 Guides |
History |
History
Kenya has been established as the “cradle of civilization” thanks to the Leakey family poking in the dirt around Lake Turkana in the Rift Valley, which runs through the center of Kenya. Here the Leakey’s uncovered various hominoid skulls, one that is estimated to be 2 ½ million years old. This discovery altered the theory that there were two species of proto-humans: the “robust” and the “gracile”. The Leakey’s discovery suggests a third species, the “Homo habilis” and that it was this group that gave rise to modern man. Recent discoveries include “Kenyanthropus platyops” in 2002 suggesting another species and most recently bones belonging to a six million year old hominid, nicknamed “Millennium Man”, a strong contender for man’s oldest ancestor.
Early settlers from Ethiopia and surrounding areas of the continent first based themselves at Lake Turkana but around 2000BC began moving themselves south as their livestock outstripped the vegetation. Today’s tribe’s ancestors arrived from all over Africa around
AD1000. The first immigrants were Bantu-speaking people from West Africa (who gave rise to the Gusii, Kikuyu, Akamba and Meru amongst other tribes) who occupied most of southern and western Kenya by the 15th century. The Nilotic speakers who gave rise to the Maasai, Luo. Samburu and Turkana came from the Nile valley in Southern Sudan at the end of the 16th century. Tribes continued to move into and out of Kenya right up to the beginning of the20th century.
While tribes were migrating in the interior, Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula and Persia (now Iran) began visiting the coast from the 8th century AD. They set up trading post and often would intermarry with African creating the Swahili culture. Slaves and ivory were the
primary commodities but they also exported tortoiseshell, rhino horn and gold. The Portuguese started to take an interest in the area in 1498 particularly for spice trade. They invaded the coastal cities and tried to convert the Swahili populace from Muslim to Christianity. Their strong-arm tactics proved ineffective and although they would have some success while their boats where in port, as soon as they departed the populace would rebel. Both the Zimba, a cannibalistic tribe from Malawi, and the Gaila, who swept down from Somalia ransacked the coast throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1729, after continual conflict tribes and Omani Arabs, the Portuguese left the Kenyan coast for good.
The Omani Arabs remained in control of the East African coast until the arrival of the British and Germans in the late 19th century (and, nominally, right up until Independence) and established their main base on Zanzibar, off the Tanzanian coast. Although they shared the same faith, the Swahili regarded them as a colonizing force as the Portuguese, and there were numerous rebellions, mostly by the powerful Mazrui rulers of Mombasa. In 1822, Sultan Seyyid Said of Oman dispatched the Omani Navy to bring the Mazrui-ruled states of Mombasa, Pate, and Pemba in line. The Mazrui clansman appealed to the commander of a British warship for help. In response, Britain declared Mombasa a British Protectorate, but this was repealed three years later and Seyyid Said reasserted his control. After establishing huge clove plantations on Zanzibar, the spice business became so profitable, that in 1832 he was able to relocate his entire court. Simultaneously the slave trade was thriving with a steady demand for workers for spice and sugar plantations. By 1800 more than 8000 slaves per year passed through the Zanzibar slave markets. In retaliation a handful of tribes waged a resistance against the Arab slavers. These included Manwa Sera, who besieged the Swahili stronghold of Kaze in modern-day Tanzania in the 1860’s, and chief Mirambo, who stockpiled a massive arsenal of guns and ammunition causing so much trouble at Kaze during the 1870 that at one point, the Sultan ceded all claims to the area.
Meanwhile, in Britain the reporting by explorer Dr. Livingstone of a massacre of 400 Bagenya people by slavers at Nyangwe finally forced the Brits to take both diplomatic and strong-arm tactics against the Arab slavers. In 1873 Sultan Batghash of Zanzibar was forced to sign a treaty banning the slave trade. With German expansion into Tanganyika an agreement was reached between the British and the Germans, granting the sultan to a 16km-wide strip of the Kenyan coastline, which would be under British Protectorate. The agreement stayed in place right until Independence when the last Sultan ceded the property to the new government. Although the coast was sewn up, the interior, particularly the Rift Valley and Aberdare highlands was unapproachable as the Maasai and other warlike tribes protected them.
In the 19th century following a civil war between Ilmaasai and Iloikop groups and simultaneously dealing with Rinderpest {a cattle disease], cholera, smallpox and famine the Maasai negotiated a treaty with the British to allow the construction of the Mombasa-Uganda railway line which runs thr24ough the heart of the Maasai grazing lands. The Maasai end-of-world myth foretold the coming of the railway as it spoke of an “iron snake” that would one day crawl across their land.
With the completion of the railway, the headquarters of the colonial administration was moved from Mombasa to Nairobi, a much cooler climate and the settlers began to occupy the fertile highlands of northern Nairobi. Their interest conflicted with those of the
Ma
asai, prompting the colonial authorities to pressure Olonana, the laibon (chief or spiritual leader) of the Maasai into restricting the tribesmen to two reserves, one on either side of the railway. Later in 1910, the white settlers wanted the northern reserve as well and forced the Maasai to the south. Coffee plantations were established and began to prosper. Expansion was however interrupted by the onset of WWI. Two-thirds of the 3000 white settlers formed Calvary units in search of Germans in neighboring Tanzania. After the war, coffee plantations again prospered primarily in the highlands of Nairobi. The net effect was an increase in the white Kenyan population from 9000 in 1920 to 80,000 in the 1950’s.
