HISTORY:
Fossils found in East Africa suggest that proto- humans roamed the area
more than 20 million years ago. Recent finds near Kenya's Lake Turkana
indicate that the Homo genus of humans lived in the area 2.6 million
years ago. Cushitic-speaking people, who occupied the area from about
1000 BC, received Arab traders by the first century AD. Kenya's proximity
to the Arabian Peninsula invited colonization, and Arab and Persian
settlements were founded along the coast by the eighth century AD. By
then, Bantu and Nilotic peoples had moved into the area.
The Swahili language, a mixture of Bantu and Arabic, developed as a
lingua franca for trade between the different peoples. Arab dominance
was eclipsed by the arrival in 1498 of the Portuguese, who gave way
in turn to Islamic control under the Imam of Oman in the 1600s. Britain
established its influence in the 19th century.
The colonial history of Kenya dates from the Berlin Conference of 1885, when the European powers first par-titioned East Africa into spheres of influence. In 1895, the British Gov- ernment established the East African Protectorate and, soon after, opened the fertile highlands to white settlers. The settlers were allowed a voice in government even before it was officially made a British colony in 1920, but Africans were prohibited from direct political participation until 1944.
From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was under a state of emer-gency arising from the "Mau Mau" rebellion against British colonial rule. During this period, African participation in the political process increased rapidly. The first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative Council took place in 1957. Kenya became independent on December 12, 1963, and the next year joined the Commonwealth.
Jomo Kenyatta, a member of the predominant Kikuyu tribe and head of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), became Kenya's first president. The minority party, Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU), representing a coalition of small tribes that had feared dominance by larger ones, dissolved itself voluntarily in 1964 and joined KANU.
A small but significant leftist opposition party, the Kenya People's Union (KPU), emerged in 1966, led by Jara-mogi Oginga Odinga, a former vice president and Luo elder. After the 1969 assassination of a leading government official, Tom Mboya, and subsequent political tension, the KPU was banned and its leader detained. No new opposition parties were formed after 1969, and KANU became the sole and ruling political party. At Kenyatta's death in August 1978, Vice President Daniel arap Moi became interim President. On October 14, Moi became President in his own right after he was elected head of KANU and designated its sole nominee.
In June 1982, the National Assembly amended the constitution, making Kenya a de jure one-party state, and parliamentary elections were held in September 1983. The 1988 elections reinforced the one-party system. In December 1991, parliament repealed the one-party section of the constitution, allowing other parties to register. By early 1992, several new parties had been formed, and multi-party elections were held in December 1992. President Moi was reelected for another five-year term. Opposition party members won about 45% of the parliamentary seats; President Moi's KANU party maintains a parliamentary majority.