Chronology of Key Events:
Evidence of
some of the earliest human settlements has been found in Kenya, suggesting that
it was the cradle of humanity from which descendents moved out to populate the
world.
Mau Mau uprising
British
troops interned tens of thousands of suspected Mau Mau insurgents
600 - Arabs begin settling coastal
areas, over the centuries developing trading stations which facilitated contact
with the Arab world, Persia and India.
16th century - Portuguese try to establish
foothold on Kenyan coast but are driven off by Swahili states and Omani Arabs
by late 17th century.
1830s - Omani Arabs consolidate control of
coast.
1895 - Formation of British East African
Protectorate.
Early 1900s - British settlers move into
highlands, railway built from Mombasa to Lake Victoria.
1920 - East African Protectorate becomes
crown colony of Kenya - administered by a British governor.
Mau Mau
1944 - Kenyan African Union (KAU) formed
to campaign for African independence. First African appointment to legislative
council.
1947 - Jomo Kenyatta becomes KAU leader.
1952 - Secret Kikuyu guerrilla group
known as Mau Mau begins violent campaign against white settlers. State of
emergency declared. Kenyatta arrested.
1953 - Kenyatta charged with management
of Mau Mau and jailed. KAU banned.
Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya's first post-independence
leader in 1963
1956 - Mau Mau rebellion put down after
thousands killed - mainly Africans.
1959 - Kenyatta released from jail but
under house arrest.
1960 - State of emergency ends. Britain
announces plans to prepare Kenya for majority African rule. Kenya African
national Union (Kanu) formed by Tom Mboya and Oginga Odinga.
Independence
1961 - Kenyatta freed and assumes
presidency of Kanu.
1963 - Kenya gains independence, with
Kenyatta as prime minister.
1964 - Republic of Kenya formed. Kenyatta
becomes president and Odinga vice-president.
1966 - Odinga, a Luo, leaves Kanu after
ideological split, forms rival Kenya People's Union (KPU).
1969 - Assassination of government
minister Tom Mboya sparks ethnic unrest. KPU banned and Odinga arrested. Kanu only
party to contest elections.
1974 - Kenyatta re-elected.
Moi era
begins
Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo
Kenyatta as president, stayed in office until 2002
1978 - Kenyatta dies in office, succeeded
by Vice-President Daniel arap Moi.
1982 June - Kenya officially declared a
one-party state by National Assembly.
1982 August - Army suppresses air force
coup attempt. Private Hezekiah Ochuka rules for about six hours.
1987 - Opposition groups suppressed.
International criticism of political arrests and human rights abuses.
1989 - Political prisoners freed.
1990 - Death of the foreign minister,
Robert Ouko, in suspicious circumstances leads to increased dissent against
government.
Multi-party
elections
1991 August - Forum for the Restoration
of Democracy (Ford) formed by six opposition leaders, including Oginga Odinga.
Party outlawed and members arrested. Creditors suspend aid to Kenya amid fierce
international condemnation.
1991 December - Special conference of
Kanu agrees to introduce a multi-party political system.
1992 - Approximately 2,000 people killed
in tribal conflict in the west of the country.
1992 August - Ford splits into two
factions - Ford-Asili (led by ex-government minister Kenneth Matiba) and
Ford-Kenya (led by Odinga).
1992 December - Moi re-elected in
multi-party elections. Kanu wins strong majority.
1994 - Odinga dies. Opposition groups
form coalition - the United National Democratic Alliance - but it is plagued by
disagreements.
1995 - New opposition party - Safina -
launched by palaeontologist Richard Leakey. Party refused official registration
until November 1997.
1997 - Demonstrations calling for
democratic reform. World Bank withholds disbursement of $5bn in structural
adjustment credit.
1997 December - Moi wins further term in
widely-criticised elections. His main opponents are former vice-president Mwai
Kibaki and Raila Odinga, son of Oginga Odinga.
Embassy bomb
1998 August - Al-Qaeda operatives bomb
the US embassy in Nairobi, killing 224 people and injuring thousands.
More than 200 people were killed when al-Qaeda bombed
the US embassy in Nairobi
1999 - Moi appoints Richard Leakey to
head government drive against corruption.
2001 April - Leakey appears in court to
face charges of abuse of power and perverting the course of justice.
2001 June - Parliament passes a law
allowing the import and manufacture of cheap copies of anti-Aids drugs.
2001 - Ethnic tensions culminate in
several violent clashes. In December thousands flee and several people are
killed in rent battles involving Nubian and Luo communities in Nairobi's Kibera
slum district.
