Environment - current issues: water pollution from urban and industrial wastes; degradation of water quality from increased use of pesticides and fertilizers; water hyacinth infestation in Lake Victoria; deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; poaching

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine
Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
the Kenyan Highlands comprise one of the most successful
agricultural production regions in Africa; glaciers are found on
Mount Kenya, Africa's second highest peak; unique physiography
supports abundant and varied wildlife of scientific and economic
value

People Kenya

Population:
31,639,091
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
2003 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 41.3% (male 6,609,904; female 6,461,945)
15-64 years: 55.8% (male 8,900,615; female 8,766,698)
65 years and over: 2.9% (male 389,918; female 510,011) (2003 est.)

Median age:
total: 18.4 years
female: 18.5 years (2002)
male: 18.2 years

Population growth rate:
1.27% (2003 est.)

Birth rate:
28.81 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)

Death rate:
16.01 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.)