This is a timeline of the History of Kenya comprising important legal and territorial changes as well as political, social, and economic events in Kenya, read more at History of Kenya.
Pleistocene YearDateEvent2.6 - 1.7 MYA Oldowan industry in Koobi Fora, Kanjera and Mount Homa. These are amongst the earliest hominin tools ever found.Technological Developments in the Oldowan of Koobi Fora: Innovative Techniques of Artifact Analysis, 2001, David R. Braun, Jack W.K. Harris, in TREBALLS D'ARQUEOLOGIA, 9, Centre d'Estudis del Patrimoni Arqueològic de la Prehistòria, Autonomous University of Barcelona1.2 MYA - 490 kyr Olorgesailie Aechulean hand axe culture.320 kyr Findings at Olorgesailie in Southern Kenya indicate that advanced middle stone age technology and long distance trade was established by this time.Scientists Are Amazed By Stone Age Tools They Dug Up In Kenya. Available from: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/03/15/593591796/scientists-are-amazed-by-stone-age-tools-they-dug-up-in-kenya~40 kyr Ostrich shell bead jewellery and obsidian tools dating to this time are found at Enkapune ya Muto in the Central rift valley. The rock shelter is occupied in phases until 1,300 years ago.~21 kyr Dispersal of the common ancestors of East African Hunter gatherers (related to the San people) in the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum.~10 kyr An ancient massacre occurs at Nataruk in Turkana County. The remains of 27 men, women and children are found with some showing lesions consistent with blunt and sharp force trauma. These findings call into question the origins of human inter-group conflict."Ancient 'massacre' unearthed near Lake Turkana, Kenya - BBC News". BBC Online. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
3rd millennium BC YearDateEvent3300 BCE - 700 BCE East African Pastoral neolithic culture spreads. Key features include pastoralism as a means of food production and the construction of stone cairns at burial sites:
Savanna Pastoral NeolithicAmbrose, Stanley H. (1984). From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa - "The Introduction of Pastoral Adaptations to the Highlands of East Africa". University of California Press. p. 220. . Retrieved 4 December 2014.Christopher Ehret, Merrick Posnansky (ed.) (1982). The Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History. University of California Press. p. 140. . Retrieved 4 December 2014.
Elmenteitan cultureLane, Paul J. (2013-07-04). The Archaeology of Pastoralism and Stock-Keeping in East Africa. The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199569885.001.0001. .3000 BCE - 1000 BCE Cushitic speakers settle across East Africa.Ehret, Christopher (1982). Posnansky, Merrick (ed.). The Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History. University of California Press. pp. 140–141. . Retrieved 11 May 2015.
Eburran hunter gatherers, who have occupied the area around the Ol Doinyo Eburru volcano complex near Lake Nakuru for nearly 10,000 years, gradually adopt domestic animals.~3000 BCEHyrax Hill in Nakuru is settled by a savanna pastoral neolithic people.3000 BCE - 2300 BCE Lothagam North Pillar Site: East Africa's earliest and largest monumental cemetery.3000 BCE - 2000 BCE The Kansyore culture becomes East Africa's earliest ceramic producing group of hunter gatherers. This culture was located at Gogo falls in Migori county near Lake Victoria.
2nd millennium BC YearDateEvent~2000BCE - 1000 ADThe East African Rock art tradition thrives with sites at Mfangano Island, Chelelemuk hills, Namoratunga and Lewa Downs. The rock paintings are attributed to the Twa people, a hunter gatherer group that was once widespread in East Africa
1st millennium BC YearDateEvent1000BCE - 500BCESouthern Nilotic speaking communities move southwards from the Sudd into western Kenya.Ehret, Christopher. An African Classical Age: Eastern & Southern Africa in World History 1000 B.C. to A.D.400. University of Virginia, 1998, p.71000 BCE-1000 ADBantu Groups migrate into Kenya bringing with them iron age technology. The Urewe culture, one of Africa's oldest iron smelting centres, settle in the great lakes region including western Kenya. Other groups settle in Southern Kenya
1st century BC YearDateEvent100BC - 300ADThe earliest settlements in the Swahili coast appear on the archaeological record in Kwale in Kenya, Misasa in Tanzania and Ras Hafun in Somalia.
Bantu speaking communities in the great lakes region develop iron forging techniques that enable them to produce carbon steel.
1st century AD YearDateEvent~1AD - 50ADThe Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a Graeco-Roman manuscript is written. It describes the East African coast (Azania) and an existing Indian Ocean Trade route.
4th century AD YearDateEvent300AD - 1000ADGrowth of Azanian and Zanj settlements in the Swahili coast. Local industry and international trade flourish.
7th century AD YearDateEvent614AD - 900ADStarting with the first Hijrah (migration) of Prophet Muhammad's followers to Ethiopia, Islam spreads across Eastern, Northern and Western Africa.Hussein D. Hassan. CRS Report for Congress. Islam in Africa. Available from: https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/RS22873.pdf630AD - 890ADArchaeological evidence indicates that crucible steel is manufactured at Galu, south of Mombasa. Metallurgical analysis of iron artefacts indicates that the techniques used by the inhabitants of the Swahili coast combined techniques used in other African sites as well as those in West and South Asian sites.Chap Kusimba. HE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF IRON FORGING ON THE KENYA COAST. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 66, No. 3 (1996), pp. 386-410
11th century YearDateEvent1000 - 1500Emergence of the Swahili City States. The earliest gravestone found at Gedi Ruins dates to the earlier part of this period.
