Kenya

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Key natural resources include gold, iron, steel, titanium, gemstones, water, and wildlife.

The World Bank estimated the country's population would be 55 million in 2023. Its official name is the Republic of Kenya.

Kenya was initially known as the British East Africa Protectorate or British East Africa, and it was not officially named Kenya until 1920. Some historians believe the name was coined from the Kamba language pronunciation of Mt Kenya's traditional names, Kirinyaga and Kinyaa.

The most fertile soils are found in the west of the country, where the mountainous landscape provides a completely different climate than in the eastern part of Kenya.

The mid-north and the northeast are the most economically developed. The cause is often attributed to the local population themselves, who only engage in cattle breeding while not a blade of grass grows. The choice is an age-old tradition in which owning cows, sheep, and/or goats is seen as wealth. The more animals you own, the more you are seen as a rich person.

The lack of grasslands in the north and northeast forces local pastoralists to move around with their herds, especially in the central and southern parts of the Rift Valley. You often see them on roadsides and even in open spaces in towns and villages where grass grows. The example photo is taken in Nakuru County.

However, the drought of 2020-2023, the worst in Kenya since 1980, has forced pastoralists to look for alternatives. They started switching to camel keeping.

Kenya's key natural resources include gold, iron, steel, titanium, and gemstones but the map does not include coltan which was discovered on January 25, 2025,

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Deposits of the mineral have been found in six counties like Embu County on the foot of Mount Kenya, where residents have been advised to hold onto their land.

Although Kenya's economy is the largest and most developed in Eastern and Central Africa, 25% (2023/2024) of its population lives below the international poverty line. This severe poverty is caused by tribalism, corruption, and inequality that often includes forms amounting to nepotism,

The country has been known for inhabiting 42 tribes, each with different languages and cultures that merge to form a unique mix of Kenyan culture. The six biggest tribes comprise about half the Kenyan population, and hence, the people of these big tribes have a greater influence on Kenyan culture.

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Kenya's tribes belong to an indigenous ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct native African ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. The latter refers to the Bantu people who originated from Western Africa.

The largest tribe is the Kikuyu. They also dominate in the country's politics. Their homeland is where Mount Kenya is. Its peak is the intersection of Meru, Embu, Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Tharaka Nithi counties.

Kykuyu are the wealthiest tribe in Kenya. They gained this position through Jomo Kenyatta when he was President of Kenya from 1964 to his death in 1978. 

He and his son Uhuru Kenyatta, who was President from 2013 to 2022, are from a wealthy Kykuyu family. Jomo had given members of his tribe a disproportionate share of political power and special access to land and resources, which reinforced their advantaged economic status.

Other major ethnic groups include the Luhya, Luo, Kalenjin, Kamba, Kisii, and Meru. Each tribe is further divided into clans or sub-tribes, sometimes understood as a family. For example, there are approximately 18 clans in the Luhya tribe.

TRIBES AS LISTED BY

THE NATIONAL COHESION & INTEGRATION COMMISSION

1. Suba

2. Embu

3. Kamba

4. Kikuyu

5. Kisii

6. Kuria

7. Luo

8. Maasai

9. Mbeere

10. Meru

Comment:

Arabs, Asians (the majority are those from India), Europeans (mainly Britons, Dutch, and Germans), and Americans residing in the country cannot be considered members of tribes. The countries where they originate describe these people as expats or diaspora while Kenya should describe them as foreign nationals with or without Kenyan citizenship.

A tribe is a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.

Therefore, one cannot find, that there are 42 but 38 tribes in Kenya.

Although Kenya's economy is the largest and most developed in Eastern and Central Africa, 25% (2023/2024) of its population lives below the international poverty line.  One of the causes of this severe poverty is inequality.

Poverty is defined by looking at what income differences are between those in the rural and those in urban areas. It is measured at the national poverty line, for example, Ksh 3,947 and Ksh 7,193 per month per person (in adult equivalent terms) for rural and urban areas.

