An Economic History of Kenya.

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OKOTH ROBERT X74/3706/2012 Summary of An Economic History of Kenya. CHAPTER 1: Land, Natural and Human Resources Kenya can be subdivided into four broad physical geographic regions: the Coastal Plain, the Arid Low Plateaus, the Kenya Highlands and the Lake Victoria Basin, due to great differences in its physical landscape. Consequently, each of these regions has different economic potentialities. With the exception of the Arid Low Plateaus, agriculture is primarily practiced in all the geographical regions. Pastoralism is primarily practiced in the Arid Low Plateaus due to environmental factors, though livestock keeping is also practiced in the other regions. For example, the Kenya Highlands are characterized by extensive ranches. Other economic activities vary, respective of the physical setting, and they include tourism, fishing, mining, irrigation and energy production. It is, however, notable that these regions have not fully exploited their economic potentials. For example, untapped oil deposits in Turkana. The realization of all the mentioned potentialities depends on the human resource of the country. By 19th century, Kenya had three major language groups: Bantu (mainly agriculturalists), Nilotes (pastoralists, fishermen and sedentary agriculturalists) and Cushites (mainly pastoralists). All the three groups have their origins outside Kenya; they migrated to their present settlements due to varied, and closely associated with environmental and cultural, factors. There were also immigrants from Asia (Arabs, Persians, Chinese, etc) and Europeans. The earliest known inhabitants of Kenya lived by hunting and gathering as their main source of food, which continued into the 19th century, but by then it was to supplement vegetable diet. During this period, agriculture had become widespread as new crops were introduced and farming techniques such as shifting
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