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Kenya is a country on the eastern
side of Africa and is located astride the Equator. It borders Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan in the north, Uganda in the west, Tanzania in the south, and the
Indian Ocean in the East. It covers an area of 583,000 sq, km (225,000 sq. miles).
Nairobi is the capital city
of Kenya with a population of approximately 1.4 million people. The other major towns are:
a) Mombasa the main port on the Indian Ocean with an estimated
population of 1 million
b) Kisumu on Lake Victoria with an estimated population of
400,000 people.
Provinces and Districts
Kenya has eight provinces with different geographical sizes and different
population densities.
The eight provinces are:
a) Central
b) Coast
c) Eastern
d) Nairobi
e) North East
f) Nyanza
g) Rift Valley
h) Western Province.
Each Province in turn is subdivided into districts.
Physical Geography
The Rift Valley, a great gash in the Earth's crust, cuts across the country. East of the Rift, the central highlands slope down to grassy plains, dry
thorn bush country, and the ocean. Kenya has two types of seasons, wet and
dry. The absence or presence of water affects the population
density of areas e.g people live in the south and
west, where there is enough rainfall.
Human Geography
Kenya is a meeting place of many cultures. and is also famous for its wildlife, which includes the greatest assortment of large mammals left anywhere on Earth.
Most Kenyans are country people - small-scale, independent farmers and ranchers. Only about 25% of the people live in urban areas, one of the lowest percentages in the world.
For thousands of years, ships have sailed to the coast of Kenya from Arabia and southern Asia. Today, telecommunications and airlines link Kenya with the rest of the world. A network of roads and railway lines connects Kenya with its
neighbors Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. The countries of eastern Africa, however, are separated from North Africa by the Sahara Desert, and from West Africa by the rainforests forests of Zaire. To the South, however, there are roads and rails that can take
travelers all the way to the southern tip of the continent.
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