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Fact No. 36 Kenya is building a railway to connect four countries in East Africa

  • In October 2009, Kenya and Uganda agreed to build and manage a railway between Mombasa, Kenya and Kampala, Uganda.
  • The railway will eventually link Uganda and Kenya to Rwanda and Southern Sudan, creating a much needed transportation network in the region.
  • Kenya currently has 1,654 miles of railroad connecting Nairobi to Kenya's major ports and Lake Victoria.

Source: Daily Nation, Expogroup

35. Kenya is one of the top overseas destinations for American tourists

  • In 2008, more than 89,400 American tourists visited the country, experiencing the culture and taking in the natural beauty firsthand.
  • More than 9,000 American citizens are currently living in Kenya.
  • To cater to the American audience, the Kenyan Ministry of Tourism is developing an Obama Route that will take tourists from Nairobi through the picturesque Rift Valley to Kogelo, the village where President Obama?s father grew up.

Source: U.S. Department of State, GlobalAtlanta.com

34. Kenya was named the best infrastructure regulator in Africa in 2009

  • Africa Investor awarded the Kenyan Communications Commission the best infrastructure regulator award for creating an excellent and stable investment climate.
  • The Kenyan Communications Commission was also recognized for promoting public-private initiatives to eradicate poverty and grow the country's economy.
  • The country's broadband infrastructure and international fiber optics link are expected to drive more investment in all facets of the economy.

Source: Business Daily Africa

33. Kenya voted for a new Constitution on August 4th, 2010

  • The new "Harmonized Constitution" will replace Kenya's original Constitution created at the time of independence in 1963.
  • For the first time in Kenyan history, Kenyans will now be allowed to hold dual citizenship.
  • The Constitution creates Kenya's first ever Supreme Court, establishes separation of powers, sets up a system of checks and balances and devolves power closer to the people.
  • Kenya will now have a Bill of Rights that ensures equality and freedom from discrimination, religious freedoms, a free press and the right to a fair and speedy trial.

Source: Reuters, University of Wisconsin Law School, Daily Nation, The Standard

29. A Kenyan girl was the first African to be awarded an International Eco-Hero Award

  • The International Young Eco-Hero Award recognizes young people for their environmental achievements.
  • Winne Owade, a 14-year-old girl from Kenya, was awarded third place in the 2005 International Eco-Hero awards for organizing a feeding program to sustain local monkeys that were damaging crops in the surrounding areas as they searched for food.

Source: Free Press.com

28. Kenya supplies over 35% of cut flowers to the world's largest markets

  • The Kenyan flower sector grows at an average of 20% per year.
  • The floriculture industry is estimated to employ over 60,000 Kenyans in rural areas.
  • In 2008, Kenya exported 93,000 tons of flowers around the world.
  • The main markets for Kenyan flowers are the Netherlands, UK, Germany and France.

Source: Kenya Flower Council

27. Kenya has the largest economy in the East African Community

  • The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organization of five countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.
  • The EAC will launch its Common Market on July 1, 2010, allowing the free movement of labor, goods, services and capital between member countries.
  • The EAC aims to widen and deepen cooperation between member states by implementing a Monetary Union by 2012, and ultimately creating a Political Federation of East African States.

Source: BBC, East African Community Portal

26. Coast Causerie, a column in Kenya's newspaper The Standard, holds the world record for longest running newspaper column

  • The Coast Causerie column ran uninterrupted for 58 years, between 1943 and 2001
  • Columnist Edward Rodwell, who was still writing the column when he died at the age of 95, started the column as a "personal hobby" telling the "off-beat story of strange occasions and the people involved."

Source: Kenya Coast Week

25. Kenya is home to the tallest tower in all of East and Central Africa

  • The Times Tower is located in Nairobi and stands 38 stories high
  • This magnificent facility took four years to construct and was completed in 2000
  • The Times Tower is home to the Kenya Revenue Authority

Sources: Howard Humphreys Consulting Engineers, Kenya Revenue Authority

24. There is a 300-megawatt wind farm being developed in Kenya

  • The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project is being developed in the hope of decreasing the country's greenhouse gas emissions and developing alternative energy sources.
  • Work has already begun on the $891 million project, funded by KenGen and KBC Bank NV of Belgium.

Source: Global Energy Network Institute

23. The Lion King's song "hakuna matata" means "no worries" in Kenya's national language, Swahili

  • The Swahili language is derived from several globally spoken languages, including the local Bantu dialect and Arabic.
  • Swahili also incorporates German, Portuguese, English and French words into its vocabulary.

