Kenya, Central Africa

Kenya was first populated by a number of small dispersed tribal groups, the main groups were the Kikuyu, Kamba, Luo and Masai. These tribes shared the same area of land although they all had different origins.

It wasn't until the 19th century that outsiders entered the interior of the country and as a result Kenya escaped the worst of the Arab slavers who concentrated more further to the south.  In the late 19th century when both British and German personnel obtained trading concessions along the coast, Britain was allotted what is now Uganda and Kenya; Germany was allotted what is now mainland Tanzania.

In 1893 Uganda became a British protectorate closely followed by Kenya - 1895. The British were just interested in controlling the rich resources of Uganda and to facilitate this they built a railway between Mombasa and Kampala using labourers from India, many of whom remained and have become todays merchant class.

During World War 2, as a result of Africans being conscripted, political consciousness expanded. The consequence of this was the formation of guerrilla troops, Mau Mau, who all took an oath to commit themselves to expelling all white settlers in Kenya and to eliminate the Africans who cooperated with or benefited from colonial rule.

In 1956 the Mau Mau rebellion was crushed, many people died also detention camps were set up and leaders of the Kenya African Union (KAU) were detained. The KAU was the successor to the Kikuyu Central Association.  This rebellion shook both the colonial administration and white settlers. A state of emergency was declared and the restrictions on African cultivation were lifted. A lot of effort was applied to encouraging the formation of a stable middle class.

In 1960 the British government officially announced their plan to transfer power to a democratically elected African government. Independence was scheduled for December 1963, accompanied by grants and loans of US$100 million to enable the Kenyan assembly to buy out European farmers in the highlands and restore the land to the tribes.

The run-up to independence, scheduled for 1963, was surprisingly smooth, although the redistribution of land wasn’t a great success. The immediate effect was to cause a significant decline in agricultural production, from which Kenya has never quite recovered.

Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya’s first president on 12 December, ruling until his death in 1978. Under Kenyatta’s presidency, Kenya developed into one of Africa’s most stable and prosperous nations. But while Kenyatta is still seen as a success story, he was excessively biased in favour of his own tribe and became paranoid about dissent. Opponents of his regime who became too vocal for comfort frequently ‘disappeared’, and corruption soon became endemic at all levels of the power structure.

Kenyatta was succeeded in 1978 by his vice president, Daniel arap Moi, a Kalenjin who became one of the most enduring ‘Big Men’ in Africa, ruling in virtual autocracy for nearly 25 years. In the process, he accrued an incredible personal fortune; today many believe him to be the richest man in Africa. Moi’s regime was also characterized by nepotism, corruption, arrests of dissidents, censorship, the disbanding of tribal societies and the closure of universities.

Faced with a foreign debt of nearly US$9 billion and blanket suspension of foreign aid, Moi was pressured into holding multiparty elections in early 1992. Independent observers reported a litany of electoral inconsistencies; Nonetheless, Moi was overwhelmingly re-elected.

In 2002 Moi announced his intention to retire. He put his weight firmly behind Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Jomo Kenyatta, as his successor. Meanwhile, 12 opposition parties and several religious groups united under the umbrella of the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK), later known as the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). Presidential candidate Mwai Kibaki was the former head of the Democratic party.

Although initially dogged by infighting, within weeks the opposition transformed itself into a dynamic and unified political party. When the election came on 27 December 2002 it was peaceful and fair and the result was dramatic – a landslide two-thirds majority for Mwai Kibaki and NARC. Kibaki was inaugurated as Kenya’s third president on 30 December 2002.

The new regime has been plagued by a constant stream of party infighting, corruption and economic problems. The path to reform has been slower and more tortuous than many people had hoped, although some progress has been made, such as new matatu (minibus transport) regulations. However, security and corruption remain worrying issues, locals complain that the cost of living has virtually doubled, and Kenya has fallen 20 places on the UN Human Development Index since 2002.

With elections in 2007, an energetic Uhuru Kenyatta at the head of the newly regrouped KANU, and an ambitious bid for the 2016 Olympic Games attracting international attention, the next few years were an interesting time in Kenyan politics, and recent ethnic and political battles have finally settled with a true parliament now seated.  Only time will tell the future of Kenya politics and it's economy.