Inequality means in simple words: a lack of equality or fair treatment in the sharing of wealth or opportunities. This was already under British colonial rule but the father of former President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta, Jomo Kenyatta continued by giving members of his Kykuyu tribe special access to land and resources, which reinforced their advantaged economic status.

How does inequality in Kenya look like? According to Oxfam:

The right to housing is embedded in the Constitution of Kenya, which provides that every person has the right to accessible and adequate housing. But that right contradicts the requirement, that applicants must have a monthly income between Ksh 15,000 and Ksh 149,999 to qualify for the Affordable Housing Program Kenya. The Netherlands has a similar right in its constitution but applies to every citizen in the country whether they have a job or not.

The Affordable Housing Programme (AHP) was launched in 2017 by Uhuru Kenyatta with a target to deliver 500,000 affordable homes to Kenyans in all 47 counties by 2022. However, by the end of the five-year period, the target was far from being met, with an estimated 13,529 units delivered, which is less than 3% of the intended target. This was found by AfricaCheck.Org after reading this document:

Why did this plan fail? In the Constitution of Kenya:

It looks like any Kenyan government that comes with plans like those of Uhuru Kenyatta needs cooperation from those who own land.

There is a Ministry of Land, Public Works, Housing, and Urban Development that appears only able to function when owners of land join in proposed urban developments.

KIBERA

The largest slum, Kibera located in Nairobi, is a clear example of not showing a policy of accessible and adequate housing, if only because it has continued to grow since its inception in the early 20th century

There are approximately 2.5 million slum dwellers in about 200 settlements in Nairobi representing 60% of the Nairobi population and occupying just 6% of the land. Kibera houses about 250,000 of these people and is the biggest slum in Africa and one of the biggest in the world. It would be the most costly if the government

 The production of housing units is currently at less than 50,000 units annually, well below the target number, culminating in a housing deficit of over 2 million units, with nearly 61% of urban households living in slums.

The Ministry of Land, Public Works, Housing, and Urban Development.is responsible, that people still have to live in such miserable conditions.

The only international law that can secure tribal peoples' land rights is the International Labour Organization Convention 169. ILO 169 recognizes and protects tribal peoples' land ownership rights, and sets a series of minimum UN standards regarding consultation and consent.

EXAMPLE CASE

From 2004 to 2006, 100,000 people of the Ogiek tribe were evicted from the Mau Forest, according to separate reports by rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. These bodies also allege that serious abuses have been committed by successive governments to date.

The Mau Forest Complex is situated in the Rift Valley province, spanning four counties - Bomet, Kericho, Nakuru and Narok. These forests form the catchment of the main rivers that provide water to the western part of the country.

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In 2017 the Ogiek won a landmark case against government plans to evict them from their ancestral land in the Mau Forest. The African Court of Human and People's Rights ruled they were entitled to live on the land, and the government had violated their rights by trying to evict them. The government demanded the eviction due to the conservation of the water catchment zone.

On November 9, 2023, the Ruto administration sent armed forest rangers to the Mau Forest and demolished houses. The government claimed that the Ogiek people were damaging the water supply amid the severe drought that the country was suffering.

Human rights lawyers were accusing Ruto of trying to profit from carbon offsetting schemes. The developing global carbon credit market allows a polluter to emit carbon dioxide or other climate-heating gas and pay a forest owner to capture those emissions through the carbon absorption power of their trees.

Now, that is not only in violation of Article 63. Community Land of the Constitution reads "Community land shall vest in and be held by communities identified on the basis of ethnicity, culture or similar community of interest." It is also in violation of the ILO Convention 169.

Since 2024, Kenya’s human rights trajectory deteriorated. The authorities restricted the right to peaceful protest in heavy handed crackdowns against nationwide protests over the high cost of living.

On December 26, 2024, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights stated:

But disappearances have been taken place for much longer.