Kenya, on the eastern coast of Africa, is dissected across the centre by the equator. The majority of the population (85%) lives in the southwestern part of Kenya which comprises of a rising elevated plateau with Mount Kenya (over 5,000 m) falling to Lake Victoria in the west. Along the coast there is a mean temperature of 27°C but in the interior of the country it is cooler. April to June and October to December are the rainy seasons and can come with annual precipitation of 1,250 mm in the uplands and around 1,000 mm on the coast. The lowest precipitation occurs in the north with a maximum of 600 mm and the highest is in the west, around Lake Victoria with about 1,780 annually.
According to official estimations in 1989 there are approximately 24.5 million inhabitants over an area of 571,416 kmē (approx. 42 inhabitants/kmē). 22% of the population lives in towns and the tendency is increasing. The annual growth rate of the population in Kenya is about 3.5% (1990). 98.5% of the population is African of which most belong to the Bantu peoples like the Kikuju with 21% and the Luo with 13%, but also to Nomad peoples e.g. the Massai. The remaining 1.5% comprises Asian, Arab and European nationalities.
The strengths of the Kenyan economy lie in the production and processing of agricultural and pastoral products. The contribution of agricultural, forestry and fisheries to the GDP in 1988 was around 32%. The industrial sector contributed 19% of which 13% was contributed by the processing industry. The services sector contributed around 35% to the GDP. The central problems in the Kenyan economy are high population growth and an unemployment rate of around 40%. An economic upswing which started in 1986 slowed down in 1989/90 due to lower prices on the world market for coffee and tea and the effects of the crisis in the Golf which cost the country around 125 million US$.
Kenya has no mineral resources worth mentioning and depends on agriculture to a great extent. Although wide expanses of Kenya, particularly in the north-east, north-west and in the south-east are arid and infertile and can thus only be used for agriculture sporadically, 3/4 of the population live from agriculture. Small farms are predominant which are normally attended to by women alone (27%) or by women in the absence of their husbands (47%). Subsistence farming is combined with market-oriented production. The staple food is maize and is subsidised by the government. Other subsistence crops are manioc, potatoes and millet. Crops grown for the market are mainly coffee, tea, sisal, pyrethrum, wheat, sugar, pineapple and cotton. Coffee and tea are the most significant export products with 25.6% and 19.5% (1988) respectively. The total number of cattle in Kenya is estimated to be 10 million. In recent years, agriculture has experienced a decline in the production of the most important agricultural products.
Power generated for the country by hydro-electric and thermal power stations is below demand. In 1988, energy amounted to about 14% of total imports. The connecting of rural regions to the electricity supply is being subsidised. Electricity however, accounts for only 3.3% of the total consumption of energy in the country. About 83% of household energy is met by firewood and charcoal.
According to the report issued by the World Bank in 1992, Kenya like other countries south of the Sahara, is facing the effects of environmental damage on the economy and on health. Apart from increasing air pollution in the cities, and the development of smoke in households during the use of firewood which is a hazard to health, what is centrally stated is the effect on agricultural production. The rapid growth in the population has led to forest resources and the fertility of the soil becoming exhausted and thus to a fall in agricultural production in densely populated areas. According to the Ministry for the Environment, the development and dissemination of technologies for the utilisation of natural resources has been given top priority. Previous alternatives to the use of firewood and charcoal are considered to be too expensive to have a significant effect on environmental damage occurring from the use of firewood.