Kenya
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Location:
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Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian
Ocean, between Somalia and Tanzania |
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Background:
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Founding president and liberation
struggle icon Jomo KENYATTA led Kenya from
independence until his death in 1978, when President
Daniel Toroitich arap MOI took power in a
constitutional succession. The country was a de
facto one-party state from 1969 until 1982 when the
ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) made
itself the sole legal party in Kenya. MOI acceded to
internal and external pressure for political
liberalization in late 1991. The ethnically
fractured opposition failed to dislodge KANU from
power in elections in 1992 and 1997, which were
marred by violence and fraud, but are viewed as
having generally reflected the will of the Kenyan
people. President MOI stepped down in December of
2002 following fair and peaceful elections. Mwai
KIBAKI, running as the candidate of the multiethnic,
united opposition group, the National Rainbow
Coalition, defeated KANU candidate Uhuru KENYATTA
and assumed the presidency following a campaign
centered on an anticorruption platform. |
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Exchange rates:
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Kenyan shillings per US dollar -
78.75 (2002), 78.56 (2001), 76.18 (2000), 70.33
(1999), 60.37 (1998) |
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