A part of Eastern Africa, the territory of what is known as Kenya has seen human habitation since the beginning of the Lower Paleolithic. The Bantu expansion from a West African centre of dispersal reached the area by the 1st millennium AD. With the borders of the modern state at the crossroads of the Bantu, Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic ethno-linguistic areas of Africa, Kenya is a multi-ethnic state. The Wanga Kingdom was formally established in the late 17th century. The Kingdom covered from the Jinja in Uganda to Naivasha in the East of Kenya. This is the first time the Wanga people and Luhya tribe were united and led by a centralized leader, a king, known as the Nabongo.
The politics of Kenya take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the president is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system in accordance with a new constitution passed in 2010.
The Kenya African National Union (KANU) is a Kenyan political party that ruled for nearly 40 years after Kenya's independence from British colonial rule in 1963 until its electoral loss in 2002. It was known as Kenya African Union (KAU) from 1944 but due to pressure from the colonial government, KAU changed its name to Kenya African Study Union (KASU) mainly because all political parties were banned in 1939 following the start of the Second World War. In 1946 KASU rebranded itself into KAU following the resignation of Harry Thuku as president due to internal differences between the moderates who wanted peaceful negotiations and the militants who wanted to use force, the latter forming the Aanake a forty, which later became the Mau Mau. His post was then occupied by James Gichuru, who stepped down for Jomo Kenyatta in 1947 as president of KAU. The KAU was banned by the colonial government from 1952 to 1960. It was re-established by James Gichuru in 1960 and renamed KANU on 14 May 1960 after a merger with Tom Mboya's Kenya Independence Movement.
Emilio Mwai Kibaki was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.
The Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) was a political party in Kenya. It was founded in 1960 when several leading politicians refused to join Jomo Kenyatta's Kenya African National Union (KANU). It was led by Ronald Ngala who was joined by Moi's Kalenjin Political Alliance, the Masai United Front, the Kenya African Peoples Party, the Coast African Political Union, Masinde Muliro's Baluhya Political Union and the Somali National Front. The separate tribal organisations were to retain their identity and so, from the very start, KADU based its political approach on tribalism. KADU's aim was to defend the interests of the so-called KAMATUSA as well as the British settlers, against the imagined future dominance of the larger Luo and Kikuyu that comprised the majority of KANU's membership, when it became inevitable that Kenya will achieve its independence. The KADU objective was to work towards a multiracial self government within the existing colonial political system. After release of Jomo Kenyatta, KADU was becoming increasingly popular with European settlers and, on the whole, repudiated Kenyatta's leadership. KADU's plan at Lancaster meetings was devised by European supporters, essentially to protect prevailing British settlers land rights.
Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022.
Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka is a Kenyan politician who was the tenth Vice-President of Kenya from 2008 to 2013. Musyoka served in the government under the late President Daniel arap Moi as the Secretary of Kenya African National Union party (1980-1988), Assistant Minister for Works (1986-1988), Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly (1988-1992), Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1993 until 1998, Minister of Education (1998-2001); and subsequently, under the late President Mwai Kibaki, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs again from 2003 to 2004, then Minister of the Environment from 2004 to 2005. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2007 presidential election, after which he was appointed vice-president by Kibaki in January 2008.
The Liberal Democratic Party was a political party in Kenya. It was established by Raila Odinga and members of the National Rainbow Coalition in 2002.
Forum for the Restoration of Democracy–Kenya (FORD–Kenya) is a Kenyan political party. The party has sat in the government of Kenya once, under the National Rainbow Coalition, from 2003 to 2007, having ended forty years of one party rule. In April 2022, the party joined the Kenya Kwanza coalition for the August 2022 elections, and is headed by Moses Wetangula, the current speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya. The party tends to be more popular among the Luhya people.
William Kipchirchir Samoei Arap Ruto is a Kenyan politician who is the fifth and current president of Kenya since 13 September 2022. Prior to becoming president, he served as the first elected deputy president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022. Previously, holders of the position were referred to as Vice President and the officeholder was unelected and appointed by the President. He previously served in three cabinet portfolios as the Minister for Home Affairs, the Minister of Agriculture and as Minister for Higher Education.
Raila Amolo Odinga is a Kenyan politician who served as the Prime Minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Langata Constituency from 1992 to 2013 and has been the Leader of Opposition in Kenya since 2013. He is the leader of Azimio la Umoja–One Kenya Coalition Party.
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is a centre-left political party in Kenya. It is the successor of a grassroots people's movement that was formed during the 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum campaign. This movement separated in August 2007 into the Orange Democratic Movement Party of Kenya and the Wiper Democratic Movement – Kenya.
General elections were held in Kenya on 27 December 2007. Voters elected the President, and members of the National Assembly. They coincided with the 2007 Kenyan local elections.
The 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis was a violent political, economic, and humanitarian crisis that erupted in Kenya after former President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election held on December 27, 2007. Supporters of Kibaki's main opponent in that election, Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement, alleged electoral manipulation. This position was widely confirmed by international observers, as being perpetrated by both parties in the election. Even the head of the electoral commission himself confirmed that he did not know who had won the elections despite announcing the incumbent as president.
The 9th Parliament of the Republic of Kenya was opened by elected President Mwai Kibaki on February 18, 2003. It was the first time that the formerly-dominant Kenya African National Union of Daniel arap Moi was in the minority. The triumphant NARC, which dominated in the general elections of 2002 was in the majority, led by Kibaki.
The Waki Commission, officially The Commission of Inquiry on Post Election Violence (CIPEV), was an international commission of inquiry established by the Government of Kenya in February 2008 to investigate the clashes in Kenya following the disputed Kenyan presidential election of 2007.
The Nakuru County Peace Accord refers to the peace agreement signed on 19 August 2012 between elders of the Agikuyu and Kalenjin communities as well as other ethnic groups of Kenya.
The National Super Alliance, known by the abbreviation NASA, was a Kenyan political coalition of opposition centre-left parties that was formed in January 2017. The coalition was created to oppose President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto in the 2017 general elections. Raila Odinga, Musalia Mudavadi, Kalonzo Musyoka, Moses Wetangula and Isaac Ruto were the co-principals of the coalition.
The 2018 Kenya handshake was a political truce made on 9 March 2018 between Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The two had been the leaders of opposing political factions amidst widespread political violence and civil unrest; they had previously faced one another in the contested 2017 Kenyan general election. Under the agreement, their political feud with an agreement that Kenyatta would support Odinga in the upcoming presidential elections. Consequently, the Azimio coalition was formed, Uhuru became its chairman, and Odinga became the presidential candidate with Martha Karua as his running mate. They lost to William Ruto, who was then Kenyatta's deputy. They challenged Ruto's victory in the Supreme Court, but Chief Justice Martha Koome said his claims did not meet the evidentiary threshold and dismissed the case. At a March 2023 protest in Nairobi they demanded an audit of the IEBC election servers.
Azimio la Umoja–One Kenya Coalition Party, popularly referred as Azimio la Umoja, or simply Azimio, is a Kenyan political alliance and party headed by Raila Odinga. It is composed of the Orange Democratic Movement, the Jubilee Party, NARC–Kenya, KANU, and other parties. Former president Uhuru Kenyatta is the party's patron. The alliance fielded Odinga as its presidential candidate and Martha Karua as its deputy presidential candidate in the 2022 Kenyan election, which they lost.
Kenyaportal