Source: University of Toronto

22. 125 American companies have offices in Kenya

  • Coca Cola, General Electric, and Google are among the many organizations that have their African headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.
  • These companies have brought in over $200 million in investment.

Source: Kenya Advisor, University of Pennsylvania African Studies Department

21. Kenya's Lake Turkana National Park and Mount Kenya National Park are UNESCO World Heritage Sites

  • Inaugurated in 1997, Lake Turkana, Africa's most saline lake, is commonly used as a laboratory for the study of plant and animal communities.
  • The national parks serve as a stopover for migrant waterfowl and are major breeding grounds for the Nile crocodile, hippopotamus and a variety of venomous snakes.
  • The deposits from Lake Koobi Fora are rich in mammalian and molluscan fossils, and have contributed to the understanding of paleo-environments more than any other site on the continent.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre

20. Kenya is home to one of the world's best marathon runners

  • Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot is the four-time winner of the Boston Marathon, having taken the top prize in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2008.
  • He also won the first ever Marathon Majors series, with three wins and a fourth-place finish in the most prestigious races in the world.

Source: World Marathon Majors

19. In 2008, Kenya had the biggest increase of foreign direct investment worldwide

  • In 2008 alone, 25 international investment projects started in Kenya.
  • The highest numbers of investment projects were in the communications sector, which brought in $82.8 million worth of investment in 2008.

Source: FDI Magazine

18. Coast Causerie, a column in Kenya's newspaper The Standard, holds the world record for the longest running newspaper column

  • The Coast Causerie column ran uninterrupted for 58 years, between 1943 and 2001.
  • Columnist Edward Rodwell, who was still writing the column when he died at the age of 95, started the column as a "personal hobby" telling the "off-beat story of strange occasions and the people involved."

Source: Kenya Coast Week

17. U.S. President Barack Obama's father was a Kenyan

  • President Obama's father started life in a rural village in western Kenya. After winning a college scholarship, he enrolled in the University of Hawaii, where he met and married President Obama's mother, Ann Dunham.
  • President Obama's father went back to Kenya where he worked in the oil industry and eventually became an economist in the government of Jomo Kenyatta, the first Kenyan President after independence.

Source: Kenya Advisor

16. The Equator divides Kenya into two almost equal parts

  • Straddling it almost exactly, with 5 degrees of latitude north and 4.40 degrees south, Kenya, as a result, is divided climatically.
  • The region north of the Equator is hot and receives comparatively little rain, while the southern region falls into three meteorological zones: the coast is humid, the highlands are relatively temperate and the Lake Victoria region is tropical.
  • The rainy seasons occur from October to December and April to June, although the weather phenomenon, El Niño, recently complicated this pattern.

Source: Kenya Project

15. AIDS related deaths in Kenya have fallen by 29% since 2002

  • The decline in AIDS prevalence has been attributed to various factors including reduction in high-risk behaviors and education programs.
  • Kenya has integrated HIV/AIDS education into many subjects at school, and introduced a weekly lesson on AIDS into all primary and secondary curricula.
  • The Kenyan Government will increase direct budget support for the fight against HIV/AIDS by a minimum of 10 percent annually.

Source: ABC News, Avert

14. Kenya's gold deposits are substantial enough to support commercial mining

  • The Department of Mines and Geology estimates that the Western Kenya belt that borders Tanzania (dubbed Migori belt) could produce up to 34 tons of gold per year.
  • The government is currently working with mining companies to develop a mining strategy.

Source: Business Daily Africa

13. Kenya is home to the original "safari"

  • When translated from Swahili, "safari" means journey and a trip through Kenya will take you through some of the world's most breathtaking views.
  • Kenya boasts more than 65 national parks and wildlife preserves, each populated with distinct wildlife.

Source: Kenya Tourist Board, Interpol, Peace Corps

12. Kenya is one of the global leaders in community-based eco-tourism

  • The government works with local tribes to develop innovative ways to protect the environment and local culture.
  • Kenya has won several eco-lodge awards and is planning to be the first African country to develop and use international criteria to rate eco-lodges and tour operators.

Source: Kenya Tourist Board

11. Kenya is leading the first business alliance working to end hunger in Africa

  • The Business Alliance Against Chronic Hunger is coordinated by a Kenyan-based secretariat and has over 30 companies and organizations working to develop business-led solutions to hunger.
  • Alliance members have created 150 small-scale businesses and initiatives in a Kenyan pilot program.

