Kenya
Population: 39.8 million
Life expectancy: 53-55
Language: English, Swahili- Surface area: 224,961 sqm
- Currency: Kenyan Shilling
GDP growth: 1.8% (2009)
Refugees: 300,000 plus
Population living in poverty: 42%
Captial: Nairobi - PM: Ralia Odinga
- President: Mwai Kibaki
- Government: Presidential representative democratic republic
Kenya lies along the Indian Ocean, at the equator. The country is named after Mount Kenya. President Mwai Kibaki’s election victory at the end of 2007 sparked an outburst of politically inspired violence that displaced hundreds of thousands and claimed the lives of over 1000 Kenyans.
A power-sharing agreement was reached between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Ralia Odinga in February 2008, and a coalition government sworn in on 17 April 2008, ending much of the violence. Conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts have since been focused on the peaceful resettlement of the internally displaced, alongside underlying problems of food security, rising poverty, land distribution, corruption, malnutrition and the outbreak of disease.
Consecutive years of droughts, flooding, conflict and displacement in Kenya have been met largely with a shortfall in aid and funding for East Africa as a region. The focus of our work is therefore to deliver improvements in local infrastructure and educational facilities in some of the worst affected areas of Kenya.