Kenya

Sevens is slowly on the up and, with a population of almost 30 million people, the country has some potential talent to pick from. At some time in the future, it will undoubtedly erupt violently again. Most notable was their 15-12 win over Australia in the 2003 Hong Kong Sevens tournament. Santorini was also struck by a devastating earthquake in 1956. Rugby has always been popular in Kenya especially with the Annual Tusker Sevens tournament but only recently has the country began to be noticed on the international circuit. In 1704 an undersea volcano breached the sea surface forming the current centre of activity at Nea Kameni, and eruptions centred on it continue—three times in the twentieth century, the last being in 1950. Kenya is now beginning to be a force to reckon with in Rugby. Also unique is the red, sweet and extremely strong Vinsanto.

The Kenyan Ministry of Sports has tried to stop the defections, but they have continued anyway, with Bernard Lagat the latest, choosing to represent the USA. They are trained in the shape of baskets, with the grapes hanging inside to protect them from the winds. Lately, there has been controversy in Kenyan athletics circles, with the defection of a number of Kenyan athletes to represent other countries, chiefly Bahrain and Qatar. They are adopted to their native habitat by being planted far apart and their principal source of moisture is dew. A retired Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion, Kipchoge Keino, is Kenya's most famous sportsman. Assyrtiko vines are extremely old, as they are resistant to phylloxera and have consequently not needed to be replaced during the great phylloxera epidemic of the early 20th century. The Marathon world record holder, Paul Tergat, and the current women's Boston Marathon champion, Catherine Ndereba, are the among the best-known and most respected athletes in Kenya. Santorini is home to a small but flourishing wine industry, based on the indigenous grape variety, Assyrtiko.

Kenyan athletes continue to dominate the world of distance running, although competition from Morocco and Ethiopia has somewhat reduced this trend. The pumice quarries have been closed since 1986 in order to preserve the caldera of Santorini. Kenya has regularly produced Olympic and Commonwealth Games champions at various distances, especially the 800 m, the 1,500 m, the 3,000 m steeplechase, the 5000 m and the 10,000 m races. The primary industry of Santorini is tourism. But the country is chiefly known for its dominance in middle-distance and long-distance athletics. Nowadays, there is a desalination plant that provides running, yet nonpotable, water to most houses. Kenya is active in several sports, among them football (soccer), cricket, boxing and many others. Until the early nineties locals used to fill water cisterns from the rain that fell on their roofs and courts, from small springs as well as by importing it from other areas of Greece.

Main article: Culture of Kenya. The island has no rivers and water is scarce. See also: List of cities in Kenya, Maasai. Akrotiri is a major archaeological site with ruins from the Minoan era. Others include Hinduism, Jainism & the Bahá'í Faith. Major settlements in Santorini include Fira (Phira), Oia, Emporio, Kamari, Imerovigli, Pyrgos and Therasia. Religious affiliation: Various Protestant 38%, Roman Catholic 28%, Muslim 6%, Traditional Religions 22%. Santorini was annexed to Greece in 1912.

Ethnic groups: Kĩkũyũ 22%, Luhya 14%, Luo 13%, Kalenjin 15%, Kamba 11%, Kisii 6%, Ameru 6%, other African 12%, non-African (Asian/Desi, European, and Arab) 1%. The island came under Ottoman rule in 1579.
. Ethnically split opposition groups allowed the regime of Daniel arap Moi, in power from 1978 until 2002, to be re-elected for four terms, with the election in 1997 being marred by violence and fraud. As with other Greek territories, Santorini then was ruled by the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Franks. During the early 1990s, clashes killed thousands and left tens of thousands homeless. According to Herodotus (4.149-165), following a drought of seven years, Thera sent out colonists who founded a number of cities in northern Africa, including Cyrene. Tension between the various groups accounts for many of Kenya's problems. Thera, the main Hellenic city of the island, on Mesa Vouno, 396 m above sea level was founded in the 9th century BC by Dorian colonists whose leader was Theras, according to tradition, and continued to be inhabited until the early Byzantine period.

