National Trade Data Bank ITEM ID : ST BNOTES KENYA DATE : Oct 28, 1994 AGENCY : U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE PROGRAM : BACKGROUND NOTES TITLE : Background Notes - KENYA Source key : ST Program key : ST BNOTES Update sched. : Occasionally Data type : TEXT End year : 1994 Date of record : 19941018 Keywords 3 : Keywords 3 : | KENYA BACKGROUND NOTES: KENYA PUBLISHED BY THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE MAY 1994 Official Name: Republic of Kenya PROFILE Geography Area: 582,646 sq. km. (224,960 sq mi.); slightly smaller than Texas. Cities: Capital- -Nairobi (pop. 1.2 million in 1991). Other cities--Mombasa (450,000), Kisumu (150,000), Nakuru (150,000). Terrain: Kenya rises from a low coastal plain on the Indian Ocean in a series of mountain ridges and plateaus which stand above 3,000 meters (9,000 ft.) in the center of the country. The Rift Valley bisects the country above Nairobi opening up to arid plain in the north. Mountain plains cover the south before descending to the shores of Lake Victoria in the west. Climate: Varies from the tropical south, west, and central regions to arid and semi-arid wasteland in the north and the northeast. People Nationality: Noun and adjective--Kenyan(s). Population (1992 est.): 26 million. Annual growth rate (1992 est.): 3.4%. Ethnic groups: African--Kikuyu 21%, Luhya 14%, Luo 13%, Kalenjin 11%, Kamba 11%, Kisii 6%, Meru 5%. Non-African--Asian, European, Arab 1%. Religions: Indigenous beliefs 24%, Protestant 40%, Roman Catholic 30%, Muslim 6%. Languages: English, Swahili, many local ethnic languages. Education: Years compulsory--none, but first 8 yrs. of primary school are provided free by government. Attendance--83% for primary grades. Literacy (in English)--59%. Health: Infant mortality rate--70/1,000. Life expectancy--59 yrs. Work force (1.4 million wage earners): Public sector--48%. Industry and commerce--21%. Agriculture--21%. Government Type: Republic. Independence: December 12, 1963. Constitution: 1963. Branches: Executive--president (chief of state, head of government, commander-in-chief of armed forces). Legislative--unicameral National Assembly (parliament). Judicial-- Court of Appeal, High Court, various lower courts. Administrative subdivisions: 42 rural districts, joined to form 7 rural provinces. Nairobi area has special status. Political Parties: Ruling Party: Kenya African National Union. Suffrage: Universal at 18. Flag: Black, red, and green horizontal bands from top to bottom separated by narrow white stripes. A warrior's shield and crossed spears are centered on flag. Economy GDP (1992): $8.7 billion. Annual growth rate (1992): -0.5%. Per capita income: $350. Natural resources: Wildlife, land. Agriculture: Products--corn, wheat, rice, sugarcane, coffee, tea, sisal, pineapples, horticultural products, pyrethrum, meat and meat products, hides, skins. Arable land--20%. Industry: Types--petroleum product, cement, beer, light manufacturing. Trade: Exports--$952 million: coffee, petroleum products, tea, hides and skins, meat and meat products, cement, pyrethrum, sisal, soda ash, wattle extract, pineapples. Major markets--U.K., Germany, Netherlands, U.S., Uganda, France, Italy, Tanzania, and India. Imports--$1.8 billion: crude petroleum, machinery, vehicles, iron and steel, paper and paper products, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, textiles. Major suppliers--U.K., Germany, France, Italy, U.S., United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Japan, India, Netherlands, and China. Official exchange rate: 63 Kenya shillings (Ksh)=U.S.$1. PEOPLE Kenya's population is varied. Traditional herders, Arab Muslims, and cosmopolitan residents of Nairobi contribute to the culture. The standard of living in major cities ranks high in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most city workers retain links with their rural, extended families and leave the city periodically to help work on the family farm. About 75% of the work force is engaged in agriculture, mainly as subsistence farmers. The urban sector employs about 1.4 million people. The national motto of Kenya is harambee, meaning "pull together." In that spirit, volunteers in hundreds of communities build schools, clinics, and other facilities each year and collect funds to send students abroad. The four state universities enroll about 20,000 students, representing only 40% of the Kenyan students who qualify for admission. 