Introduction
Kenya
Background: Founding president and liberation struggle icon Jomo KENYATTA led Kenya from independence until his death in 1978, when current President Daniel Toroitich arap MOI took power in a constitutional succession. The country was a de facto one-party state from 1969 until 1982 when the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) made itself the sole legal party in Kenya. MOI acceded to internal and external pressure for political liberalization in late 1991. The ethnically fractured opposition failed to dislodge KANU from power in elections in 1992 and 1997, which were marred by violence and fraud, but are viewed as having generally reflected the will of the Kenyan people. The country faces a period of political uncertainty because MOI is constitutionally required to step down at the next election that has to be held by early 2003.
Geography Kenya
Location: Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Somalia and Tanzania
Geographic coordinates: 1 00 N, 38 00 E
Map references: Africa
Area: total: 582,650 sq km water: 13,400 sq km land: 569,250 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly more than twice the size of Nevada
Land boundaries: total: 3,477 km border countries: Ethiopia 861 km,
Somalia 682 km, Sudan 232 km, Tanzania 769 km, Uganda 933 km