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The wild paradise
Kenya is an independent republic in east Africa and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is bounded on the North by Sudan and Ethiopia, on the East by the Somali Republic and the Indian ocean, on the South by Tanzania, and on the West by Uganda. Lake Victoria forms the most westerly border. The country is divided into seven provinces.
The sea east of Kenya is a low lying strip, in places broken into Islands by bays and branching creeks. The Northern part of Kenya, making up about three-fifths of the country, is an arid area. There are scattered dwarf shrubs and bushes, and many species of wild animals. Here live pastoral people, who move around the area with herds of cattle and camels. Great importance is given to forestation as forest trees help to keep the land moist and their roots band the soil together. Here one can find Camphor trees, African cedars (a kind of juniper) and giant bamboos that grow in these natural forests. Kenya is noted for its wildlife, ranking in size from the lion and rhinoceros to the tiny antelope called the DIK-DIK, which when fully grown stands only about 12 inches high at the shoulder.
Tourism is one of Kenya's fastest growing industries. In the 19th century the Masai a tribe of warrior herdsmen, raided the greater part of the country. They kept cattle whereas other Africans lived by farming and fishing. When European settlers began to arrive in the 1890s, they took much of the best farm-land. But since Kenya's independence in 1963, the government has distributed large areas for farming among African farmers.
Most of Kenya's people are Africans, but there are small numbers of Europeans, Asians and Arabs. The largest single African group is the Kikuyu many languages are spoken, but the most common are English and Swahili.
The capital is the modern city of Nairobi; site of the National University in the South-East is Mombassa, situated on an island sheltering the deep-water port of Killidini, the best harbour in East Africa. Further North along the coast is Malindi, a pleasant holiday resort where a pillar was set up by the Portuguese navigator Vasco DA Gama in 1498. Kisumu in the west is the port on Lake Victoria.
Agriculture provides the bulk of Kenya's income; dairy farming is most important near the towns of the highlands. Dairy products such as fresh milk and canned butter are exported; coffee is the principal export crop. The coffee grown in Kenya is noted for its fine flavour. Second in value among the exports is tea, grown in the western Highlands. In the coastal plain, sisal, a fibre plant, cotton, and sugar are the main cash crops.
At the end of the 19th century the great powers of Europe — Britain, France and Germany — sought to take possession of areas of Africa valuable for their fertile land, mineral wealth and cheap labour.
In 1963 Kenya was granted internal self-government and later that year it became a fully independent country with Jomo Kenyatta as its first prime minister. After his death in 1978, Kenyatta was succeeded by Daniel Arap Moi.
The alluring game reserve of Kenya proves the value of the reserves there. The sun's fading rays fall on plains teeming with herds of antelope and zebra; Thomson's gazelle twitch and stare and perform desperate antics across the front of the car; the giraffe, stooping to drink from pools of water on the road, lope off in a display of slow kinetics out on the plains; the wildebeest wheel and turn in explosions of panic, a jitterbug of mindless fear. Seeing all this is one of life's memorable experiences and sums up Kenya.
Turkana is home to a burgeoning population of crocodiles, who are unmolested by poachers because the lake's waters are heavily alkaline: a trait that makes their skin worthless. Consequently, some of them grow to monstrous sizes, and swimming in the lake is risky. Fishing, however, is of course safe and very good here. The world's largest fresh water fish, the Nile perch, lives in the lake, and it can get up to 400 pounds.
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