Kenya

Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, sits in East Africa. As of mid-2026, its population is estimated at over 54.2 million, making it the 27th most populous country globally and the seventh most populous in Africa. Nairobi is both the capital and the largest city. Mombasa, a port city on Mombasa Island, is the second-largest and oldest city. Other major urban centers include Kisumu, Nakuru, and Eldoret. Its borders run clockwise from South Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, Tanzania to the southwest, and Lake Victoria with Uganda to the west. The country’s geography, climate, and population vary widely. In the western Rift Valley counties, the landscape features cold, snow-capped peaks like Batian, Nelion, and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya, surrounded by forests, wildlife, and fertile farmland in temperate zones. Elsewhere, dry, arid, and semi-arid climates prevail, including absolute deserts such as the Chalbi Desert and Nyiri Desert.

Some of the earliest humans to evolve from ancestral members of the genus Homo lived in Kenya. Extensive fossil evidence of this evolutionary path has been uncovered at Koobi Fora. Later, hunter-gatherers similar to today’s Hadza people inhabited the region. Archaeological dating of artifacts and skeletal remains shows that Cushitic speakers first settled in the lowlands between 3,200 and 1,300 BC, a period called the Lowland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic. Nilotic-speaking pastoralists, ancestors of Kenya’s modern Nilotic speakers, began migrating from what is now South Sudan around 500 BC. Bantu people settled along the coast and interior between 250 BC and 500 AD. European contact started in 1500 AD with the Portuguese Empire, and effective colonization began in the 19th century during the European exploration of Africa. Modern Kenya emerged from a British protectorate established in 1895 and the subsequent Kenya Colony, which began in 1920. Mombasa served as the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate—which covered most of present-day Kenya and southwestern Somalia—from 1889 to 1907. Disputes between the UK and the colony led to the Mau Mau revolution, starting in 1952, and Kenya declared independence in 1963. After independence, it remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Kenya is a presidential representative democratic republic, where elected officials represent the people and the president serves as head of state and government. It belongs to the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, COMESA, the International Criminal Court, and several other international bodies. It is also a major non-NATO ally of the United States. Kenya’s economy is the largest in East and Central Africa, with Nairobi acting as a major regional commercial hub. With a per-capita Gross National Income of $2,110, it is a lower-middle-income economy. Agriculture is the largest economic sector; tea and coffee are traditional cash crops, while fresh flowers are a fast-growing export. The service industry, especially tourism, is another major economic driver. Kenya is a member of the East African Community trade bloc, though some international trade organizations classify it as part of the Greater Horn of Africa. Africa is Kenya’s largest export market, followed by the European Union.

The Republic of Kenya takes its name from Mount Kenya. The earliest recorded version of the modern name comes from German explorer Johann Ludwig Krapf in the 19th century. While traveling with a Kamba caravan led by the long-distance trader Chief Kivoi, Krapf saw the mountain peak and asked its name. Kivoi replied “Kĩ-Nyaa” or “Kĩlĩma-Kĩinyaa,” likely because the pattern of black rock and white snow on the peaks reminded him of male ostrich feathers. In archaic Kikuyu, the word ‘nyaga’ or more commonly ‘manyaganyaga’ describes an extremely bright object. The Agikuyu, who live on Mount Kenya’s slopes, call it Kĩrĩma Kĩrĩnyaga (literally ‘the mountain with brightness’) in Kikuyu, while the Embu call it “Ki-nyaga” or Kirima Kinyaga. All three names share the same meaning. Krapf recorded the name as both Kenia and Kegnia, which some say was a precise notation of the African pronunciation. An 1882 map by Scottish geologist and naturalist Joseph Thomson labeled the mountain as Mt. Kenia. The mountain’s name was accepted, pars pro toto, as the country’s name. It did not come into widespread official use during the early colonial period, when the area was called the East African Protectorate. The official name changed to the Colony of Kenya in 1920.

Hominid species including Homo habilis (living 1.8 to 2.5 million years ago) and Homo erectus (living 1.9 million to 350,000 years ago)—possibly direct ancestors of modern Homo sapiens—lived in Kenya during the Pleistocene epoch. East Africa, including Kenya, is one of the earliest regions where modern humans are believed to have lived. In 1984, during excavations at Lake Turkana, paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey, assisted by Kamoya Kimeu, discovered the Turkana Boy, a 1.6-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil. Further evidence of Kenya’s prehistory emerged in 2018, showing early modern behaviors such as long-distance trade networks (involving goods like obsidian), the use of pigments, and possibly the making of projectile points, dating back about 320,000 years. The authors of three 2018 studies on the site suggest that complex and modern behaviors had already begun in Africa around the time Homo sapiens emerged. The first inhabitants were hunter-gatherers similar to the present-day Hadza people.