* Kenya was first populated by a number of small dispersed tribal groups, the main groups were the Kikuyu, Kamba, Luo and Masai. These tribes shared the same area of land although they all had different origins.
* It wasn't until the 19th century that outsiders entered the interior of the country and as a result Kenya escaped the worst of the Arab slavers who concentrated more further to the south.
* The coast however helped to form an important part of a chain of Omani Arab trading posts. These strings of trading posts dealt mainly in ivory and slaves and were under the control of the Sultan of Zanzibar.
* The overshadowing of the Sultan's powers started in the late 19th century when both British and German personnel obtained trading concessions along the coast.
* Britain was allotted what is now Uganda and Kenya; Germany was allotted what is now mainland Tanzania.
* In 1893 Uganda became a British protectorate closely followed by Kenya - 1895. The British were just interested in controlling the rich resources of Uganda and to facilitate this they built a railway between Mombasa and Kampala using labourers from India, many of whom remained and have become todays merchant class.
* At the turn of the century British attention was drawn away from Uganda and settled upon Kenya. White farmers went in and set up plantations producing export crops. During this process many Africans lost their land; they were then forced onto inferior land or onto the labour market as a result of hut taxes imposed by the colonial administration.
* By 1915 the majority of the fertile highlands were being used by the British and racial segregation of land effectively excluded Africans and Asians from owning properties there.
* Presently a large majority of the land is still owned by expatriate or politicians and the country's employment problems are caused by the fact that there is limited access to the land and because only seven per cent of the total area receives enough rainfall to support agriculture.
* Some tribes remained virtually unaffected by the plantations.
* The pressure over land ownership and the controls over cultivation and marketing of cash crops by Africans prevented them from competing with the white settlers leading to the formation of nationalist organisations in the 1920's.
* In 1929 one of the nationalist leaders Jomo Kenyatta was sent to England to negotiate on behalf of the Kikuyu Central Association.
* During World War 2, as a result of Africans being conscripted, political consciousness expanded. The consequence of this was the formation of guerrilla troops, Mau Mau, who all took an oath to commit themselves to expelling all white settlers in Kenya and to eliminate the Africans who cooperated with or benefited from colonial rule.
* In 1956 the Mau Mau rebellion was crushed, many people died also detention camps were set up and leaders of the Kenya African Union (KAU) were detained. The KAU was the successor to the Kikuyu Central Association, Dedan Kimathi the leader of the armed rebellion was executed.
* This rebellion shook both the colonial administration and white settlers. A state of emergency was declared and the restrictions on African cultivation were lifted. A lot of effort was applied to encouraging the formation of a stable middle class.
* In 1960 Britain agreed to have a conference with African leaders to discus the future of the colony The state of emergency was lifted. The Kenyan African Union reformed into the Kenyan African National Union (KANU) and Jomo Kenyatta turned from a feared leader of black nationalism into a grand old man of the settlers. He was released from prison and became the leader of the KANU.
* KANU won the elections in the following year and voted in favour of a parliamentary system as opposed to a federal system which was proposed by the party of the minority tribes.
* In 1963 independence was granted with Jomo Kenyatta as the country's first president.
* In 1978 Kenyatta died. His ideas earned him many critics among them the vice-president Oginga Odinga who was part of an opposition party which was banned in 1966. Oginga Odinga was imprisoned, then he was released after agreeing to join the KANU. In 1969 Tom Mboya a powerful
member of Luo's government was assassinated leading to racial riots between the Kikuyu and Luo.
* During the early 1970's Kariuki became the principle opposition leader until 1975 when he was assassinated, the army and parliamentary police acted to restore order.
* Daniel Arap Moi took over from Kenyatta, he had an increasingly autocratic style and repression increased.
* Moi was successful in settling a dispute with Somalia over its borders and normalised relations with Tanzania.
* In 1982 a failed coup led by the Kenyan air force, led to the disbanding of the air force and the creation of a completely new unit.
* In 1990, following the assassination of the Kenyan foreign minister Robert Ouko who had threatened to reveal the names of corrupt ministers, major aid donors withdrew all support.