Kenya

Where the name comes from

Kenya is named after Mount Kenya, whose Kikuyu name Kirinyaga is often explained as “ostrich mountain” for its patchy snow; the exact derivation is debated.

First people

Fossils near Lake Turkana show early humans lived here more than 1.5 million years ago; later, communities speaking Bantu, Nilotic and Cushitic languages traded with wider Africa and the Indian Ocean.^1,2

Known for

Kenya is known for its champion distance runners and for the Maasai Mara, where the great wildebeest migration arrives each year.³

Outside contact

Britain set up the East Africa Protectorate in 1895; its railway from Mombasa to Lake Victoria, built in 1896–1901, brought workers from India, and Nairobi grew from a depot on the line.^4,5

The modern country

Kenya Colony followed in 1920, and after the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s, Kenya became independent in 1963.⁶