inadequate capital or had relied on credit from the banks. Stability was further delayed by the replacement of the rupee currency with East African shillings. By the mid-1920s Kenya's economy had wholly revived, although the Great Depression of the 1930s brought further economic difficulties to East Africa.

Rail communications (railroad) had been improved when branch lines were opened to Thika and to the soda deposits at Lake Magadi (Magadi, Lake) in 1913; during the war a link was made between the main line and the German railway system to the south. The most important postwar project was the building of a new extension of the main line across the Uasin Gishu Plateau to tap the agricultural wealth of the highlands and then to Uganda in order to provide an outlet for the cotton crops of that protectorate. The line was eventually completed from Nakuru to Jinja in January 1928 and was carried on to Kampala, which it reached in January 1931.

In 1920 the East Africa Protectorate was turned into a colony and renamed Kenya, for its highest mountain. The colonial government began to concern itself with the plight of African peoples; in 1923 the colonial secretary issued a White Paper in which he indicated that African interests in the colony had to be paramount, although his declaration did not immediately result in any great improvement in conditions. One area that definitely needed improvement was education for Africans; up to that point nearly all African schooling had been provided by missionaries. Those Africans who did manage to receive a Western education, though, found no place in Kenya's legislature, their interests being represented officially by the members of the appointed council and by a European unofficial member, usually a missionary.

As more Africans worked on European farms and in urban areas such as Nairobi, they began to imitate political techniques used by European settlers as they attempted to gain more direct representation in colonial politics. At the outset, political pressure groups developed along ethnic lines, the first one being the Young Kikuyu Association (later the East African Association), established in 1921, with Harry Thuku as its first president. The group, which received most of its support from young men and was not supported by most of the older chiefs, demanded African representation in the legislature and won support among the Kikuyu when it complained about low wages, the prohibition of coffee growing by Africans, and the condemnation by Christian missionaries of such traditional practices as female genital cutting. At a protest in March 1922 Thuku was arrested, and eventually he was exiled for more than eight years. Although its attempts to win the support of other ethnic groups failed because of their unwillingness to accept Kikuyu leadership, the association was an important beginning in the African search for greater participation in the political process.

Throughout the 1920s and '30s European settlers continued to oppose Indian demands for greater representation on the Legislative Council. Another concern among European settlers was the proposal, first made toward the end of World War I, to introduce some form of closer union with Uganda and Tanganyika (which had become a British possession after World War I). At first the European settlers of Kenya opposed closer union with the other territories because they feared African domination, but, in light of the British government's determination on this issue, they agreed by the late 1920s to a compromise that would protect their political status in Kenya. By the 1930s they actively supported union with Tanganyika as a protection against Germany's claims to its former overseas dependencies.

Numerous economic and social changes resulted either directly or indirectly from the Mau Mau uprising. A land-consolidation program centralized the Kikuyu into large villages. This plan was also extended to the area near Lake Victoria (Victoria, Lake) in the Nyanza province, and many thousands of Africans in Nairobi were resettled in rural detention camps. At the same time, the Swynnerton Plan (a proposal to strengthen the development of African agriculture) provided Africans more opportunities to cultivate cash crops such as coffee. Throughout the 1950s, foreign investment in Kenya continued, and limited industrial development occurred along with agricultural expansion.

Although the leadership of the KAU had been arrested, the party was not immediately banned, because the government hoped that new party leadership might provide a more moderate approach. However, this was not forthcoming, and the party was banned by mid-1953; African political organizations were not allowed again until 1960. The Kenya African National Union (KANU), founded in May of that year and favouring a strong centralized government, was built around Kenyatta, who was still in detention. Nevertheless, in June two of KANU's founding members, Ronald Ngala and Daniel arap Moi (Moi, Daniel arap), created their own organization, the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU). KADU's position was that ethnic interests could best be addressed through a decentralized government; it was also concerned about Kikuyu domination. KANU won more seats than KADU in elections held in February 1961, but both parties called for the release of Kenyatta, who was finally freed from house detention in August. A coalition government of the two parties was formed in 1962, and after elections in May 1963 Kenyatta became prime minister under a constitution that gave Kenya self-government. Following further discussions in London, Kenya became fully independent on Dec. 12, 1963. A year later, when Kenya became a republic (with Kenyatta as its first president and Oginga Odinga (Odinga, Oginga) as vice president), most KADU members had transferred their allegiance to KANU, and KADU ceased to exist.