2002 July - Some 200 Maasai and Samburu
tribespeople accept more than $7m in compensation from the British Ministry of
Defence. The tribespeople had been bereaved or maimed by British Army
explosives left on their land over the last 50 years.
2002 November - Terror attack on
Israeli-owned hotel near Mombasa kills 10 Kenyans and injures three Israelis. A
simultaneous rocket attack on an Israeli airliner fails. A statement -
purportedly from al-Qaeda - claims responsibility.
Kibaki
victory
2002 December - Elections. Mwai Kibaki
wins a landslide victory, ending Daniel arap Moi's 24-year rule and Kanu's four
decades in power.
2003 January - Government bill proposes
anti-corruption commission. Moi critic John Githongo appointed anti-graft czar.
2003 November - International Monetary
Fund (IMF) resumes lending after three-year gap, citing anti-corruption
measures.
2003 December - Government decides to
grant former president Daniel arap Moi immunity from prosecution on corruption
charges.
2004 March-July - Long-awaited draft of
new constitution completed. Document requires parliament's approval and
proposes curbing president's powers and creating post of prime minister. But
deadline for enactment is missed.
2004 July-August - Food crisis,
caused by crop failures and drought, dubbed "national disaster" by
President Kibaki. UN launches aid appeal for vulnerable rural Kenyans.
2004 October - Kenyan ecologist Wangari
Maathai wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
Controversy
over jail conditions amid intense media coverage of inmate deaths at Meru jail
in the east.
2005 January - Clashes over land and
water rights leave more than 40 people dead.
2005 February - Corruption takes centre
stage when it is claimed that graft has cost Kenya $1bn under Kibaki. Leading
anti-graft official John Githongo resigns. International donors voice unease.
2005 July - Parliament approves a draft
constitution after days of violent protests in Nairobi over aspects of the
draft which demonstrators say give too much power to in the president's hands.
Constitution
spurned
2005 November-December - Voters reject a
proposed new constitution in what is seen as a protest against President
Kibaki. The president replaces his cabinet; some nominees reject their
appointments.
2006 January - Government says four
million people in the north need food aid because of a drought which the
president calls a "national disaster".
2006 January-February - Government
ministers are linked to a corruption scandal involving contracts for a phantom
company, Anglo Leasing. One of them, Finance Minister David Mwiraria, resigns
and says allegations against him are false.
2006 March - Armed police, acting on
government orders, raid the offices and presses of the Standard group, one of
Kenya's leading media companies.
2006 April - Three days of national
mourning are declared after an aircraft carrying several prominent politicians
crashes in the north.
2006 April - Visiting Chinese President
Hu Jintao signs a contract allowing China to prospect for oil off the Kenyan
coast. His African tour has focused on trying to satisfy China's hunger for
energy and raw materials.
Somali
refugees
2006 October - UN says some 35,000
Somalis escaping drought, Islamist rule and looming conflict have arrived in
Kenyan camps since early 2006.
2006 November - December - Regional
flooding renders thousands homeless. Some 100,000 Somali refugees cut off by
floodwaters in the north-east are supplied by air drops.
Election violence
Hundreds
were killed in unrest that followed the disputed 2007 polls
2007 May - A Kenya Airways plane crashes
in Cameroon, killing all 114 on board. An official investigation finds pilot
error was to blame.
2007 December - Disputed presidential
elections lead to violence in which more than 1,500 die.
The
government and opposition come to a power-sharing agreement in February and a
cabinet is agreed in April.
2008 October - Report into post-election
clashes calls for international tribunal to try those implicated in violence.
Many political leaders are reluctant to implement the commission of inquiry's
recommendations, with some arguing that prosecutions could trigger further
clashes between communities.
2008 December - Kenya Anti-Corruption
Commission (KACC) accuses seven current and former MPs of taking illegal
allowances worth $250,000.
2009 August - Visiting US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton criticises Kenya for failing to investigate the deadly
violence after the 2007 election.
Kenya says
that at least 10 million people, or one third of the population, are in need of
food aid. The government mobilises the military to distribute food, water and
medicines to areas hit hardest by drought.
2009 October - The government says it will
co-operate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to try key suspects in
post-election violence.
Constitution
approved
2010 January - The US suspends $7m of
funding for free primary schools in Kenya until fraud allegations are
investigated.
