Kenya, officially known as the Republic of Kenya Kenya (pronounced Jamhuri ya) is a country in East Africa. Kenya is the 48th largest country in the world in terms of area, with 580,367 square kilometers. Kenya is the 27th most populous nation in the world, according to the 2019 census, with a population of more than 47.6 million. Nairobi is Kenya's capital and largest city; Mombasa, the country's oldest, second-largest, and first capital, is on the coast. The third-largest city is Kisumu City, which also serves as an inland port on Lake Victoria. Nakuru and Eldoret are two other significant urban centers. Kenya's economy will be the third-largest in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020, following South Africa and Nigeria. Kenya is bounded on the northwest by South Sudan, on the north by Ethiopia, on the east by Somalia, on the west by Uganda, on the south by Tanzania, and on the southeast by the Indian Ocean. It has a wide range of climate, population, and geography, ranging from cold, snow-capped mountaintops like Batian, Nelion, and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya to temperate climates in the western and rift valley counties, dry, less fertile arid and semi-arid areas, and absolute deserts like the Chalbi Desert and Nyiri Desert.
Similar to the Hadza people of today, the earliest inhabitants of Kenya were hunter-gatherers. Between 3,200 and 1,300 BC, during a period known as the Lowland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic, Cushitic speakers first settled in Kenya's lowlands, according to archaeological dating of associated artifacts and skeletal material. Between 250 BC and 500 AD, Bantu people settled at the coast and in the interior of Kenya, and Nilotic-speaking pastoralists—ancestors of Kenya's Nilotic speakers—began migrating from present-day South Sudan into Kenya.[15] Effective colonization of Kenya began in the 19th century during European exploration of the interior, and European contact with the country began in 1500 AD with the Portuguese Empire. The Kenya Colony, which began in 1920, and the protectorate that the British Empire established in 1895 gave rise to the country that is now known as Kenya. The Mau Mau revolution, which began in 1952, and the declaration of independence in 1963 were the results of numerous disputes between the colony and the United Kingdom. Kenya remained a Commonwealth of Nations member after independence. The 1963 independence constitution was superseded by the 2010 constitution.