Source: World Food Program, All Africa

10. Some of the oldest known paleontological records of man on earth have been found in Kenya

  • Several hominid fossils found in Kenya, including a homo habilis skull, which dates back 1.4 million years, and a homo erectus skull, dated at 1.5 million years old, have tagged Kenya the "cradle of mankind".
  • These fossils have contributed greatly to scientists being able to trace the history of the human species.

Source: New York Times

9. Kenya hosts the largest refugee camp in the world

  • Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in Kenya, provides shelter to 280,000 refugees.
  • Kenya is home to 320,605 refugees. In 2008 alone, 60,000 refugees crossed the border into Kenya seeking asylum.
  • Kenya is building even more camps to take on the increasing numbers of refugees escaping the instability in Somalia.
  • The recent forced shutdown of food aid operations in southern Somalia by Al Shabab, may push 20,000 Somali refugees into Kenyan camps.

Source: UNHCR, Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor

8. Kenya was the first country in Africa to use the new mobile-phone money transfer service

  • M-PESA customers can deposit and withdraw money from a network of agents that includes airtime resellers and retail outlets acting as banking agents.
  • The service enables its users to deposit and withdraw money, transfer money to other users and non-users, pay bills, and purchase cell minutes.

Source: Safaricom, BBC, Guardian

7. Kenya is the global leader in prosecuting pirates

  • The United States, Britain and the European Union have signed agreements allowing for piracy suspects to be tried in Kenya.
  • In 2006, Kenya established the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in the port city of Mombasa, designed to provide a rapid response to acts of piracy.

Source: The Times, Law.com, IMO

6. There are 62 languages spoken in Kenya

  • Many Kenyans are multilingual, speaking several African languages and English.
  • Kenya has a rich multilingual history and Kenyan languages come from the Middle-East, Asia and Africa.
  • Swahili is spreading in popularity outside Kenya and is now widely spoken in parts of Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia and the Sudan.
  • The African languages of Kenya come from three different language families - Bantu languages spoken in the center and southeast, Nilotic languages spoken in the west and Cushitic languages spoken in the northeast.

Source: University of Toronto; Ethnologue, Languages of the World

5. Kenya was the first African country to adopt geothermal energy

  • Kenya has one of the largest geothermal energy programs in the world and the largest in Africa.
  • The largest geothermal power plant in Africa, the Olkaria II, is located near Nairobi and is operated by the Kenya Electricity Generating Company.
  • Kenya has other renewable energy programs ranging from wind to hydroelectric.

Source: International Geothermal Association; United Nations

4. Kenya is the only developing country that hosts a United Nations agency

  • The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) became the first UN agency to be headquartered in Kenya in 1970.
  • Kenya has 26 UN Agencies comprising a total of 75 semi-autonomous UN offices employing some 3,000 local and international staff - the third largest concentration after New York and Geneva.
  • These agencies include:
  1. World Bank (WB)
  2. International Monetary Fund (IMF)
  3. United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
  4. United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)
  5. United Nations Funds for Women (UNIFEM)
  6. Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
  7. World Health Organization (WHO)

Source: United Nations

3. Mombasa is the largest cargo-handling port in East Africa

  • In 2008, the port of Mombasa handled about 16.42 million tons of freight.
  • The port is equipped to recieve a wide range of cargoes, from dry bulks such as grain to liquid bulks such as crude oil.
  • 10 million people in Africa rely on food aid that comes through Mombasa. Last year, the port handled 670,000 tons of food aid.

Source: United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; Kenya Port Authority; Voice of America

2. Kenya is one of America's closest allies in the fight against Al-Qaeda

  • Kenya shares a 423 mile border with Somalia and is on the frontline against the growth of Islamic terrorism in the region.
  • The Kenyan Army worked with the U.S. to develop a Ranger Strike Force, to prevent the infiltration of terrorist groups into Kenya.
  • The Kenyan Air Force has procured F-5 fighter aircrafts to conduct counterterrorism surveillance and strike operations.
  • The Kenyan Navy has received training and equipment from the United States for maritime interdiction operations in territorial waters.

Source: U.S. Department of State

1. Africa's first woman Nobel Peace Prize winner came from Kenya

  • Professor Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist, was awarded the prize in 2004 for her dedication to women's rights, ecology and democracy.
  • Professor Maathai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. She obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas (1964).
  • A role model for world, Prof. Maathai travels the world addressing the critical issue of climate change.

Source: Nobel Prize Biographies