Kenya is a country of great ethnic diversity. Over the following centuries, first Phoenicians, then Dorians, came to control the island. Main article: Demographics of Kenya. 1450 BC. Source http://www.kenyaspace.com. These significantly smaller values would make Atlantis the size of Crete's Messara Plain and the fall of the Atlantis c. The number of foreigners coming to Kenya has increased as attested to by the airlines operating in Kenya. Galanopoulos argue that the error in date and size could be caused by a mistranscription of the Ancient Egyptian or Mycenaean Linear B symbol for "hundred" as "thousand" (the former is unlikely because there would be little confusion in the visual appearance of hieroglyphic symbols of Egyptian numeric values).

Tourism has grown tremendously since 2003. G. Another key foreign exchange earner is tourism. Scholars such as James Luce and A. Chief among Kenya's exports are: flowers (horticulture), fruits and vegetables, tea, and coffee. Detractors of the theory say that Santorini and Crete combined would not be the size of Plato's Atlantis, and the date of the Minoan collapse does not match Plato's dates for the fall of Atlantis. The effects of HIV/AIDS has largely offset the previous high population growth which was caused by a high birth rate and reduced infant mortality due to better health care. Starting with Spyridon Marinatos' 1939 landmark paper, this cataclysm at Santorini and its possibility to have caused the fall of the Minoan Civilization centered on Crete is sometimes regarded as a likely source or inspiration for Plato's story of Atlantis.

Considered by some to be long-term barriers to development are: electricity shortages, the government's continued and allegedly inefficient dominance of key sectors, corruption, the foreign debt burden, unstable international commodity prices, poor communication infrastructure and the effects of HIV/AIDS, which is having its effect on the most productive group of the population. Suggestions have also been made that the eruption of Thera and volcanic fallout inspired myths of the Titanomachy in Hesiod's Theogony and calamities of the Admonitions of Ipuwer of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. A new economic team was put in place in 1999 to revitalize the reform effort, strengthen the civil service, and curb corruption, but wary donors continue to question the government's commitment to western establishment ideas of sound economic policy. Santorini ash deposits were at one time claimed to have been found in the Nile delta, but this is now known to be a misidentification ^[5]. Embassy by Al Qaeda in 1998—damaged the tourist industry, and Kenya's Enhanced Structural Adjustment Program lapsed. Oddly, there seem to be no surviving Egyptian records of the eruption. Political violence—namely the bombing of the U.S. Per the Bamboo Annals, the collapse of the dynasty and the rise of the Shang dynasty (independently approximated to 1618 BC) was accompanied by "'yellow fog, a dim sun, then three suns, frost in July, famine, and the withering of all five cereals".

Growth slowed in 1997–1999 however. Some scientists correlate a volcanic winter from the Minoan eruption with Chinese records documenting the collapse of the Xia dynasty in China. Kenya's GDP grew 5% in 1995 and 4% in 1996, and inflation remained under control. It is still hoped, though, that Santorini ash might be found in another layer of the ice core, which would fix the date of the eruption. This resulted in a weak currency which hindered economic improvement. While an eruption as large as Thera can leave signals in tree rings and ice cores, the absence of such a signal does not mean the absence of an eruption. dollars. At the present time no hard evidence linking or refuting the 1628 BC tree-ring date with Thera has been found.

One of the unintended consequence of freeing foreign exchange control was that it allowed a gold-and-diamond export scam in which the Kenyan government lost over 600 million U.S. However, no firm evidence links these two events and, while unlikely but plausible, the two signals could be separate events. With the support of the World Bank, IMF, and other donors, the reforms led to a brief turnaround in economic performance following a period of negative growth in the early 1990s. Tree ring data shows that a large event interfering with normal tree growth occurred in 1629-1628 BC, which may be the same event as the 1644 BC signal in the Greenland ice cores. In 1993, the government of Kenya implemented a program of economic liberalization and reform that included the removal of import licensing, price controls, and foreign exchange controls. Volcanic ash was retrieved from an ice core, and this was shown not to be from Santorini[4]; so the 1644 BC date is incorrect. Some argue that this slow economic growth is because of poor management and uneven commitment to reform; others insist that it is due to falling commodity prices and poor access to Western markets. A large eruption, identified in ice cores and dated to 1644 +/- 20 BC years was suspected to be Santorini.

