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HISTORY OF KENYA
Kenya was settled by Cushitic, Bantu, and Nilotic-speaking peoples who migrated in successive waves from the north and south during the past 1,000 years. By the end of the second century AD, small villages had been formed along the coast, and trade was conducted between the merchants of the Roman empire and the inhabitants of these villages. The following centuries were marked by the steady colonization of the coast by Arabs. During this period, the Swahili language and culture developed as Arabs and blacks intermingled and intermarried. By the fifteenth century, the Swahili language, a combination of Bantu and Arabic, was predominant along the coast and was the lingua franca of trade between the coast and inland inhabitants who carried on a lucrative ivory trade.
At the same time, Portuguese made contact with the Kenyan coast in the person of Vasco da Gama, who obtained a guide to take him to India. In the ensuing years, the Portuguese gained increasing control of the coast and were in full control by 1589.Their control, however, didn’t go beyond the coast. The inland tribes remained independent. In 1698 the Portuguese were driven out by Arabs from Oman, and for the next century the Mazuri Dynasty ruled the coast. It was replaced by the Sultan of Oman and Zanzibar in 1837.
The British government took an interest in Kenya in the late nineteenth century because Kenya straddled a proposed railway route to Uganda, already a British colony. After signing a number of treaties with various chiefs and tribes, Kenya was declared a British protectorate in 1895. Soon after, British settlers began to move inland and take control of the extremely fertile highlands. By 1920, Kenya was declared an English colony.
Political control of Kenya remained exclusively in the hands of the British until 1944. By the time blacks were allowed to participate, the concessions of the British were too few and too slow to stem the growing unrest with British rule. Jomo Kenyatta, later to become the first president of Kenya, was a predominant figure in the struggle for freedom.
In 1946, as the first president of the Pan-African Federation, Kenyatta returned to Kenya after a 15-year absence. He established the Kenya African Union in an attempt to curb exploitative colonial policies. He introduced a number of changes in government policies governing land ownership. When the policy of reserving land for white settlers was legally ended, much desirable farmland was transferred to Africans
By 1952 unrest reached the point that the Mau Mau revolt broke out to remove the white settlers from the highlands. Kenyatta took control of this movement and was soon arrested and jailed by the British. The revolt made it clear to the British that Kenya must have self-government. Kenyatta was freed in 1961 after seven years in jail, and became the first president in 1963. He surprised and pleased the British and religious leaders by being moderate and by allowing freedom of religion. In fact, he asked the white settlers of the highlands to remain, for he saw their strategic value in managing this valuable agricultural resource.
In 1963 Kenya was declared an independent republic. Kenyatta presided as president until his death in 1978. Throughout his tenure he encouraged foreign investment and stronger ties with the West.
Kenyatta was succeeded in 1978 by Daniel arap Moi. President Moi managed to curb some of the dissent between people groups caused by Kenyatta's preference of the Kikuyus (his own people). Moi was not without his detractors and was accused of resisting the African trend to greater political freedom. In December 2002, President Mwai Kibaki came to power.