KARIBU KENYA - UNON - the United Nations Office at Nairobi

new nation.The blood shed in the Independence struggle is remembered in
the red on the Kenyan flag (while the green stands for the land, and the black
for the people).
Kenyatta continued to lead Kenya until his death in 1978, when Vice
President Daniel Arap Moi took power in a constitutional succession. The
country remained a one-party state until 1991, when Moi acceded to internal
and external pressure for political liberalisation. However, the ethnically
fractured opposition failed to dislodge Moi’s Kenya African National Union
(KANU) from power in elections in 1992 and 1997, which despite widespread
violence and fraud were viewed as generally reflecting the will of the
people.
Moi finally stepped down in December 2002, following fair and
peaceful elections in which he was defeated by Mwai Kibaki, running as
candidate of the united, multiethnic National Rainbow Coalition. A
respected economist, Kibaki had served as Kenya’s finance minister and
vice president in the 1970s and 80s before leaving KANU in 1991. His
victory marked the end of almost 40 years of uninterrupted KANU rule,
and it was ‘third time lucky’ for Mr Kibaki, whose Democratic Party had
lost in the two previous elections.
The People
Kenya is a truly multiracial nation, with 42 different tribes living in a remarkable
degree of harmony and peace, and coexisting with the descendants of the
European settlers and the Indians who came to build the railway.The largest
tribe, the Kikuyu, occupy the central highlands around the Rift Valley and the
capital city, the western regions are dominated by the Luo and Luhya, the east
by the Kamba, and the coastal areas by the Giriama and other Swahili peoples.
Most Kenyans are fluent in Kiswahili as well as their own tribal dialect, while
those living in the cities and towns also often speak English.
Sadly, despite rapid advances in medical science, Kenya’s endemic poverty
and extremely high unemployment (currently estimated at over 40%) have
conspired to keep the country among the world’s 20 poorest nations. The
rising incidence of HIV/AIDS and continuing vulnerability to epidemic
diseases such as cholera, malaria and tuberculosis, combined with extremely
poor sanitation coverage and high malnutrition rates, have contributed to the
continuing deterioration of life in Kenya over the past 20 years. Infant and
child mortality rates, often cited as primary indicators of a country’s socio-
CHAPTER 1: KENYA • 3