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. GOVERNMENT The unicameral assembly consists of 188 members elected to a term of up to five years, plus 12 members appointed by the president. The president appoints the vice president and cabinet members from among those elected to the assembly. The attorney general and the speaker are ex officio members of the National Assembly. The judiciary is headed by a High Court, consisting of a chief justice and at least 11 associate judges, all appointed by the president. Local administration is divided among 42 rural districts, each headed by a presidentially appointed commissioner. The districts are joined to form seven rural provinces. The Nairobi area has special status and is not included in any district or province. The government supervises administration of districts and provinces. Principal Government Officials President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces-- Daniel Toroitich arap Moi Vice President and Minister of Finance--Prof. George Saitoti Minister Foreign Affairs--Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka Ambassador to the United States--Benjamin Kipkorir Ambassador to the United Nations--Raphael Kiilu Kenya maintains an embassy in the United States at 2249 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008 (tel. 202-387-6101). POLITICAL CONDITIONS Since independence, Kenya has maintained remarkable stability during many changes within the political system. Although the government has pursued Africanization in the economic and labor sectors, Asians and Europeans participate significantly. Development remains the dominant agenda for the Moi Administration. ECONOMY After independence, Kenya promoted rapid economic growth through public investment, encouragement of smallholder agricultural production, and incentives for private (often foreign) industrial investment. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual average of 6.6% from 1963 to 1973. Agricultural production grew by 4.7% annually during the same period, stimulated by redistributing estates, diffusing new crop strains, and opening new areas to cultivation. Vulnerable to swings in its international terms- of-trade, Kenya has found its foreign exchange shortages worsened by a rapid rise in import prices, especially for oil, and a sharp drop in prices for export crops coffee and tea. Economic growth has declined since 1973, and real GDP grew by less than 5% during 1980-91. Agricultural production, accounting for about one-third of GDP and almost two-thirds of non- petroleum exports, averaged growth of less than 4% per year. Bad weather and decreased international demand contributed to this trend, but inconsistencies in domestic pricing policy and credit availability, as well as inadequate marketing systems, have been equally important. The government must also deal with a rapidly growing population, which has increased unemployment and strained Kenya's educational facilities. The population growth rate (3.4% per year) is one of the world's highest. Population growth contributes to unemployment, running at 30%-40%. Joblessness is highest in urban areas, where the formal wage-earning sector is hard pressed to absorb annual increases. Pressure on social services is also most apparent in the cities. With less than 20% of the land classified as arable and much of that already densely populated, increases in food crop production have not kept pace with population growth. When crops fail because of drought, as in 1984, large amounts of food must be imported. Kenya's manufacturing sector suffers from the consequences of earlier policy decisions. The initial and rapid growth of industrial production in Kenya was based on investment in import substitution, often by multi-national companies, protected by extensive quantitative import barriers against competition. As a result, manufacturing firms now tend to be non- competitive. Following a recessionary slump in the mid- 1980s, the government launched a wide-ranging structural adjustment program designed to attain real-per-capita income growth. With external donors' cooperation in the form of greatly increased assistance flows from external donors, the government committed itself to major economic policy changes, including price decontrols, privatization, parastatal reform, and reduction of government budget deficits. In addition, an import liberalization scheme was established, agricultural prices were made somewhat more responsive to market demand, and the private sector was given a bigger role in marketing agricultural products. Export processing zones were established and exporters awarded better incentives. In principle, the government agreed to limit