Fast Facts about Kenya

• Time:   GMT/UTC +3
• Population:    31.6 million
• Borders:   Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda
• Seasons: Rainy (March to May, October to December), dry (January to February, June to September)
• Capital:    Nairobi
• Languages:   Kiswahili, English, tribal languages
• Area:   583, 000 sq km
• Money:    Kenya Shilling (KSh);US$1 = KSh70
• Major religions: Christianity, Islam
• Life expectancy: 53 years (men), 55 years (women) (UN)
  
• Main exports: Horticulture, Tea, Clothing, Coffee
• GNI per capita: US $777 (World Bank, 2007)

Burundi, Central Africa

Beautiful Burundi has been blighted by a generation of ethnic conflict, but with the advent of peace, this charming country may at long last be able to put its dark past to rest. A tiny little nation of soaring mountains and languid lakeside communities, Burundi is sandwiched between the African giants of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Tanzania. The scenery is stunning and the welcome warm, and it may once again begin to receive a trickle of travelers as the word gets out that the war is over.

The original Burundians were the Twa Pygmies, but they were soon squeezed out by bigger groups. First came the Hutu, mostly farmers of Bantu stock, from about 1000 AD. Later, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the tall, pastoral Tutsi from Ethiopia and Uganda arrived. Relations were cordial, but the Tutsi gradually subjugated the Hutu in a feudal system similar to that of medieval Europe.

At the end of the 19th century Burundi and Rwanda were colonised by Germany, but after WWI the League of Nations mandated Rwanda-Urundi to Belgium. Taking advantage of the status quo, the Belgians ruled through the Tutsi chiefs and princes. The establishment of coffee plantations, and the resulting concentration of wealth in the hands of the Tutsi elite, provoked tensions between the two tribal groups.

In the 1950s a nationalist organization based on unity between the tribes was founded under the leadership of the mwami’s eldest son, Prince Rwagasore. But in the lead up to independence he was assassinated with the connivance of the colonial authorities, who feared their commercial interests would be threatened if he took power.

Despite this setback, it appeared that Burundi was headed for a majority government following independence in 1962. But in the 1964 elections, Mwami Mwambutsa refused to appoint a Hutu prime minister, even though Hutu candidates were the clear winners. Hutu frustration boiled over, and Hutu military officers and political figures staged an attempted coup. A wholesale purge of Hutu from the army and bureaucracy followed.

In 1972 another large-scale revolt resulted in more than 1000 Tutsi killed. The Tutsi military junta responded with selective genocide: any Hutu with wealth, a formal education or a government job was rooted out and murdered, often in the most horrifying way. After three months, 200, 000 Hutu had been killed and another 100, 000 had fled the country.

In 1976 Jean-Baptiste Bagaza came to power in a bloodless coup. During the Bagaza years, there were some half-hearted attempts by the Tutsi government to remove some of the main causes of intertribal conflict, but these were mostly cosmetic.

Bagaza was toppled in September 1987 in a coup led by his cousin Major Pierre Buyoya. The new regime attempted to address the causes of intertribal tensions yet again by gradually bringing Hutu representatives back into positions of power in the government.

Buyoya eventually bowed to international pressure and allowed multiparty elections in June 1993. These brought a Hutu-dominated government to power, led by Melchior Ndadaye. But he was assassinated by a dissident army faction in October. The coup failed, but in the chaos that followed the assassination, thousands were massacred in intertribal fighting.

In April 1994 the new president, Cyprien Ntaryamira (a Hutu), died in the infamous plane crash that killed Rwanda’s President Habyarimana and sparked the planned genocide there. Back in Burundi, both Hutu militias and the Tutsi-dominated army went on the offensive. No war was actually declared, but at least 100, 000 people were killed in clashes between mid-1994 and mid-1996. In July 1996 the former president, Pierre Buyoya, again carried out a successful coup and took over as the country’s president with the support of the army.

Peace talks staggered on during the conflict, mediated first by former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere and later the revered Nelson Mandela. A breakthrough came in April 2003, when President Buyoya handed over power to Hutu leader Domitien Ndayizeye and both sides promised to work towards elections. Tragically, the conflict had already claimed the lives of about 300, 000 Burundians.

Intertribal tensions have devastated the country since independence in 1962 and there is always a chance things could kick off again. But with the settlement of government in the late 1990's stability is finally found here in Burundi.

Fast Facts about Burundi

• Time:     GMT/UTC +2
• Population:    8 million
• Borders:    DRC, Rwanda, Tanzania
• Seasons:   Wet (mid-March to mid-May, October-  January); dry (mid-May to mid-October, mid-December to mid-March)
• Capital: Bujumbura
• Languages:   Kirundi, French
• Area:    27, 830 sq km
• Money:    Burundi franc; US$1= BFr1040
• Major religions: Protestant, Catholics, Muslim, and Traditional Beliefs
• Life expectancy: 48 years (men), 51 years (women) (UN)
  
• Main exports: Coffee, tea, maze
• GNI per capita: US $114 (World Bank, 2007)