The economy is only now beginning to show some growth after years of stagnation. It has long been hoped that information from Greenland ice cores would determine the date exactly. Kenya's main economic strengths include tourism and agriculture. The debate about the date continues. Main article: Economy of Kenya. Re-scaling archaeological chronologies is controversial, because revising the Aegean Bronze Age chronology could require, by association, revising the well-established conventional Egyptian chronology. Climate varies from tropical along the coast to arid in interior. Others look for a compromise between the archaeological and radiocarbon dates for best fits of both sets of data.

The highlands are the site of the highest point in Kenya: Mount Kenya, which reaches 5,199 m and is also the site of glaciers. Some suggest re-scaling archaeological chronologies with the radiocarbon dates. The Kenyan Highlands comprise one of the most successful agricultural production regions in Africa. Some scholars believe the radiocarbon dates to be completely wrong. The highlands are bisected by Great Rift Valley; fertile plateau in west. These dates, however, conflict with the usual date from archaeology, which is between about 1500 BC and 1450 BC. From the coast on the Indian Ocean the Low plains rise to central highlands. Current opinion based on radiocarbon dating indicates that the eruption occurred between about 1650 and 1600 BC.

Kenya covers an area of 582,646 km². The Minoan eruption provides a fixed point for aligning the entire chronology of the 2nd millennium in the Aegean, because evidence of the eruption occurs throughout the region; however, its exact date is unknown. The government supervises administration of districts and provinces, which are:. (The VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) of the Thera eruption was thus about 6.) Every vestige of life is likely to have been eliminated or smothered in the Thera ashfall, leaving an island that had essentially been sterilized, as was Krakatau. The Nairobi Area* has special status and is not included in any district or province. The volume of ejecta is estimated to have been up to four times what was blown into the stratosphere by Krakatau in 1883, a well-recorded event. The division is then subdivided into location (Mtaa) and then sub location (Kijiji). (Ash found in Crete is now known to have been from a precursory phase of the eruption, some weeks or months before the main eruptive phases, and would have had little impact ^[3].).

The provinces (Mkoa) are subdivided into districts (Wilaya) which are then subdivided into divisions (Tarafa). Ash layers in cores drilled from the seabed and from lakes in Turkey, though, show that the heaviest ashfall was towards the east and northeast of Santorini. Local administration is divided among eight provinces each headed by a presidentially appointed Provincial Commissioner. Elsewhere in the Mediterranean there are pumice deposits that could be caused by the Thera eruption [2]. The reshuffle has drawn mixed reactions from different quarters with a number of nominees rejecting their appointments citing party policy and the opinion of constituents. On the island of Anaphi, 27 km to the east, ash layers 10 feet deep have been found, as well as pumice layers on slopes 250 meters above sea level. His new line up excluded members who had opposed the constitution in the referendum but retained some allies from the official opposition party KANU and loyalists, notably absent was former Transport minister Chris Murungaru who has been accused of corruption in the past. The tsunami would also certainly have eliminated every timber of the Minoan fleet along Crete's northern shore.

The president reconstituted his cabinet in a televised broadcast on 7th December. The impact of the tsunami pummelled coastal towns such as Amnisos, where building walls have been knocked out of alignment. The defeat however created a political vacuum, as Kibaki responded to calls from the Orange Democratic Movement (supporters of the NO vote) for his resignation, by dissolving his cabinet. The eruption also generated a 35 to 150 m high tsunami (estimates vary) that devastated the north coast of Crete, 110 km (70 mi) away. The president never actively involved himself in the referendum process and instead insisted on letting Kenyans make an independent decision free from political influence. In a classic Plinian eruption marked by columns of smoke and ash extending high into the stratosphere, the Minoan eruption created a plume 30-35 km in height, and magma coming into contact with the shallow marine embayment would have caused a violent phreatic eruption. Research by independent observer groups indicated that the majority of voters were oblivious of the proposed constitution's content owing largely to the tribal voting lines that leaders propagated and partly to a failed civic education program. It remains to be seen if further excavations will show bodies of people huddled along the coast, too late to get off in a boat to escape the volcano's fury, akin to the finds at Herculaneum, which was buried by the much smaller eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