Kenyatta responded to Odinga's claims about his neglect of the poor by redistributing hundreds of thousands of small landholdings (land reform) to Africans; this was made possible by a satisfactory financial settlement with European farmers who were prepared to leave the country amicably. Not all the new landowners were successful, but living standards improved widely enough to ensure continued support for the government.

The assassination in July 1969 of Tom Mboya (Mboya, Tom), a KANU founder who had been serving as minister of economic planning and development, widened still further the serious ethnic gap that had already emerged as a result of Odinga's fall from grace. Mboya, like Odinga, was a Luo, though neither had pursued ethnic goals. Their supporters among the Luo, however, believed there was a Kikuyu plot, centred on Kenyatta, that threatened Luo interests. The division grew greater after October 1969, when Odinga and some of his leading party members were arrested and the KPU was banned. The arrested men were subsequently released, and Odinga himself was freed in 1971 when the president endeavoured to achieve a measure of reconciliation and national unity. The transfer of more than 1,500,000 acres (600,000 hectares) of government land to a group of wealthy Kenyans, many of whom were Kikuyu, proved to be less profitable than had been hoped, largely because the new owners were bad managers. This and similar actions only provided more fuel for those, like Odinga (Odinga, Oginga), who accused the government of self-interest and for those who believed there was an ethnic plot to benefit the Kikuyu at the expense of other ethnic groups.

Another coup attempt was defused in 1971, and in its wake Kenyatta once again responded by improving the pay and conditions of military service, but, at the same time, he made sure that the army remained small in size. Odinga and other former KPU leaders were prevented from running in the parliamentary elections of 1974 by new regulations that forbade the candidacy of anyone who had not been a member of KANU for the previous three years. The challenge to Kenyatta was then taken up in the National Assembly by Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, another former supporter of KANU. Kariuki was critical of growing corruption in the government, and he won considerable support when increasing oil prices and the consequent worldwide inflation caused hardship among the poorer members of the community. His murder in March 1975, which the government tried to cover up, aroused angry protests, particularly among younger members of the parliament, whose criticisms of the government came to have increasing significance.

The question of who should succeed the aging president exacerbated the disagreements already existing among the country's leaders. Kenyatta himself encouraged no one to claim the inheritance, but leading Kikuyu who had benefited greatly under his leadership plotted to secure a complaisant successor. The attorney general, Charles Njonjo, though himself a Kikuyu, opposed such a plan, as did another Kikuyu, the minister of finance, Mwai Kibaki (Kibaki, Mwai). Together the two ensured that, upon Kenyatta's death in August 1978, he was succeeded by his deputy, Daniel arap Moi (Moi, Daniel arap), a member of the minority Kalenjin people. Moi was elected president in October, while Kibaki became vice president.

Misgivings about what would happen with the departure of such a dominant figure as Kenyatta were soon dispelled. The transfer of power took place smoothly, owing mainly to the skillful leadership of Njonjo and Kibaki, but the transition was also helped by a boom in coffee prices that eased the country's economic problems to a considerable extent. At first, Moi followed Kenyatta's policy of distributing offices among as many different ethnic groups as possible, but over the years members of his own Kalenjin group acquired a disproportionate number of appointments. Odinga was still critical of the government, and university students supported him on idealistic grounds—and also because they saw little prospect in the near future of being able to supplant those holding the limited number of lucrative offices.

