Republic of Kenya. Short Form: Kenya. Term for Citizen(s): Kenyan(s). Capital: Nairobi.

Major Cities

The country’s largest cites are Nairobi, the capital and chief manufacturing center; Mombasa, the principal seaport; and Kisumu, the chief port on Lake Victoria. Smaller cities include Nakuru, a commercial and manufacturing center in the Eastern Rift Valley; and Eldoret, an industrial center in western Kenya. The population of cities, according to the 1999 census, was Nairobi, 1,346,000; Mombasa, 465,000; Kisumu, 185,000; Nakuru, 163,000; and Eldoret, 105,000.

Independence

December 12, 1963, from the United Kingdom.

Public Holidays

New Year’s Day (January 1); Good Friday (movable date in March or April); Easter Monday (movable date in March or April); Labor Day (May 1); Madaraka Day, which celebrates self-government (June 1); Moi Day (October 10); Kenyatta Forces Day (October 20); Eid al Fitr (movable date according to the Islamic calendar); Jamhuri/Independence Day (December 12); Christmas Day (December 25); and Boxing Day (December 26).

Flag

Kenya’s flag features three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and green; the red band is edged in white. Centered on the flag is a large warrior’s shield covering crossed spears.

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 (NARC), defeated KANU candidate Uhuru KENYATTA and assumed the presidency following a campaign centered on an anticorruption platform. KIBAKI's NARC coalition splintered in 2005 over the constitutional review process. Government defectors joined with KANU to form a new opposition coalition, the Orange Democratic Movement, which defeated the government's draft constitution in a popular referendum in November 2005.