Wangari Maathai
Campaigner
fought to promote conservation, women's rights and transparent government
- First African woman to win Nobel Peace Prize
- Given a state funeral
2010 February - President Kibaki
overturns a decision by Prime Minister Odinga to suspend the country's
agriculture and education ministers over alleged corruption. The row threatens
the coalition government.
2010 July - Kenya joins its neighbours in
forming a new East African Common Market, intended to integrate the region's
economy.
2010 August - New constitution designed
to limit the powers of the president and devolve power to the regions approved
in referendum.
Controversy
over release of national census figures that include tribal affiliations.
2010 December - A grenade explosion kills
three people on a Kampala-bound bus in Nairobi.
2011 March - Governments of Kenya, DR
Congo agree to investigate illegal gold trade, in which Kenyan allegedly plays
a key role.
2011 April - Truth commission begins
public probe into 3,000 killings at Wagalla airstrip during a 1984 crackdown on
ethnic Somalis, a hushed-up chapter in Kenya's history.
Somalia campaign
Kenya
launched a military operation inside Somalia to curb al-Shabab Islamist
militants
Six
politicians appear before the International Criminal Court in The Hague,
accused of links to 2007-8 post-election violence.
2011 June-September - East Africa hit by
worst drought in 60 years.
2011 August-September - Suspected Somali
militants raid Kenyan coastal resorts and a refugee camp, targetting
foreigners.
Troops in
Somalia
2011 October - Kenyan troops enter
Somalia to attack rebels they accuse of being behind several kidnappings of
foreigners on Kenyan soil.
Kenya
suffers several apparent reprisal attacks.
2011 November - High court orders arrest
of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir if ever he visits. Sudan orders Kenya's
ambassador to leave.
2012 January - International Criminal
Court rules that several prominent Kenyans must stand trial over the 2007
post-election violence.
2012 March - Oil discovered. President
Kibaki hails it as a ''major breakthrough''.
Launch of
Lamu port project which is to become South Sudan's oil export outlet.
2012 May - More than 30 people are
injured in an attack on a Nairobi shopping centre, allegedly by Somalia's
al-Shabab Islamist militia.
2012 June - Internal Security Minister
George Saitoti is killed in a helicopter crash.
2012 July - Fifteen people are killed in
an attack on two churches in Garissa, near the Somali border. Al-Shabab is
again the prime suspect.
Britain
acknowledges that its colonial administration tortured detainees during the Mau
Mau uprising. Veterans are claiming damages in the High Court in London.
Outbreaks of
violence
2012 August-September - More than 100
people are killed in communal clashes over land and resources Coast Province.
Junior minister Dhadho Godhana is charged with incitement. He denies the
charge.
2013 election
The 2013
vote defied predictions of violence, but Uhuru Kenyatta's win posed a
diplomatic headache
Five people
die in riots by Muslim protesters in Mombasa after the shooting of preacher
Aboud Rogo Mohammed, accused by the UN of recruiting and funding al-Shabab
Islamist fighters in Somalia. Muslim cleric Abubaker Ahmed is charged with
inciting the protests.
2012 September - Junior minister
Ferdinand Waititu is charged with hate speech and incitement to violence over
anti-Maasai remarks caught on video tape and made in response to the reported
killing of a child by a Maasai security guard.
2012 November - Troops rampage in the
town of Garissa, near the Somali border, after gunmen shoot dead three Kenyan
soldiers serving in the African Union mission in Somalia.
2012 December - Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta
and former minister William Ruto - bitter political rivals facing trial at the
International Criminal Court over the 2007 post-election violence - confirm
that are forming an alliance for the 2013 election.
2013 March - Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of
Kenya's first president, wins presidential election with just over 50% of the
vote. A challenge to the results by his main rival, Prime Minister Raila
Odinga, is rejected by the Supreme Court.
International
Criminal Court (ICC) drops charges against Francis Muthaura, a co-accused of Mr
Kenyatta, over the 2007 election violence.
2013 May - Court sentences two Iranians
to life imprisonment for plotting to attack Western targets in Kenya.
2013 June - The British government says
it sincerely regrets the torture of thousands of Kenyans during the suppression
of the Mau Mau insurgency in the 1950s and promises £20m in compensation.
2013 September - Deputy President William
Ruto pleads not guilty to crimes against humanity charges at the International
Criminal Court. He and President Uhuru Kenyatta are accused of orchestrating
violence after elections in 2007, and will be tried separately at The Hague.
Somali
al-Shabab militants seize a Nairobi shopping mall and kill more than 60 people,
saying they want Kenya's military to pull out of Somalia.
No comments:
Post a Comment