Moi felt most threatened by Njonjo. Exercising his almost unassailable presidential powers, Moi began a campaign to discredit the former kingmaker, who traded his appointment as attorney general for the more vulnerable office of a cabinet minister in the newly created Ministry of Constitutional Affairs. Njonjo's responsibilities were cut, as were those of Kibaki, who was considered by Moi to have become too powerful because he commanded widespread Kikuyu support. Although Kenya had been a de facto one-party state since 1969 (when the KPU was banned), KANU's power—as well as Moi's—was reinforced in 1982 when the KANU-dominated National Assembly amended the constitution, officially designating KANU the only legal political party in the country. Moi's position was further bolstered when the army loyally rallied to suppress an attempted coup later that same year by some of the lower-ranking officers in the air force. A number of the leaders of the rebellion were Luo, and many university students took part in the disturbances. Ethnic, idealistic, and economic motives were thus joined together in unsuccessful opposition to the government. Eager to prevent the students from becoming effective leaders of discontented groups of ethnic or impoverished minorities, Moi closed the universities temporarily when opposition was voiced. Njonjo, meanwhile, was rendered ineffective when he was found guilty of involvement in treason or subversion, although he was pardoned because of his earlier services to the country. Odinga continued to be subjected to periodic restrictions.

Generous financial support that had come from the Western powers since independence was an important factor in ensuring that Kenya's precarious economy survived the traumas of inflation. Moi followed Kenyatta's example by continuing to align his country with the West. The enormous increase in landownership among Africans in the postindependence period also helped to create a modestly prosperous class that was anxious to avoid revolutionary change, while the powers vested in the presidency made successful opposition an unlikely prospect.

Increasingly, however, Western financial aid came to be tied to demands for political and economic reforms. It was for this reason that in December 1991 Moi finally accepted a constitutional amendment that reinstated multiparty elections. When elections were held the following December, however, Moi was reelected, and, with the opposition divided, KANU (Kenya African National Union) won a strong majority in the National Assembly. One opposition party, Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD), had been founded in 1991 but by 1992 had split into two factions: FORD-Kenya, led by Odinga until his death in 1994, and FORD-Asili, headed by Kenneth Matiba.

Kibaki, who had left the government late in 1991, became the official leader of the opposition after elections in 1997. Many Kenyans had hoped that the various opposition parties would cooperate and field a single candidate who would oust Moi, but there were more than eight on the ballot. Moi, the incumbent, used the preexisting political network and won by a large margin. Kibaki challenged the results in court, but his case was dismissed. When appointing his cabinet, Moi selected KANU members and continued to ignore the opposition. However, in July 1999, in an apparent change of heart, Moi made Njonjo chairman of the Kenya Wildlife Services and Richard Leakey (Leakey, Richard) head of the civil service and permanent secretary to the cabinet. Leakey's popularity was cited as the main reason Moi appointed him to this post; the appointment was also seen as Moi's way of showing Kenya's commitment to tackling the issues of corruption and gross mismanagement in the government.

Kibaki prepared for the December 2007 presidential and parliamentary elections by forming a new coalition, the Party of National Unity (PNU), which included some of the political parties that had previously formed his NARC coalition. Surprisingly, PNU also included KANU despite its position as an opposition party. There were several challengers to Kibaki for the presidency, including Raila Odinga of ODM and Kalonzo Musyoka of ODM-K. The election boasted a record-high voter turnout and was one of the closest in Kenya's history. The provisional results indicated that Odinga would be victorious, but, when the final election results were released after a delay, Kibaki was declared the winner by a narrow margin. Odinga immediately disputed the outcome, and international observers questioned the validity of the final results. Widespread protests ensued throughout the country and degenerated into horrific acts of violence involving some of Kenya's many ethnic groups, most notable of which were the Kikuyu (Kibaki's group) and the Luo (Odinga's group); both groups were victims as well as perpetrators. More than 1,000 people were killed and more than 600,000 were displaced in the election's violent aftermath as efforts to resolve the political impasse between Kibaki and Odinga (including mediation attempts by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan (Annan, Kofi)) were not immediately successful.

On Feb. 28, 2008, Kibaki and Odinga agreed to a power-sharing plan brokered by Annan and Jakaya Kikwete, the president of Tanzania and chairman of the African Union. The plan called for the formation of a coalition government between PNU and ODM and the creation of several new positions, with Kibaki to remain president and Odinga to hold the newly created post of prime minister. Despite the agreement, however, conflict persisted over the distribution of posts. After several weeks of talks, settlement on the allocation of cabinet positions between PNU and ODM members was reached, and on April 13, 2008, President Kibaki named the coalition government.