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Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly Recordthe more populated regions, anda highway links Nairobi with AddisAbaba, Ethiopia. Mombasa is theprincipal port and Nairobi’s airportis one of the most important in EastAfrica. Tourism as a source of foreignexchange is encouraged by thegovernment.Major diseases in the country includemalaria, dysentery and trachoma.Sexually transmitted diseases arecommon, with HIV/AIDS nearlyepidemic. Self-help welfare activitiesare encouraged, owing to a shortageof skilled medical help in much of thecountry.animals 3 effect a large-scale (we’re talkingof millions of beasts) annual migration.The ‘African big five’ can be found in Kenya:the lion, leopard, buffalo, rhinocerosand elephant. Large areas now serve asgame reserves, notably the Nairobi andTsavo National Parks. 4 Regrettably, ivorypoaching is a continuing threat, especiallyalong the border with Somalia.Many ‘ordinary’ Kenyans today are stillinvolved with some form of agriculture,living and working on communally-ownedland. Although this is a prime earner,farming is largely restricted to the highrainfallareas of the highlands, centralRift Valley and around Lake Victoria, withcoffee and tea the main cash crops. Staplesinclude corn, potatoes, pulses, millet andbananas. The only natural source of fuel iswood from very limited forests.Major industrial activities deal withcement production and petroleumprocessing refineries at Mombasa. In 1981a geothermal station came online to helpsupplement hydroelectricity from theTana River. Road connections are good inHistoricalOutlineEarly SettlementFrom the Biblical region of Cush(approximating to modern Sudan andEthiopia, and the Horn of Africa) it isbelieved that people moved into the areanow known as Kenya in Abrahamic times.Later, around 500 BC, Nilotic-speaking 5pastoralists began to arrive from presentdaysouthern Sudan into Kenya. By the1st century AD Arab traders appearedalong the Kenya coast. Its proximity to theArabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf almostbegged colonisation, so that Arab andPersian settlements were plentiful alongthe coast by the 8th century. During thefirst millennium AD Bantu peoples alsomoved into the region from further west,bringing new developments in agricultureand iron working to this previously pastoralregion.Bantu now comprise three-quarters ofKenya’s population. For African mission,evangelism and Bible translation, theBantu languages, originating in the generalNigeria and Cameroon area of West Africa,18