Kenya is a country in Eastern Africa with the Indian Ocean lying on its Eastern side. It is bordered by Tanzania in the South and, going clockwise, by Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. The country became independent from Britain in 1963 following a long and bitter struggle known as the Mau Mau Rebellion. Kenay is a stable multi-party democratic republic, where the President is both head of state and head of government. Kenya’s economy is mostly based on agricultural products, the important ones being tea, coffee, sugarcane, corn, wheat, rice, sisal, pineapples, pyrethrum, dairy products, meat and meat products, hides, skins. There is a large tourist industry. The area of Kenya is a little over 580,000 square kilometres with a population of more than 34½ million with an annual per capita income of only $1,445.

From the coast on the Indian Ocean the Low plains rise to central highlands, which are bisected by Great Rift Valley running from Lake Victoria in the Southwest to Lake Rudolf in the Northwest. The Kenyan Highlands comprise one of the most successful agricultural production regions in Africa. The highlands are the site of Mount Kenya, which reaches 5,199 meters (17,057 ft) and is also the site of glaciers. Kenya enjoys a tropical climate, which varies from hot and humid on the coast, temperate inland and very dry in the north and northeast parts of the country. The Indian Ocean coastline is bordered with pristine white coral sands with a barrier reef a few hundred metres off shore. The inshore side of the reef is populated with many colourful fish species and offers safe snorkeling.

Kenya has considerable land area of wildlife habitat, including maasai mara, where blue wildebeest and other bovids participate in a large scale annual migration. As many as 250,000 blue wildebeest perish each year in the long and grueling migration to find grazing in the dry season. Africa’s Big Five, lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino and elephant, can also be found in Kenya:. A significant population of other wild animals, reptiles and birds inhabit the national parks and game reserves in the country. Kenya’s environment is threatened by the country’s high population growth and its side-effects.

Paleontologists have discovered many fossils of prehistoric animals in Kenya. At one of Africa’s the rare dinosaur fossil sites, two hundred Cretaceous dinosaur/theropod and giant crocodile fossils have been discovered dating from the Mesozoic Era, over 200 million years ago. Other fossils found suggest that primates roamed the area more than 20 million years ago. Recent finds near Kenya's Lake Turkana indicate that hominids such as Homo habilis (1.8 and 2.5 million years ago) and Homo erectus (1.8 million to 350,000 years ago) are possible direct ancestors of modern Homo sapiens and lived in Kenya during the pleistocene period.

Arab traders began frequenting the Kenya coast around the 1st century AD. Kenya's proximity to the Arabian Peninsula invited colonization, and Arab and Persian settlements sprouted along the coast by the 8th century. During the first millennium AD, Nilotic and Bantu peoples moved into the region, and the latter now comprise three-quarters of Kenya's population. In the centuries preceding colonialisation, Kenya was part of the east African region that was used extensively by slavers from the Muslim world.