Meanwhile, Africans were becoming restless. In 1922, Harry Thuku organized the Kikuyu people to form a movement to reclaim Kenya. He was soon arrested, jailed and in 1930 exiled to Somalia. The movement again reorganized, this time under the leadership of another Kikuyu by the name of Jomo Kenyatta, who would become Kenya’s first president. Kenyatta first gained attention during his association with League against Imperialism, which took him to Moscow and Berlin and back to Nairobi and back to London from 1930 to 1946. When he finally returned to Kenya in 1946 he formed and led the Kenya African Union (KAU), a pro-independence group, largely supported by African WWII veterans. While this group worked openly, another secret group (largely comprised of Maasai, Kikuyu and Luo) were taking an oath to kill Europeans and their African allies. The most famous of these groups was the Mau Mau, formed in 1952. Their rebellion began with the massacre of 21 Kikuyu loyal to the colonial government. This action was blamed on Kenyatta who was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail. The various Mau Mau sect then banned together under the leadership of Dedan Kimathi. Under his leadership they continuously attacked farmer and government outposts. In 1956, they were defeated and Kimathi was hanged. In 1959, Kenyatta was released and continued his campaign for Independence. Finally, Independence was scheduled for December 1963 accompanied by grant and loans of $100 million to enable buy out of European farmers in the highlands and restore land to the tribes. The KAU organization was renamed the Kenya African National Union (KANU) and led by Kenyatta; while a spin-off Federalist group formed named the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) led by Ronald Ngala. On December 12, 1963 Kenyatta was elected Kenya’s first president ruling until his death in 1978. Under his presidency, Kenya developed into one of Africa’s most stable and prosperous nations. The KADU party voluntarily dissolved in 1964.
His vice president Daniel Arap Moi, a Kalenjin, succeeded Kenyatta. Moi ruled for nearly 25 years. In the process he
acc
rued an incredible personal fortune and was believed to be the
richest man in Africa. His regime although maintaining stability was characterized by nepotism, corruption, censorship, arrests of dissidents and the closure of universities. Moi maintained his rule by arresting opposition, jailing or executing challengers and expanding his cabinets in his favor to rush through reforms allowing his dismissal of senior judges and public servants without any redress. Christian church leaders became the first to protest by turning church sermons into calls for political change.
With the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1990’s, the political climate changed. Westerners became intolerant of corrupt noncommunist regimes and began calling for multiparty elections if economic aid was to be continued. The multiparty movement gained huge grassroots support in Kenya. Clashes between these groups and the KANU Youth group became common. Former foreign affairs minister Dr. Robert Ouko was murdered in 1990, seemingly with collusion from some powerful people but that was never proven. Things came to a head on July 7, 1990 when the military and police raided an opposition demonstration in Nairobi killing 20 and arresting politicians, human rights activists and journalists. The rally, known as Saba Saba prompted the formation of The Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD} led by Jamagori Odinga, a powerful Luo politician. Ford was initially banned and Odinga arrested and jailed. A public outcry led to his release and finally a change in the constitution allowing opposition parties to register for the first time. The first multi party elections were held in 1992 and although Moi was reelected, a litany of electoral inconsistencies was reported including widespread vote buying. Just as worrying, about 2000 people were killed during ethnic clashes in the Rift Valley which was rumored to have been triggered by KANU agitation. After the elections, Moi and the KANO party were forced to bow to Western demands for economic reform but agitation and harassment of opposition politicians continued unabated. Consequently in 1994 with the death of Odinga, the opposition party fell victim to internal disputes resulting in the formation of a new opposition party, Safina led by white Kenyan paleontologist
Richard Leakey. In 1997 Moi won the election by a slim margin with KANU retaining 50.4% of the parliament seats and the remaining 49.6% distributed to various opposition parties. Considering the confrontation scene anticipated, Moi was able to present himself as a peacemaker by maneuvering a cooperative arrangement with the two biggest opposition parties; the DP (the Democratic Party, mostly Kikuyu) and the NDP (the National Development Party, mostly Luo). Safina only held three seats and Leakey returned to his job as head of KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service). In 1999, Moi elected Leakey to Head of Civil Service and Governor of the Central Bank. Leakey proceeded to weed out some of the corrupt old guard, including the head of Kenya Tourism Board and hire some young, capable technocrats. Although the goal to create a new less corrupt political system existed through 2001, corruption still prevailed. The most prominent case was the Goldenberg Scandal, a scam involving KSh20 billion in fraudulent compensation claims of diamonds and gold. In March 2001 Leakey stepped down without giving reasons.
In June 2001, KANU entered into a formal coalition government with DP and NDP. Moi announced his intentions to retire at the end of his term in 2002 and election were scheduled for December 2002. Moi put his influence and resources behind Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Jomo Kenyatta. However 12 opposition parties including DP had other plans. The parties plus several religious groups united to form Narc (National Rainbow Coalition) and supported Mwai Kibaki. On December 27, 2002 Kibaki won the election in a two-thirds landslide victory and was inaugurated on December 30, 2002 as Kenya’s third president