Kenya is a tropical country situated
along the equator at longitude 00-00 latitude degrees it has rainforests, snowcapped
mountains, rainforest e.g. Mt. Kenya, Mt. kilimanjaro, volcanoes, deserts up
north, savanah, fresh water lakes e.g. Lake Victoria, Lake Naivasha, Lake
Baringo and Lake Turkana. Kenya has saline Lakes such as Lake Magadi, Lake Bogoria,
and Lake Nakuru most of them situated along the Great Rift Valley, the Great
Rift Valley runs 9000km from Isreal through Africa/Kenya ends up in Beira Mozambique
and enters the Indian Ocean. Along the Coastline, we have the Indian Ocean.
The Rift Valley offers rich soil for
major agricultural activities making it a major producer of foodstuffs. Among
crops produced, include tea, coffee, wheat, corn, potatoes, among other
foodstuff.
The population is 40 million with 42
different tribes with different dialects. The Kenyan neighbors include Tanzania,
Uganda, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Somalia.
In the 14th century the Portuguese came
and settled in the Kenyan coast building a fort called Fort Jesus in order to
control the Kenyan Coast to protect their business interest. The bulk of their
business involved cloves (spices) from Zanzibar slaves among other trades. There
were constant battles involving the Arabs and Portuguese trying dominance over
the coastline, which was the get way into the hinterland. The Arabs were
trading with the local tribes including the Kamba tribe who were long distance
traders and interaction between different Bantu tribes and the Arabs saw the
emergence of a language called Swahili, which is our current national language.
During that time a system called barter trade was being used in trading this
involved the exchange of goods against goods without involving cash.
Kenya was formed in the turn of century
as a result of trade with different nationalities Portuguese, Arabs and finally
the British came in opening up the interior part of the country. A major
railway was used to access the interior part of the country up to the pearl of Africa
(Uganda). In the 15th century a medicine man from the Nandi tribe predicted 'a
long snake will cross the land from the eastern waters (Indian ocean)to the
western waters belching fire from its belly to quench it's thirst in the
western waters (lake Victoria)'something that became true in the turn of
century when the British build a railway
(lunatic line)crossing the country as predicted by medicine man.it was
the Kenya - Uganda railway.
The Indians named as coolies were
brought from India to come and work in the railway construction. During that
time Africans didn't know that it's possible to work and be remunerated and
very many people lost their lives as a result of malaria and lion attacks when
the railway was being built along the tsavo national park hence the name man
eaters of Tsavo (lions)A Hollywood movie was short on site depicting the actual
events called 'the ghost and darkness' starring being Michael douglas it's
a must watch movie.
The railway crossed the hinterland
reaching Nairobi and the city of Nairobi was born. The Indians played a major
role in the setting up Nairobi by putting up shops to provide foods and other
stuff to the coolies (the Indian construction workers)since that time Nairobi
has become a major business hub in eastern Africa. Nairobi was originally
occupied by the Maasai tribe it was named by the Maasai tribe 'a place of cool
waters'-Nairobi river. Swahili is the national language and English is the
official language.
Courtesy paddy

The Wildebeest Migration