the public sector deficit and net borrowing from the banking sector, but it failed either to curb the rising budget deficit or implement many reforms. By mid-1991, the growth rate in agricultural production was 3.4%, manufacturing was stagnating, and tourism--the major source of foreign exchange earnings--was in a slump induced by the Gulf war. The rate of capital accumulation was declining, inflation was skyrocketing (25%-30%), and the government deficit was up to 6.7% of GDP. In November 1991, assistance donors agreed to suspend all programs and cash assistance pending evidence of active reform measures. Primary areas of concern continue to be decreasing the growing budget deficit, scaling back the civil service, and privatizing some of the most wasteful parastatals corporations. Nairobi continues to be a major hub in East Africa with the region's best transportation linkages, communications infrastructure, and trained personnel. Thus, it is still a desirable place for foreign firms to maintain branch and representative offices, although many companies find it difficult to transfer out dividends. FOREIGN RELATIONS Despite internal tensions in Sudan and Ethiopia, Kenya has maintained good relations with its northern neighbors. Recent relations with Uganda and Tanzania have improved as the three countries work for mutual economic benefit. The lack of a cohesive government in Somalia prevents normal contact with that country, although Kenya serves as the major host for refugees from that conflict. Kenya maintains a moderate profile in Third World politics. Kenya's relations with Western countries are generally friendly, although current political and economic instabilities are often blamed on Western pressures. U.S.-KENYAN RELATIONS U.S. assistance to Kenya promotes broad-based economic development as the basis for continued progress in political, social, and related areas of national life. U.S. aid strategy is designed to achieve three major objectives: -- Reduced population growth; -- Increased agricultural productivity; and -- Increased role of private enterprise in the economy. It focuses on small farmers and the rural landless, a group that comprises more than four- fifths of Kenya's poorest citizens and accounts for about one-quarter of the population. The U.S. Peace Corps has more than 165 volunteers in Kenya. The United States and Kenya have enjoyed cordial relations. More than 6,000 U.S. citizens live in Kenya, and about 35,000 Americans visit annually. About two-thirds of the resident Americans are missionaries and their families. U.S. business investment is about $350 million, primarily in commerce, light manufacturing, and the tourist industry. Principal U.S. Embassy Officials Ambassador--Aurelia Brazeal Deputy Chief of Mission--E. Michael Southwick USAID Mission Director--John R. Westley Public Affairs Officer (USIS)--Frederick E.V. La Sor The U.S. embassy in Kenya is located at Haile Selassie and Moi Avenues, Nairobi, PO Box 30137 (tel. 334141; fax 340838). The U.S. Consulate General in Mombasa is in Palli House, Nyerere Avenue, PO Box 88079 (tel. 315101). Travel Notes Climate and clothing: Light- and medium-weight clothing is worn most of the year. Sweaters and light raincoats are needed during the rainy seasons. Customs: U.S. citizens entering Kenya need a passport and visa. Health: No special precautions are required in Nairobi, and adequate hospital and outpatient treatment is available in the city. Outside the capital, avoid tapwater and unwashed fruits and vegetables. Anti-malarial tablets and yellow fever, polio, typhoid, and hepatitis immunizations are recommended for travelers outside the capital. Transportation: Many inter-national airlines serve Nairobi. Most major towns are linked by Kenya Airways flights, good passenger train services, and intercity bus services. Places of special tourist interest are served by local light-aircraft companies. Taxis are abundant in Nairobi. Published by the United States Department of State -- Bureau of Public Affairs -- Office of Public Communication -- Washington, DC May 1994 -- Managing Editor: Peter A. Knecht -- Editor: Christina Macdonald Department of State Publication 8024 -- Background Notes Series. Contents of this publication are not copyrighted unless indicated. If not copyrighted, the material may be reproduced without consent; citation of the publication as the source is appreciated. Permission to reproduce any copyrighed material (including photos and graphics) must be obtained from the original source. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402.