The oldest Swahili texts in existence date to this period. They are written in old Swahili script (Swahili-Arabic alphabet) based on Arabic letters.
12th century YearDateEvent1100 - 1400Hyrax Hill in Nakuru is settled by the Sirikwa.
Oral histories recall the settlement of Shungwaya found north of the Tana River. Several coastal and central Kenyan Bantu groups are said to have migrated from this settlement due to pressure from Oromo speaking groups.
14th century YearDateEvent~1331Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta visits Mombasa on his way to Kilwa.Ibn Battuta's & Zhao Rugua's East African Travels (Excerpts) http://users.rowan.edu/~mcinneshin/5394/wk05/battutaTVLsEAFR.htm
15th century YearDateEvent1418Chinese Admiral Zheng He visits Malindi. Some of his ships are reported to have sunk near Lamu Island. Recent genetic tests done on local inhabitants confirmed Chinese ancestry"Kenyan girl with Chinese blood steals limelight". Chinese Embassy in Kenya. Archived from the original on May 8, 2013. Retrieved 3 April 2009.1490-1517Southern Luo people migrate into Western Kenya from present day Uganda.1498AprilVasco da Gama travels to Mombasa and Malindi. Attacks on merchant ships led to a hostile reception in Mombasa. In Malindi the reception was friendlier. He established trade relations, erects a pillar and hires a guide to travel to India.Martin, Esmond Bradley (2009) [originally published in 1970]. Malindi. Past and Present (New ed.). The National Museum of Kenya
16th century YearDateEvent1500-1900Thimlich Ohinga and other dry-stone walled enclosures in the Lake Victoria Basin are built.1500-1940The Kayas - Mijikenda fortified settlements are built then abandoned. Now revered as sacred sites, they are a UNESCO world heritage site.Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests - UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Available from: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/12311505The Portuguese Empire establishes a presence in Mombasa
Most old Swahili texts dating to this period and earlier are destroyed. 1506Portuguese naval commander Tristão da Cunha is sent to conquer Socotra and establish control of Indian Ocean trade. He leads a blockade of Lamu which capitulates to Portuguese control.Strandes, Justus (1971). "The Portuguese in East Africa". East African Literature Bureau. p.66.1593Fort Jesus is built in Mombasa to solidify Portuguese hegemony
17th century YearDateEvent1698Omani Arabs capture Fort Jesus and Zanzibar.
Arab traders settle in Zanzibar and Pemba.
The slave trade grows exponentially with a large slave market based at Zanzibar.
18th century YearDateEvent1700-1900Complex water furrows for irrigation are constructed by the Marakwet to facilitate intensive agriculture. Clan owned and communal, these irrigation systems are still in use.1728One of the oldest surviving manuscripts in Swahili, an epic poem titled Utenzi wa Tambuka (The story of Tambuka), is written at the Royal Court of Pate Sultanate.
19th century YearDateEvent1840Sultan Seyyid Said, ruler of the Omani empire moves his capital to Zanzibar. The growth of clove plantations drives demand for slaves.Petterson, Don Revolution In Zanzibar An American's Cold War Tale, New York: Westview, 2002 page 7
Slave caravan routes into the interior of Kenya reach as far as the foothills of Mount Kenya, Lake Victoria and past Lake Baringo into Samburu country.184625 August The first Christian mission is founded by Johann Ludwig Krapf in Rabai. Many freed slaves rescued by the British Navy are settled here.1850East and Central Africa is mapped by European explorers.Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912 (1991) ch 11874Frere Town settlement in Mombasa is established. This is another settlement for freed slaves rescued by the British Navy. Despite pressure from the British to stop the East African slave trade, it continues to persist.1875 - 1884The peak of the slave plantation economy in East Africa. 43,000 – 47,000 slaves are present on the Kenyan coast (44 percent of the local population)c1880sArab and Swahili traders from the Kenyan coast increasingly establish caravan links with the Wanga Kingdom, trading in ivory and other goods. Nabongo Mumia begins, mantains & manages diplomatic and commercial relations with these traders.1884 - 1885The Berlin Conference is convened by Otto Von Bismack. Britain stakes claims in what is today Kenya and Uganda.Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912 (1991)c1890sArab traders begin fighting alongside Wanga forces against neighbouring communities hostile to the kingdom and participated in slave-raiding expeditions directed against Wanga adversaries1890 Nabongo Mumia establishes diplomatic relations with Captain Frederick Lugard of the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC), initiating the Wanga Kingdom's alliance with the British by providing safe passage, porters, supplies, and military support for British expeditions, while the British in turn supported Wanga authority and regional security during the establishment of colonial administration in pre-colonial Kenya.1890 - 1906The Nandi resistance against colonial rule is led by Koitalel Arap Samoei 1894-1895Active military and political cooperation of Wanga Kingdom with the British begins in conquering adversary communities of the Wanga1895-1902Wanga Kingdom begin leading and assisting in British colonial conquest of western Kenya and neighboring regions.1895Following the financial ruin of the Imperial British East African Company which administered the territory that is now Uganda and Kenya, the British Government steps in by proclaiming the Uganda protectorate and the British East African protectorate to maintain its sphere of influence.Nandi Resistance to British Rule 1890–1906. By A. T. Matson. Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1972. Pp. vii+391