How Did the African Country of Kenya Get Its Name?
Who named the African country of Kenya?
Below are five interesting facts on how the world’s 31st most populated county, Kenya, received her name.
Below are five interesting facts on how the world’s 31st most populated county, Kenya, received her name.
Kenya's name
By Chic African Culture
Kenya name facts:
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| Grandmother and granddaughter of the Maasai east Africa Kenya tribe. |
1.
What is now Kenya, in 1888, the
Imperial British East Africa Company established claims to territory and in
1895, and the company’s territory in Kenya was transferred to the crown as the
East Africa Protectorate.
2. Currently as a presidential republic, in 1920, the British East Africa Protectorate or British East Africa was renamed Kenya.
3.
The official theory of Kenya’s name
according to the Kenyan government's website is as follows; the name Kenya came
from Kirinyaga that means a place with white spots. Kenya is named after Mount
Kenya- the second tallest Mountain in Africa.
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| Maasai East Africa Kenya tribes man. |
The Kikuyu people who lived
around present day Mt Kenya referred to it as Kirinyaga or Kerenyaga, meaning
mountain of whiteness because of its snowcapped peak.
Mt Kirinyaga, which was
the main landmark, became synonymous with the territory the British later
claimed as their colony. The name Kenya arose out of the inability of the
British to pronounce Kirinyaga correctly.
4.
Kiswahili and English are Kenya's
official languages, the local long form name for Kenya is the Republic of Kenya
in English and Jamhuri ya Kenya in Kiswahili.
5.
The unofficial theory on how Kenya
got its name; Kenya named for Mount Kenya may derive from the Kikuyu, Embu, and
Kamba words "kirinyaga," "kirenyaa," and "kiinyaa"
- all of which mean "God's resting place".
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Kenya is divided horizontally by the Equator. Kenya is bordered to the north by South Sudan and Ethiopia, to the east by Somalia and the Indian Ocean, to the south by Tanzania, and to the west by Lake Victoria and Uganda.
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