After a long-lasting public debate, the people of Kenya rejected the government-supported draft constitution with a 57-43 majority in the historical November 21st referendum. The thinness of the first ash layer and the likelihood of this layer being eroded by winter rains indicate that the volcano may have given warning at most months in advance and not years as previously believed ^[1]. The right-leaning NAK favours a centralized Presidential system, while the left leaning LDP -led by Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka- favor a parliamentary system with Prime Minister. (The single body found on Therasia has now been identified as a much earlier funerary burial). Constitutional reform is being delayed by disagreement amongst the coalition members. A series of warning earthquakes must have been alarming enough and early enough before the eruption for all the residents to pack up and move out, as not a single body has been found at the Akrotiri site. Kenya is in the process of rewriting its post-colonial constitution and its subsequent amendments that gave the president nearly unlimited powers and immunity from the law accounting for many of Kenya's current problems with corruption. The layer is divided into three fairly distinct bands indicating different phases of the eruption.

He was also the former Secretary General of Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU), Kenya's first lecturers' union. On Santorini, there is a deposit of white tephra thrown from the eruption; it is up to 60 metres thick overlying the soil marking the ground level before the eruption. Kilemi Mwiria, who received his doctorate in Education from Stanford University. The eruption destroyed the sections of the ring between Aspronisi and Therasia, and between Therasia and Thera, creating two new channels. The coalition consists of some of the brightest minds in Kenya such as Dr. Before the Minoan eruption, the caldera formed a nearly continuous ring with the only entrance between the tiny island of Aspronisi and Thera. The NAK and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) formed the NARC coalition that currently governs Kenya. The northern part of the caldera was refilled by the volcano and then collapsed again during the Minoan eruption.

In December 2002, Kenya held democratic and open elections and elected Mwai Kǐbakǐ as president from the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK) as president. It has been filled several times by ignimbrite since then and the process repeated, most recently 21,000 years ago. Kenya has had a multi-party system since 1991 via constitutional amendment, with politicians frequently "crossing the floor" or setting up new political parties and coalitions to achieve their political aims. The caldera itself was formed several hundred thousand years ago by collapse of the centre of a circular island caused by the emptying of the magma chamber during an eruption. The judiciary is headed by a High Court, consisting of a chief justice and High Court judges, and judges of Kenya's Court of Appeal (no associate judges), all appointed by the president. The violent eruption was centred on a small island just north of the existing island of Nea Kameni in the centre of the caldera. The attorney general and the speaker are ex officio members of the Assembly. It was one of the biggest volcanic eruptions on Earth in the last few thousand years.

The president appoints the vice president and cabinet members from among those elected to the National Assembly. The eruption would have caused a significant climate upset for the eastern Mediterranean region. Kenya has a unicameral National Assembly consisting of 210 members elected to a term of up to five years from single-member constituencies, plus 12 members nominated by political parties on a proportional representation basis. The devastating volcanic eruption of Thira has become the most famous single event in the Aegean before the fall of Troy. Kenya is a republic; the President of Kenya is both the chief of state and the head of government. Instead, the Minoan frescoes depict "Saffron-Gatherers", who offer their crocus-stamens to a seated lady, perhaps a goddess; in another house two antelopes, painted with a kind of confident, flowing decorative, calligraphic line; the famous fresco of a fisherman with his double strings of fish strung by their gills; the flotilla of pleasure boats, accompanied by leaping dolphins, where ladies take their ease in the shade of light canopies. Main article: Politics of Kenya. Fragmentary wall-paintings at Akrotiri lack the insistent mythological content familiar in both Greek and Christian decor.

