Kenya
Type of Government: Republic
Independence: 1963 from the UK
Head of State: President Mwai Kibaki (since December 30, 2002)
2007/2008 UN Development Index ranking (out of 177 countries): 148
2007 TI Corruption Perception Index (out of 179): 150
Political Development: Jomo Kenyatta led Kenya from independence in 1963 until his death in 1978, when President Daniel Toroitich arap Moi took power in a constitutional succession. The country was a de facto one-party state from 1969 until 1982 when the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) made itself the sole legal party in Kenya. Moi acceded to internal and external pressure for political liberalization in late 1991. The ethnically fractured opposition failed to dislodge KANU from power in elections in 1992 and 1997, which were marred by violence and fraud, but were viewed as having generally reflected the will of the Kenyan people. President Moi stepped down in December 2002 following fair and peaceful elections. Mwai Kibaki, running as the candidate of the multiethnic, united opposition group, the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), defeated KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta and assumed the presidency following a campaign centered on an anticorruption platform. Kibaki’s NARC coalition splintered in 2005 over the constitutional review process. Government defectors joined with KANU to form a new opposition coalition, the Orange Democratic Movement, which defeated the government’s draft constitution in a popular referendum in November 2005. New presidential elections are scheduled for the end of December 2007.
Adult HIV Rate: 6.7%
Life Expectancy: 55.31
GDP: $17.49 billion
Inflation: 14.5%
Poverty: 50%
Petroleum: N/A
Leading Export Partner: Uganda (15.9%)
Economic Note: The regional hub for trade and finance in East Africa, Kenya has been hampered by corruption and by reliance upon several primary goods whose prices have remained low. I n 2003, progress was made in rooting out corruption and encouraging donor support. Since then, however, the Kibaki government has been rocked by high-level graft scandals. The World Bank suspended aid for most of 2006, and the IMF has delayed loans pending further action by the government on corruption. The scandals have not seemed to affect growth, with GDP growing more than 5% in 2006.
