Kenya Essays - Kikuyu People, Kenyatta Family, Kenya, Republics

Kenya Kenya is in the heart of African safari country and no Tarzan movie can prepare you for Kenya's wilderness. I chose Kenya because someday I want to go on a safari and I thought that by researching Kenya I would learn a little more about safaris. The major tourist attractions in Kenya are the safaris. No other country contains a greater variety of birds and animals than Kenya, home of the Safari. Kenya has about eleven different types of safaris: Wildlife Safaris, Orinthological Safaris/Bird Watching, Camel Safaris, Hot Air Balloon Safaris, Horse Riding Safaris, Cycle and Trekking Safaris, Golf Safaris, Camping Safaris, Sport Fishing, Conference and Business Tourism, Mountaineering and Walking Trails, and Safari Circuits. There are so many different types of safaris that deciding how to take a safari, available on foot, by bicycle, by 4 wheel drive, by camel, by horse, by ox wagon, by balloon or by classical aerial safari, is sometimes a difficult decision. If you plan on going to Kenya and staying for less than thirty days, then a visa is not required. However, if u plan on a longer stay, you can get a visa before your trip or when you enter Kenya. Tourist visas require one application form, two passport photos, an onward or return ticket and the required fifty-dollar fee. Immunization for Yellow fever is recommended and Anti-malarial pills are recommended for those people who are traveling to the coastal regions of Kenya. Anthropological discoveries indicate that humans, perhaps the first on earth, probably inhabited southern Kenya some 2 million years ago. In the Kenya highlands farming and domestic herds can be dated to 1000 BC Arab traders settled on the coast by the 8th cent. AD, establishing several city-states. The Portuguese, who first visited the Kenya coast in 1498, gained control of much of it but were expelled by Arabs in 1729. In 1886, under a British-German agreement on spheres of influence in East Africa, most of present day Kenya passed to Britain, and in 1903, after a railroad opened up the interior, the first European settlers moved in. Under Britain, Europeans controlled the government, and Indians, who had arrived earlier, were active in commerce, while Africans were largely confined to subsistence farming or to work as laborers. Protests by Africans over their inferior status reached a peak in the so-called MAU-MAU emergency, an armed revolt against British rule. After the rebellion Britain increased African representation in the legislative council, and in 1963 Kenya gained independence. The country became a republic in 1964, with Jomo Kenyatta as president. The first decade of independence was marked by disputes among ethnic groups, especially the Kikuyu and the Luo, by the exodus of many Europeans and Asians, and by sporadic fighting with Somalia over boundary issues. Daniel Arap Moi of the Kenya African National Union succeeded to the presidency after Kenyatta's death in 1978. A stable democracy in 1978, Kenya under Moi became a one-party state and, increasingly, a dictatorship. Undermined by growing internal opposition and international resistance to supplying aid to his government, Moi agreed to end one-party rule in 1991, but social and political unrest, especially tribal conflicts that Moi's government has been accused of promoting, continued. Moi was reelected president in 1992 in a multiparty election that his opponents denounced as fraudulent. Since 1993, the government of Kenya has implemented a program of economic liberalization and reform. Steps have included the removal of import licensing and price controls, removal of foreign exchange controls, fiscal and monetary restraint, and reduction of the public sector through privatizing publicly owned companies and downsizing the civil service. The government has the support of the World Bank, IMF (International Monetary Fund), and other donors, and along with them these reforms have led to a turnaround in economic performance following a period of negative growth in the early 1990s. Kenya's real GDP (Gross Domestic Product) grew at 5% in 1995 and 4% in 1996, and inflation remained under control. Economic growth slowed in 1997-98. The exchange rate from U.S. Dollars ($) to Kenyan Shillings (KSh) is $1---76.30KSh. Political violence damaged the tourist industry, and the IMF allowed Kenya's Enhanced Structural Adjustment Program to lapse due to the government's failure to enact reform conditions and to adequately address public sector corruption. Moreover, El Nino rains destroyed crops and damaged an already crumbling infrastructure in 1997 and 1998. Long-term barriers to development include electricity shortages, the government's continued and inefficient dominance of key sectors, endemic corruption, and the country's high population growth rate. I think that Kenya has enormous potential for future growth.