The elections, judged free and fair by local and international observers, marked a turning point in Kenya's democratic evolution. The hot water's origin was probably geothermic, given the volcano's proximity. In 2002, Moi was constitutionally barred from running, and Mwai Kǐbakǐ, running for the opposition coalition "National Rainbow Coalition" — NARC, was elected President. The pipes run in twin systems, indicating that the Therans used both hot and cold water supplies. In democratic but flawed multiparty elections in 1992 and 1997, Daniel arap Moi won re-election. Pipes with running water and water closets found on Thera are the oldest such utilities discovered. Several contentious clauses, including the one allowing only one political party were changed in the following years. The oldest signs of human settlement are Late Neolithic (4th millennium BC or earlier), but ca 2000–1650 BC Akrotiri developed into one of the Aegean's major Bronze Age ports, with recovered objects that had come not just from Crete but also from Anatolia, Cyprus, Syria and Egypt, from the Dodecanese and the Greek mainland.

This was seen as the climax of a very undemocratic regime and it led to widespread agitation for constitutional reform. A loom-workshop suggests organized textile weaving for export. The election held in 1988 saw the advent of the infamous mlolongo (queueing) system where voters were supposed to line up behind their favourite candidates instead of secret ballot. The site was not a palace-complex such as are found in Crete, but its excellent masonry and fine wall-paintings show that this was no conglomeration of merchants' warehousing either. This event led to the disbanding of the entire Airforce and a large number of its former members were either dismissed or court-martialled. Only the southern tip of a large town has been uncovered, yet it has revealed complexes of multi-level buildings, streets and squares, with remains of walls standing as high as 8 meters, all entombed in the solidified ash of the famous eruption of Thera. The attempt was quickly suppressed by Loyalist forces led by the Army, the General Service Unit (GSU) — paramilitary wing of the police — and later the regular police, but not without civilian casualties. The island was not called Thera at the time.

The abortive coup was masterminded by a lowly ranked Airforce serviceman, Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka and was staged mainly by enlisted men in the Airforce. Spyridon Marinatos have made Thera the best-known "Minoan" site outside of Crete, the homeland of the culture. The 1983 elections were held a year early, and were a direct result of an abortive military coup attempt on 01/08/1982. Excavations starting in 1967 at the site called Akrotiri under the late Prof. Daniel arap Moi retained the Presidency, being unopposed in elections held in 1979, 1983 (snap elections) and 1988, all of which were held under the single party constitution. . At Kenyatta's death in 1978, Daniel arap Moi became President.
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A year later, Kenyatta became Kenya's first president. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of feet deep, and its effects may have indirectly led to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110 km (70 mi) to the south. Despite British hopes of handing power to "moderate" African rivals, it was the Kenya African National Union (KANU) of Jomo Kenyatta, that formed a government shortly before Kenya became independent on 12th December 1963. The island was the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the last several thousand years when it erupted cataclysmically about 3,500 years ago. The first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative Council took place in 1957. Before then it was called Kallisti, Strongili or Thera. The capture of Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 in Nyeri signified the ultimate defeat of the Mau Mau and essentially ended the military offensive. The name Santorini was given to it by the Venetians in the 13th century and is a reference to Saint Irene.

By the end of the emergency the Home Guard had killed no fewer than 4,686 Mau Mau, amounting to 42% of the total insurgents. It is the most active volcanic centre in the Aegean Arc, though what remains today is largely a caldera. The Home Guard formed the core of the government's anti-Mau Mau strategy as it was composed of loyalist Africans, not foreign forces like the British Army and King's African Rifles. It is the southernmost member of the Cyclades group of islands, with an area of approximately 73 km² (28 sq mi), and in 2001 had an estimated population of 13,600. May 1953 also saw the Home Guard officially recognized as a branch of the Security Forces. It is also known by the name of the largest island in the archipelago, Thira or Thera (Θήρα; see also List of traditional Greek place names). The operation effectively placed Nairobi under military siege, and the occupants were screened and the Mau Mau supporters moved to detention camps. Santorini (Greek Σαντορίνη) is a small, circular group of volcanic islands located in the Aegean Sea, about 200 km south-east from the mainland of Greece (latitude: 36.40°N - longitude: 25.40°E).

