Republic of Kenya
KENYA. Republic of Kenya
A country in East Africa on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Area — 582.6 thousand km². Capital - Nairobi (2 million), largest cities: Mombasa, Kisumu. Administrative division - 7 provinces and the capital district. Population - about 30.5 million (2004); it consists of ethnic groups from the Bantu ethnic group (Kikuyu, Luhya, Kamba), as well as Nilotic tribes (Luo, Kalenjin). There are over 165 thousand Europeans, Arabs, and descendants from India and Pakistan. Official languages - Swahili and English. Religion: 20% of the population adheres to local traditional beliefs, 65% profess Christianity (Protestants and Catholics), the rest are Muslims.
Currency - Kenyan shilling = 100 cents.
Has diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation (established with the USSR on December 14, 1963).
National holiday - December 12 - Independence Day (1963).
Kenya is a presidential republic. The constitution of 1963 is in effect with subsequent amendments. The head of state and government is the president (Mwai Kibaki, since December 2002), elected by universal direct voting for a term of 5 years (the last elections were in December 2002). Legislative power is exercised by the president and a unicameral parliament - the National Assembly (224 deputies, of which 210 are elected by universal direct voting for a term of 5 years, 14 are appointed by the president). Executive power is exercised by the president, the vice-president, and members of the government. The president appoints the vice-president and members of the government from among the deputies of the National Assembly.
Kenya has been a member of the Commonwealth, led by Great Britain, since 1963 - a member of the UN and the African Union (formerly the OAU).
The first city-states on the territory of Kenya appeared in the 11th-15th centuries.
From the 1880s, Kenya was under British rule, initially as part of the East Africa Protectorate, and from 1920 as a separate colony. On December 12, 1963, Kenya became an independent state, and a year later it was proclaimed a republic. The first president of the country was J. Kenyatta, the leader of the Kenya African National Union, which was established in 1960 and won the general elections in 1963.
Political parties: the ruling party - the National Rainbow Coalition of Kenya (NARC) - unites 15 political parties. In the general elections in December 2002, NARC won 125 seats in parliament. The largest opposition force - the Kenya African National Union (KANU) - holds 64 seats in the National Assembly.
The Central Organization of Trade Unions of Kenya has over 600 thousand members.
Kenya is one of the few African countries with a relatively stable developing economy. The GDP in 2004 was 10 billion dollars, with a per capita income of 270 dollars per year. The leading sector of the economy is agriculture (share in GDP - about 16%, employs 75% of the population). Main crops: tea (300 thousand tons per year, 1st place in Africa) and coffee (150 thousand tons), cotton, rice, wheat, pyrethrum (extract - 100 tons per year, 70% of world production), sisal (about 28 thousand tons), sugarcane.
Dairy farming, poultry farming, and pig farming are well developed. Industry is mainly represented by enterprises processing agricultural products. There are textile, automotive assembly, oil refining, sawmill enterprises, and cement plants (over 700 enterprises, employing about 250 thousand people). Foreign capital (UK, Germany, France, USA) has a strong position in the economy. The main directions of economic policy are combating the budget deficit and accelerating structural economic transformations, controlling inflation, promoting national private entrepreneurship and foreign investments.
Foreign trade turnover in 2004 - 6.4 billion dollars; exports - 2.5 billion (tea, coffee, tobacco, sisal, pyrethrum, vegetables and fruits, as well as fluorspar, calcined soda, cement, petroleum products), imports - 3.9 billion dollars (crude oil, machinery and equipment, cars, rolled ferrous and non-ferrous metals, synthetic resins, pharmaceuticals).
Main trading partners: UK, Germany, USA, France, Italy, as well as the UAE, Uganda, Tanzania. Kenya's external debt (2004) - 5.6 billion dollars. Annual debt payments - 500-550 million dollars.
Traditionally, the tourism industry is well developed, bringing significant foreign currency inflows (up to 22% of GDP). Annually, Kenya is visited by 700-800 thousand foreign tourists.
The transport infrastructure is one of the most developed in Tropical Africa. The length of roads is 70 thousand km, of which 7 thousand km are paved, and railways are about 3 thousand km. The main seaport is Mombasa. There are two international airports - Nairobi and Mombasa.
Primary education is free. There are about 20 thousand primary and 2.5 thousand secondary schools in the country.
The largest universities are the University of Nairobi and Egerton University. About 20 thousand Kenyan citizens study at higher educational institutions abroad.
In Kenya, about 60 newspapers and magazines are published: "Daily Nation" (daily, 150 thousand copies), "East African Standard" (90 thousand), "Kenya Times" (daily, 25 thousand, the organ of KANU). The Kenya News Agency (KNA) was established in 1963. The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation was established in 1961.
