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Since 2014, Abiri Kenya has been providing reliable, vetted articles of broad knowledge about Kenya. Making it a crucial starting point for research. It consolidates facts from multiple disciplines into easily accessible articles, arranged systematically, saving you time while ensuring you read accurate information backed by expert and reliable sources.
Geography I People I Climate
At 580,367 square kilometers Kenya is the 23rd largest country in Africa, and the 47th largest country in the world. It sits at the Horn, in the far east-end of Africa, flanked by Tanzania in the south, Uganda in the west, Sudan and Ethiopia in the north, and by Somalia in the east. Kenya is the 5th largest among the 10 member Eastern Africa Union, larger, in land surface area, than Uganda, Eritrea, Djibouti, Rwanda, and Burundi. Kenya stands as one of the most diverse places.
The Equator, halfway between the poles, splits Kenya across the middle. The country north of it presents a great similarly to the country south of it, although the features to the north are on a much grander scale. In the west, the Equator enters Kenya just above Lake Victoria, ending just above Daadab in the east into Somalia. North of the Equator lies Lake Turkana, south of it the smaller Lake Logipi. South of the Equator are the wildlife-rich plains where Masai Mara, Nairobi, Tsavo and Amboseli lie, with the marine parks along Indian Ocean at the furthest south.
Geologically, the land rises from the coast to altitudes of 10,000 feet or more in the central area, peaking at 17,058 feet at the summit of Mount Kenya lying just 10 kilometers south of the Equator, before dropping down into Lakes Victoria and Turkana. In between these three water bodies are rolling farmlands, expanses of plantations, natural forests, scrublands, and a tract of palm-fringed coast. Nairobi, Kenya’s newfangled capital city, sits 140 km south of the Equator. The Great Rift Valley, along its south-north journey, divides the western half of Kenya. North of the Coast, into Somalia, the eastern half of Kenya is a continuous semi-arid block.
Nearly 80% of Kenya’s terrestrial land is semi-arid, rainfall here rarely rising over 750 mm annually and altitude mostly below 4,000 feet – hot, desolate, vast, untravelled. The high potential areas, covering 20% of Kenya, carry close to 80% of the population and almost all the fertile farmlands. Outside of the salient cities of Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, Swahili, the lingua-franca of East Africa serves all well. Kenya’s diversity is comprised of 44 tribes and residents from all corners of the world. County lines are loosely ‘traced over’ ethnic borders.
The original 40 boundaries of Kenya, marking districts and provinces, were first defined in the 1963 Independence Constitution and they were largely based on ethnic affiliations, affirmed by political positions taken at the Lancaster House Conferences. In 2010, the 47 Districts were replaced by the 47 Counties of Kenya in accordance to the new constitution. Kenya’s total population [2026] is about 58.6 million, the bulk of whom live in three areas of Kenya: nearby Lake Victoria in the west and southwest, in Central Kenya, and in an area of fairly dense population along the coast area of Kenya, specially between Malindi and Tanzania.
Much of the fascination, in studying the cultures of Kenya, is trying to establish which of all the types and variants of tribes may be said to be more closer to the approximate root-stem? The survey of tribes in Kenya, and Eastern Africa in general, is one of consuming interest. The variations are quite engaging! The presentation of the Maasai and other cultural groups as timeless and ahistorical is not unique to Kenya. It is, perhaps, accepted widely here because this perspective is reinforced by Kenya’s tourist industry. The tribes of Kenya are largely divided ethnologically into three main classes – those of Cushitic origin, Nilotic origin, and Bantu origin.
Generally speaking, the weather pattern in Kenya follows a two maxima rainfall, short rains [mid-March to May] and long rains [October to December], and in addition there can be considerable variation in the length of the rainy season from year to year, and the dates and times of onset or ending should be treated with some degree of reserve. The “long rains” bring the heaviest precipitation, while the short rains produce sporadic, shorter downpours – rains tending to occur at different times of day in different regions. Temperatures varies greatly depending on altitude, region, and season.
A Tapestry of Tribes I Traditions I Treasures
Kenya is a place of natural wonders. Wildlife rich savannas and arid plains define the land scape of Kenya. And safari its history. Some of these places are famous internationally, like the Masai Mara, but others have not reached that level of fame. Many others await discovery. It may not be a big country in the scale of the nations of Africa, but there are many uncharted corners in Kenya. Way up north, you’ll discover the world’s largest alkaline lake, where nothing should live, hugely productive with marine life. Natural beauty in a harsh jerkwater outback.
Kenya’s most amazing destinations – beach and safari – are genuinely worth your experience, any time of year. A wander into nature and relaxation at its loveliest. A small ocean strip packed with immense life, parks and reserves. Yet there are more surprises many could not have anticipated. Untravelled gems to observe nature’s spectacles, wildlife in extreme habitats, islands, cultures as they were centuries ago, cottage industries, colonial legacies, and ruins.
Abiri Kenya is a complete guide to Kenya. The A to Z, really! Possible place that could interest you in Kenya, worth your discovery: Over 2,000 destinations, many inextricably linked with the element of surprise. It is arranged and imagined systematically as you would travel region to region to the 47 counties with the aid of strip maps, distances involved, road conditions, hotels, and best time to go. A nurge to do it more by uncovering places that rarely get under the limelight but make for interesting new trips.
"...the full beauty of an activity is never brought out until it is subjected to discipline and strict ordering and nice balancing".