Operation Anvil opened on 24 April 1954 after weeks of planning by the army with the approval of the War Council. Thera (Santorin) - Catholic Encyclopedia article. The capture of Warǔhiǔ Itote (General China) on 15 January 1954 and the subsequent interrogation led to a better understanding of the Mau Mau command structure. 79-88. The situation did not improve for lack of intelligence, so General Sir George Erskine was appointed commander-in-chief of the colony's armed forces in May 1953, with the personal backing of Winston Churchill. The Thera Foundation, London, p. In January 1953, Major General Hinde was appointed as director of counter-insurgency operations. (ed.) Thera and the Aegean World III, v.2.

The governor requested and obtained British and African troops, including the King's African Rifles. A. From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was under a state of emergency arising from the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule. In: Hardy, D. A massive exodus to the cities ensued as their ability to provide a living from the land dwindled. (1990) Precursory Activity to the Minoan Eruption, Thera, Greece. To protect their interests, the settlers banned the growing of coffee, introduced a hut tax, and the landless were granted less and less land in exchange for their labour. and McCoy, F.

The area was already home to over a million members of the Kĩkũyũ tribe, most of whom had no land claims in European terms (but the land belonged to the ethnic group), and lived as itinerant farmers. ^  Heiken, G. By the 1930's, approximately 30,000 settlers lived in the area and were offered undue political powers because of their effects on the economy. 4. During the early part of the 20th century, the interior central highlands were settled by British and other European farmers, who became wealthy farming coffee. (2004), Volcanic ash retrieved from the GRIP ice core is not from Thera, Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, v. It is believed that the Nandi were the first tribe to be put in a native reserve to stop them from disrupting the building of the railway. ^  Keenan D.J.

Although this was also resisted by some tribes, notably the Nandi led by Orkoiyot Koitalel arap Samoei for ten years between 1895 to 1905, these did not stop the British building the railway. 610. This followed the building of the Kenya-Uganda railway passing through the country. 363, p. Incipient imperial rivalry was forestalled when Germany handed its coastal holdings to Britain in 1890. (1993), Tephra from the Minoan eruption of Santorini in sediments of the Black Sea, Nature, v. However, most historians consider that the colonial history of Kenya dates from the establishment of a German protectorate over the Sultan of Zanzibar's coastal possessions in 1885, followed by the arrival of the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1888. et al.

There followed a period of Portuguese rule centered mainly on the coastal strip ranging from Malindi to Mombasa. ^  Guichard F. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore Kenya, with Vasco da Gama having visited Mombasa in 1498. (2003), Scientists Revisit an Aegean Eruption Far Worse Than Krakatoa, October 21, 2003, The New York Times. Recent finds near Kenya's Lake Turkana indicate that hominids such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus lived in Kenya from 2.6 million years ago. Broad, William J. Fossils found in East Africa suggest that protohumans roamed the area more than 20 million years ago. A historical account of the eruption and its effects from a geological point of view with many drawings, figures and pictures.

Main article: History of Kenya. McBirney (Translator): Fire in the Sea: Natural History and the Legend of Atlantis, Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom 1999. . Friedrich, Alexander R. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the North, Somalia to the East, Tanzania to the South, Uganda to the West, and Sudan to the North-West, with the Indian Ocean running down the South-East Border. Walter L. The Republic of Kenya, or Kenya (IPA: /ˈkɛnjə/), is an East African Country. ISBN 0820448893.

National parks (Kenya). Forsyth, Phyllis Y.: Thera in the Bronze Age, Peter Lang Pub Inc, New York 1997. Music of Kenya. List of writers from Kenya. List of Kenyans.

List of cities in Kenya. Western. Rift Valley. Nyanza.

North Eastern. Nairobi Area*. Eastern. Coast.

Central.