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Kenya -
(Afrique)
(Version imprimable)
Informations sur Kenya
Capitale |
Nairobi |
Surface |
580367 kilomètre carré |
Nombre d'habitants |
28612000 |
Religions |
Protestant 38%, Roman Catholic 28%, indigenous beliefs 26%, Muslim 7%, other 1% |
Chrétien (%) |
66.00 |
Protestante (%) |
38.00 |
Réformé (%) |
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Eastern Africa was the cradle of humankind, and paleontological evidence traces human presence there back over 3 million years. In more recent times, from the 10th century onward, Bantu groups settled the area later to become Kenya and started trading with the Arabs. In the 15th century Nilohamite tribes arrived. The slave trade which was active between 1735 and the end of the 19th century destroyed many tribal structures and traditions inside Kenya. Kenya came under British colonial rule after the Berlin Congo Conference (1884/85).In 1895 the British government officially took over the country from the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEA). Kenya and Uganda were at that time one and the same British protectorate. Indians were brought in to build the Lake Victoria–Mombassa railroad and work on plantations, while the Europeans developed agriculture, trade, and administration. Kenya became a British colony in 1920. Soon a growing movement in favor of independence generated the creation in 1922 of the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA). The Mau-Mau revolt (1952-55) in favor of land and freedom was followed by elections which granted limited political participation to Kenyans. The Kenya African National Union (KANU) won the elections in 1961. On December 12, 1963, Kenya became independent, and Jomo Kenyatta (1891-1978) was appointed as Prime Minister. A constitutional amendment of 1982 made Kenya a “de jure” one-party state. In 1992 a multiparty system was introduced. The legal system is based on English common, tribal, and Islamic law. President Daniel Toroitich arap MOI has been in office since 1978.
Mission work has taken place in two phases. The first started after the arrival of Portuguese sailors in 1498 and ended in the middle of the 17th century. The second began with the arrival in 1844 of the Angl Church Missionary Society (CMS) under the leadership of J. L. Krapf; other European missions were soon to follow: British Meth (1862), RCath orders (1889), Scottish Presb (1891), Salvation Army (1921), and many others. The interdenominational Africa Inland Mission (AIM), founded by Peter Cameron Scott in 1895 with the vision to establish a string of mission stations stretching from the East Coast of Africa to Lake Chad, has developed into the largest Prot body in Kenya today with about 2,500 congr. The first African Independent Church started in 1914 among the Luo people. In the meantime over 230 Independent African Churches have developed in Kenya. Almost all denominations are active in educational, social, and medical programs.
Throughout history efforts for unity were a major concern of the churches. A representative missionary conference was already called in 1909, and in 1913 a Federation of Churches was set up which brought four missions into a consultative body — the Church of Scotland, the AIM, the Church of England, and the Meth mission. Plans for a United Church were pursued in the ’50s and ’60s. In 1954 St. Paul’s United Theological College was officially inaugurated in Limuru. But the unification process of the churches was abandoned in 1972.
A number of national and regional church organizations are headquartered in Kenya: the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), the Association of Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar (AEAM), East African Christian Alliance (EACA), and United Orthodox Independent Churches Organization. The major national church organization is the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK).
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