Kenya: The Basics

Tribes

Place Names

1. Nairobi
2. Kibera
    • BBC series on Kibera
    • Kibera 2005
3. Rift Valley (both the name of a Kenyan Province and Natural phenomenon)
4. Eldoret –site of church burning
    • Eldoret residents not ready to celebrate the resolution to Kenya's crisis
5. Kisumu
    • Kisumu is Still Optimistic, Despite the Destruction

Political Parties

1. Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)
2. Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya (ODM-Kenya)
3. Party of National Unity (PNU)
4. Kenya African National Union (KANU)

Other Groups

1. Mau-Mau
    • The Struggle for Independence
2. GEMA: Gikuyu, Embu, and Meru Association (Gikuyu=Kikuyu)
    • Making of a Nation - Rise of Gema And Its Liability to Kenyatta's Government
3. Mungiki
    • Brutal Kenyan Sect Aims to Provoke Strife
    • Mungiki: Legitimate or Criminal?
4. National Muslim Leaders Forum (NAMLEF)

Personalities

1. Jomo Kenyatta (first prime minister and first president of Kenya; the position of PM was abolished in 1964 and reinstated in 2008)
2. Daniel arap Moi (second president of Kenya)
    • Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi
3. Mwai Kibaki (third president of Kenya; head of PNU; candidate in December
2007 election)
    • Kenya State House Profile
4. Raila Odinga (second prime minister of Kenya; head of ODM; candidate in December 2007 election)
5. (Stephen) Kalonzo Musyoka (head of ODM-Kenya; tenth vice president of Kenya; candidate in December 2007 election)
6. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga (first vice president of Kenya; father of Raila Odinga)
7. Tom Mboya
    • The Tom Mboya Airlift and the Kennedy Airlift

Social/Political Information

1. “Religions in Kenya-- Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%, Muslim 10%, indigenous beliefs 10%, other 2% note: a large majority of Kenyans are Christian, but estimates for the percentage of the population that adheres to Islam or indigenous beliefs vary widely.”*

2. Languages in Kenya—the official languages are Swahili and English; however, many others are spoken.

Republic of Kenya. Jamhuriya Ya Kenya. 32,021,856. National or official languages: Swahili, English. Literacy rate: 45% (1987 official government figure). Also includes Hadrami Spoken Arabic (10,000), Hindi, Ta'izzi-Adeni Spoken Arabic (10,000). Information mainly from W. Whiteley 1969, 1974; Heine and Möhlig 1980; J. Bendor-Samuel 1989; BTL 1983–1999. Blind population: 70,000. Deaf institutions: 25. The number of languages listed for Kenya is 61. Of those, all are living languages.

3. Kenya Constitution—Bomas Draft
    • Older version
4. Acting Together for Kenya: Agreement on the Principles of Partnership of the Coalition Government
5. Raila Odinga’s Memo of Understanding with Kenyan Muslims (gathered by, commentary and questions by Eric Scheie)

Evangelical Alliance of Kenya

Is the agreement authentic?

There's a lot of debate:
Another version
Same as the second
Muslims deny it.

Nzimbi was asked by the Anglican Church to stop circulating it.

More here:

Why ODM must come out clean on this Muslims’ MoU
Church: Raila MoU is 'fake
Kenyan Muslims deny Presidential candidate will implement Sharia
The MOU Between NAMLEF and Raila
BBC: Kenyan Muslims deny Sharia claims
A Closer Look at Raila’s Continuous Chameleonic Nature

I wish I had the answers. It's widely linked, but something just looks funny about the agreement, and while I'm not planning to write a post, I thought I should at least share what I found.

    • Raila’s secret MoU with Muslims revealed

*CIA Factbook

(Thanks to Open Democracy)

The Kenya Crisis

Comments

[topi lyambila]

Baldilocks - great work, Deep and Impressive!