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TIME For Kids - Around The World
A golden statue of Buddha in front of an ancient temple.

Kenya



History Timeline

Travel through our timeline of events that have made Kenya what it is today.



6 million B.C.:
Families of apes begin evolving into the earliest ancestors of humans after moving from their forest homes to the grasslands of eastern Africa's Great Rift Valley. (Today the Rift Valley is known as the "cradle of mankind.")

2 million B.C.:
Human-like apes begin making crude stone tools based on evidence collected from Kenya's Lake Turkana. During the 1970s, anthropologists discover more remains of human ancestors from this time period in the Rift Valley.

500 B.C. - A.D. 1000:
Farmers, herders and hunters from other parts of Africa begin moving into Kenya. Many of them speak Bantu, a group of widely used African languages. Their descendants make up 75 percent of modern Kenya's population and include many different ethnic groups.

A.D. 700:
Arabs establish coastal settlements. They soon gain control of the area and trade with Kenya's natives. Swahili, a mix of Bantu and Arabic languages, develops from the need for one language understood by everyone. Today it is Kenya's official language.

1498:
Vasco da Gama of Portugal reaches the Kenyan coast after making a historic sailing trip around the southern tip of Africa. Hoping to make money from Kenya's wealthy trading centers, the Portuguese take control of the coastal area from the Arabs in the early 1500's.

1698:
Arabs defeat the Portuguese at Fort Jesus in the Kenyan city of Mombasa, regaining control of the area. By 1720, the Portuguese leave the Kenyan coast for good. Arabs continue to trade, exchanging ivory and rhino horns for silks and other goods from China.

1830-1880:
The Arabs establish a profitable business in slavery, capturing slaves from the Kenyan coast and inland areas. At its peak, about 25,000 slaves a year are sold to Persia (now known as Iran), Arabia and India.

1846:
Christian missionaries arrive in Kenya from Europe to speak out against slavery. They are among the first white people to explore Kenya's heartland.

1858:
British explorer John Hanning Speke discovers the source of the Nile River at Kenya's Lake Victoria. Other British expeditions follow, revealing Africa's wealth of natural resources. Curiosity and competition over those riches increases when Germans also explore Africa around this time.

1884:
To prevent violent disputes over land, leaders of European nations divide up Africa and decide what areas each of them will claim at the Berlin Conference of 1884 in Germany.

1895:
The British government takes over what is now Kenya and the African nation of Uganda. It names this area British East Africa. In the following decades, Britain rules Kenya without giving Africans a voice in their own government, even when a quarter-million Kenyans serve in the British army during World War I from 1914-1918.

1944:
The Mau Mau, a secret political movement, arises. Its members use violence to try to frighten white settlers out of Kenya. Other Kenyans form underground groups against British rule during this decade.

1946:
Jomo Kenyatta becomes chairman of the newly formed Kenya African Union (KAU), a party that seeks to end discrimination against and establish voting rights for African Kenyans. To challenge the British, its followers support labor strikes and acts of civil disturbance.

1952-1956:
British authorities declare a state of emergency and more than 13,000 are killed as the Mau Mau rebellion breaks out in Kenya. Police imprison KAU President Jomo Kenyatta and other African political leaders.

1955:
British officials begin listening to Kenyans' demands. They permit them to form political parties "to encourage a simple and orderly development of African political life."

1961:
Jomo Kenyatta is released from prison.

December 12, 1963:
Kenya wins independence from Britain. The following year, Kenya becomes a republic (a government of officials elected by citizens). Under the leadership of President Jomo Kenyatta, the public school system expands, land is redistributed to Africans and national pride spreads.

1977:
Alarmed by the loss of endangered species at the hands of poachers (people who hunt illegally), Kenya's government outlaws the hunting of wild animals.

1978:
Kenyatta dies and is succeeded by Vice President Daniel arap Moi, who is elected President the following year. During his leadership, Kenya faces shortages of food, jobs and land as its population booms. Despite widespread complaints about corruption, Moi remains Kenya's president today.

1989:
Moi appoints Dr. Richard Leakey the director of Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS). Leakey fires 2,000 game-park officials who are suspected of helping poachers kill rhinos and elephants for their ivory tusks and valuable horns. Today the KWS works to ensure the survival of endangered animals for all people to see and enjoy.

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