Kenya Facts

(Note: the following was taken from the CIA Factbook pages on Kenya.)

Background:
 Founding president and liberation struggle icon Jomo KENYATTA led
Kenya from independence in 1963 until his death in 1978, when
President Daniel Toroitich arap MOI took power in a constitutional
succession. The country was a de facto one-party state from 1969
until 1982 when the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) made
itself the sole legal party in Kenya. MOI acceded to internal and
external pressure for political liberalization in late 1991. The
ethnically fractured opposition failed to dislodge KANU from power
in elections in 1992 and 1997, which were marred by violence and
fraud, but were viewed as having generally reflected the will of the
Kenyan people. President MOI stepped down in December 2002 following
fair and peaceful elections. Mwai KIBAKI, running as the candidate
of the multiethnic, united opposition group, the National Rainbow
Coalition, defeated KANU candidate Uhuru KENYATTA and assumed the
presidency following a campaign centered on an anticorruption
platform.

Population:

34,707,817
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account
the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in
lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates,
lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution
of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:

total: 59.26 deaths/1,000 live
births
male: 61.92 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 56.54 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 48.93 years

male: 49.78 years
female: 48.07 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate:

4.91 children born/woman (2006 est.)

HIV/AIDS – adult prevalence rate:

6.7% (2003 est.)

Nationality:

noun: Kenyan(s)
adjective: Kenyan

Ethnic groups:

Kikuyu 22%, Luhya 14%, Luo 13%, Kalenjin
12%, Kamba 11%, Kisii 6%, Meru 6%, other African 15%, non-African
(Asian, European, and Arab) 1%

Religions:

Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%,
indigenous beliefs 10%, Muslim 10%, other 2%

note: a large majority of Kenyans are Christian, but
estimates for the percentage of the population that adheres to Islam
or indigenous beliefs vary widely

Languages:

English (official), Kiswahili (official),
numerous indigenous languages

Literacy:

definition: age 15 and over can
read and write
total population: 85.1%
male: 90.6%

female: 79.7% (2003 est.)

Government type:

republic

Capital:

Nairobi

Economy – overview:

The regional hub for trade and finance in
East Africa, Kenya has been hampered by corruption and by reliance
upon several primary goods whose prices have remained low. In 1997,
the IMF suspended Kenya’s Enhanced Structural Adjustment Program due
to the government’s failure to maintain reforms and curb corruption.
A severe drought from 1999 to 2000 compounded Kenya’s problems,
causing water and energy rationing and reducing agricultural output.
As a result, GDP contracted by 0.2% in 2000. The IMF, which had
resumed loans in 2000 to help Kenya through the drought, again
halted lending in 2001 when the government failed to institute
several anticorruption measures. Despite the return of strong rains
in 2001, weak commodity prices, endemic corruption, and low
investment limited Kenya’s economic growth to 1.2%. Growth lagged at
1.1% in 2002 because of erratic rains, low investor confidence,
meager donor support, and political infighting up to the elections.
In the key December 2002 elections, Daniel Arap MOI’s 24-year-old
reign ended, and a new opposition government took on the formidable
economic problems facing the nation. In 2003, progress was made in
rooting out corruption and encouraging donor support. GDP grew more
than 5% in 2005.

Unemployment rate:

40% (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:

50% (2000 est.) 

 

Telephones – main lines in use:

299,300 (2004)

Telephones – mobile cellular:

2,546,200 (2004)

Telephone system:

general assessment: unreliable;
little attempt to modernize except for service to business
domestic: trunks are primarily microwave radio relay;
business data commonly transferred by a very small aperture terminal
(VSAT) system
international: country code – 254; satellite earth stations -
4 Intelsat

Location:

Kenya is on the east coast of Africa,
between Somalia and Tanzania.