Reliable hypotheses suggest that the large area, then known as East Africa, hosted San and Proto-Hamitic populations.
These people seem to have settled in the region since the tenth millennium b.C.; then the region has been affected by the migration of Hamitic, Bantu, Nilotic and Nilotic-Hamitic populations.
The first descriptions of the Kenyan coast can be found in the Periplus of the Eritrean Sea, the document drawn up towards the 110 a.C.
Egyptian, Greek-Roman, Arabic and Persian traders certainly frequented the coast for centuries.
The Arab and Persian appropriations decisively influenced the history of the coastal regions, that as of the end of the seventh century were conquered by Islamized Arab groups.
In 1498 Vasco da Gama reached first Mombasa and then Malindi, and in the early sixteenth century the Portuguese imposed their presence in all the main towns and coastal islands.
The next two centuries were marked by constant struggles between Arabs and Portuguese and ended with the abandonment by the last of their positions.
The interest of Great Britain for that part of East Africa manifested itself in 1840 with the appointment of a consul in Zanzibar; at that time, it belonged to the Sultan of Zanzibar also the sovereignty of a long coastal stretch of East Africa.
Germany competition persuaded England to secure a wide area of influence in that geography, sanctioned by the Anglo-German agreement of 1886.
The British East Africa Association first and the Imperial British East Africa Company then, took over the administration of the vast region, that later took the name of Uganda and Kenya, and was, in 1895, taken over by the British government.
The contemporary settlement of white settlers and the confiscation of the lands of the natives, especially the Kikuyu tribe, led to a serious disturbance in the life of the country; disturbance that became clear, after the First World War, through the action of the East Africa Association and the Kikuyu Central Association.
This discontent took the sharpest aspects after World War II under the leadership of Jomo Kenyatta, President of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), who picked up rave reviews and became the authoritative leader of the Kenyan nationalism.
Between 1952 and 1956 the Mau Mau terrorist movement led Britain to proclaim a state of emergency and simultaneously to accelerate the introduction of political and constitutional reforms.
The Constitutions of 1958, 1960 and 1962 led to self-government.
On 12 December 1963, Kenya gained independence with the installment of a monarchy to become Republic on December 12, 1964, in spite of this fact it remained a member of the Commonwealth.
Jomo Kenyatta was elected President of the Republic and Head of Government.
After cancelling all the other political formations, in 1969, he established the de facto single party and, despite various ministerial reshuffles and allegations of corruption, the old leader was always re-elected by plebiscite.
