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Some of the earliest humans roamed the land now known as Kenya. Since those primordial times, groups of people from all over Africa and the Middle East have migrated through or into the area. Nearly a millennium ago, the Swahili language, which blends Arabic with African Bantu speech, developed as the common tongue in this region. The Bantu tribal peoples moved into the region at the turn of the millennium, including the Kikuyu, who remain the largest single ethnic group in Kenya today.
Arabs sailed south from the Middle East to become a dominant presence in the coastal region as early as the 11th century AD. In Arabic the country was called the land of the Zenj, or “black people.” For centuries, the Kenyan coast was divided up into city-states known as the “Zenj states.” Mombasa, one of modern Kenya’s major cities, originated as one of these city-states.
The first Europeans to have an impact on East Africa were the Portuguese, who arrived by sea in the 15th century and dominated the coastal region for a time. In 1729, the Arabs regained control from the Portuguese and ruled until Kenya came under British influence. During this era, Arabs and Africans conducted a slave trade whose effects extended far inland. By the latter half of the 19th century, Britain had become the region's dominant power, drawing the borders of the newly defined nation of Kenya. The British ended the slave trade, but claimed all land outside defined tribal areas as crown land available for white settlement.
Decades of colonial rule bred resentment among native Africans. In the 1950s, the Kikuyus played a prominent role in the Mau Mau rebellion, which was one act in the drama that culminated in Kenyan independence in 1963. Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of independent Kenya, was a Kikuyu. Though he had been involved in the Mau Mau rebellion, he established moderate, pro-Western policies and was acknowledged as Mzee, “the wise old one,” by his own people and many world leaders upon his death in 1978. Kenyatta’s successor, Daniel Arap Moi, continued to follow the moderate social and economic policies that kept Kenya relatively peaceful in the first decades after independence.
Moi’s years in power were not without controversy and conflict, however, especially in regards to his personal finances and authoritarian politics. It is rumored that during his time in office, Moi amassed such a large fortune that he may still be the richest man in Africa. In 1991, he submitted to international pressure to allow the formation of other political parties, but still won the 1992 election.
International observers noted that the movement to create more parties relied heavily on support that cut across tribal divisions; in contrast, Moi’s political machine emphasized and played on tribal rivalries, resulting in mass evictions of the Kiyuku and oppressive measures against other groups. Eventually the strategy backfired, and in 2002, Moi’s chosen successor was defeated. Today’s Kenya is still marked by tribal differences and rivalry but with the end of Moi era, it is slowly making its way towards a more promising future.