Kenya
The following information was copied from the CIA World Fact Book
Background: Founding president and liberation struggle icon Jomo KENYATTA led Kenya from independence in 1963 until his death in 1978, when President Daniel Toroitich arap MOI took power in a constitutional succession. The country was a de facto one-party state from 1969 until 1982 when the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) made itself the sole legal party in Kenya. MOI acceded to internal and external pressure for political liberalization in late 1991. The ethnically fractured opposition failed to dislodge KANU from power in elections in 1992 and 1997, which were marred by violence and fraud, but were viewed as having generally reflected the will of the Kenyan people. President MOI stepped down in December 2002 following fair and peaceful elections. Mwai KIBAKI, running as the candidate of the multiethnic, united opposition group, the National Rainbow Coalition, defeated KANU candidate Uhuru KENYATTA and assumed the presidency following a campaign centered on an anticorruption platform.
Population:34,707,817 note:
estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)
Religions:
Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%, indigenous beliefs 10%, Muslim 10%, other 2% note: a large majority of Kenyans are Christian, but estimates for the percentage of the population that adheres to Islam or indigenous beliefs vary widely
Background: Founding president and liberation struggle icon Jomo KENYATTA led Kenya from independence in 1963 until his death in 1978, when President Daniel Toroitich arap MOI took power in a constitutional succession. The country was a de facto one-party state from 1969 until 1982 when the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) made itself the sole legal party in Kenya. MOI acceded to internal and external pressure for political liberalization in late 1991. The ethnically fractured opposition failed to dislodge KANU from power in elections in 1992 and 1997, which were marred by violence and fraud, but were viewed as having generally reflected the will of the Kenyan people. President MOI stepped down in December 2002 following fair and peaceful elections. Mwai KIBAKI, running as the candidate of the multiethnic, united opposition group, the National Rainbow Coalition, defeated KANU candidate Uhuru KENYATTA and assumed the presidency following a campaign centered on an anticorruption platform.
Population:34,707,817 note:
estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)
Religions:
Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%, indigenous beliefs 10%, Muslim 10%, other 2% note: a large majority of Kenyans are Christian, but estimates for the percentage of the population that adheres to Islam or indigenous beliefs vary widely
RWANDA
Genocide: Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days... but the genocide did not kill a million people. They killed one, then another, then another... day after day,
hour after hour, minute by minute. Every minute of the day, someone, somewhere
was being murdered, screaming for mercy but receiving none. And the killing
went on and on, 10,000 each day, 400 each hour, seven each minute." Excerpt from the publication Genocide, published by Aegis Trust for the Kigali Memorial Center.
The following information was copied from the CIA Fact
Book
Background: In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king.
Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several political and economic upheavals,
exacerbated ethnic tensions, culminating in April 1994 in the genocide of
roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and ended the killing in July 1994, but approximately 2 million Hutu
refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring Burundi,
Tanzania, Uganda, and the former Zaire. Since then, most of the refugees have
returned to Rwanda, but about 10,000 remain in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and have formed an extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the RPF tried in 1990. Despite substantial international assistance and political reforms - including Rwanda's first local elections in March 1999 and its first post-genocide presidential and legislative elections in August and September 2003 - the country continues to struggle to boost investment and agricultural output, and ethnic reconciliation is complicated by the real and perceived Tutsi political dominance. Kigali's increasing centralization and intolerance of dissent, the nagging Hutu extremist insurgency across the border, and Rwandan involvement in two wars in recent years in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts to escape its bloody legacy.
Population: 8,648,248 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)
Religions: Roman Catholic 56.5%, Protestant 26%, Adventist
11.1%, Muslim 4.6%, indigenous beliefs 0.1%, none 1.7% (2001)
hour after hour, minute by minute. Every minute of the day, someone, somewhere
was being murdered, screaming for mercy but receiving none. And the killing
went on and on, 10,000 each day, 400 each hour, seven each minute." Excerpt from the publication Genocide, published by Aegis Trust for the Kigali Memorial Center.
The following information was copied from the CIA Fact
Book
Background: In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king.
Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several political and economic upheavals,
exacerbated ethnic tensions, culminating in April 1994 in the genocide of
roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and ended the killing in July 1994, but approximately 2 million Hutu
refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring Burundi,
Tanzania, Uganda, and the former Zaire. Since then, most of the refugees have
returned to Rwanda, but about 10,000 remain in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and have formed an extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the RPF tried in 1990. Despite substantial international assistance and political reforms - including Rwanda's first local elections in March 1999 and its first post-genocide presidential and legislative elections in August and September 2003 - the country continues to struggle to boost investment and agricultural output, and ethnic reconciliation is complicated by the real and perceived Tutsi political dominance. Kigali's increasing centralization and intolerance of dissent, the nagging Hutu extremist insurgency across the border, and Rwandan involvement in two wars in recent years in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts to escape its bloody legacy.
Population: 8,648,248 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)
Religions: Roman Catholic 56.5%, Protestant 26%, Adventist
11.1%, Muslim 4.6%, indigenous beliefs 0.1%, none 1.7% (2001)
UGANDA
The following information was copied from the CIA Fact Book
Background:
Uganda achieved independence from the UK in 1962. The dictatorial regime of Idi AMIN (1971-79) was responsible for the deaths of some 300,000 opponents; guerrilla war and human rights abuses under Milton OBOTE(1980-85) claimed at least another 100,000 lives. During the 1990s, the government promulgated non-party presidential and legislative elections.
Population: 28,195,754 note:
estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess
mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant
mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in
the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected
(July 2006 est.)
Religions:
Roman Catholic 33%, Protestant 33%, Muslim 16%, indigenous beliefs 18%
TANZANIA
The following information was copied from the CIA
World Fact Book
Background:
Shortly after independence, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation
of Tanzania in 1964. One-party rule came to an end in 1995 with the first democratic elections held in the country since the 1970s. Zanzibar's
semi-autonomous status and popular opposition have led to two contentious elections since 1995, which the ruling party won despite international observers' claims of voting irregularities.
Population: 37,445,392 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life
expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and
growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than
would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)
Religions: mainland - Christian 30%, Muslim 35%, indigenous beliefs 35%; Zanzibar - more than 99% Muslim
World Fact Book
Background:
Shortly after independence, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation
of Tanzania in 1964. One-party rule came to an end in 1995 with the first democratic elections held in the country since the 1970s. Zanzibar's
semi-autonomous status and popular opposition have led to two contentious elections since 1995, which the ruling party won despite international observers' claims of voting irregularities.
Population: 37,445,392 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life
expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and
growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than
would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)
Religions: mainland - Christian 30%, Muslim 35%, indigenous beliefs 35%; Zanzibar - more than 99% Muslim
