Nairobi (AFP) - Kenya, rich in wildlife, beaches and agricultural lands, is an economic engine for the East African region, despite the pandemic and unprecedented drought in forty years.

Here are five points about this country located between the Great Lakes region and the Indian Ocean.

Kenya gained its independence in 1963 after eight years of rebellion against British colonial rule. Jomo Kenyatta became the country's first president and was replaced after his death in 1978 by Daniel arap Moi.

In 2002, after 11 years of abandoning the one-party system, and in the first democratic transfer of power, the opposition Mwai Kibaki won the presidential elections.

But in 2007, announcing his re-election in a disputed ballot led to unprecedented ethnic political violence that left more than 1,100 people dead. In 2008, a national unity government was formed headed by Raila Odinga, the current presidential candidate.

Odinga was defeated in the 2013 presidential election by Jomo Kenyatta's son, Uhuru, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for his alleged role in the 2007-2008 post-election violence.

In 2017, the Supreme Court annulled the presidential elections due to "irregularities," a precedent in Africa. Uhuru Kenyatta was elected in a new ballot, which was boycotted by his opponent.

And in 2018, the two men forged a surprising alliance at the expense of vice president and presidential candidate William Ruto.

The country has about fifty parks and nature reserves that attracted 1.5 million visitors in 2021, including more than 30,000 giraffes, lions, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes and leopards.

Environmental activist Wangari Maathai is considered one of the most famous ambassadors of this biodiversity, and in 2004 she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on tree planting in particular.

Kenya has also been called the "cradle of humanity".

Also, the Rift Valley, which stretches from Tanzania through Ethiopia to Kenya, has been an arena for major fossil discoveries. In the Turkana region, human remains dating back about six million years were also found.

Kenya is one of the most vibrant economies in East Africa and is keen to take care of its image as a regional hub.

Her image is atypical in Africa. Although its natural resources are relatively few, it is considered an economic engine and enjoys a rich service sector.

Agriculture is also one of its pillars (more than 22% of GDP) and the main source of exports (tea, flowers and coffee).

And after it fell, affected by the pandemic, by 0.3% in 2020, the Kenyan economy began to recover in 2021. However, fuel and food prices rose sharply, especially the prices of corn flour, which is a basic material in the country, which sparked frustration in this country that suffers from rampant corruption. In 2021, Kenya ranked 128th out of 180 countries and territories in Transparency International's Corruption Index.

Inequality is evident in Kenya, where golf courses and slums side by side and where the minimum monthly wage is Sh15,120 (€124). According to the non-governmental organization Oxfam, the wealth of the two richest men in Kenya is greater than the income of 30 percent of the population, or about 16.5 million people.

According to official figures, most of the population of about 50 million are young and Christian.

Of the more than 40 ethnic groups living in the country, the Kikuyu are the largest in numbers, ahead of the Luhya, Kalenjin, and Liu.

Kenya is one of the countries that produces champions in the middle and long distances, such as Eliud Kipchoge and Faith Kipyegon.

Sprinter Ferdinand Umagnela has also made a name for himself in the world. Umanyala has the third best time this year in the 100m race, with 9.85 seconds, which he set last May.

Omanyala holds the African record of 9.77 seconds since last September, and is the eighth fastest runner in history, behind four Americans and three Jamaicans.

Omaniyala became the first runner from Kenya, which is distinguished by long-distance and marathon runners, to reach the semi-finals of the 100-meter race at the Olympic Games, specifically in the Tokyo 2021 edition.

But the country, known to have a large number of its athletes doping, was about to be excluded from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics before it passed an anti-doping law to avoid that.

On August 7, 1998, an attack targeting the US Embassy in Nairobi killed 213 people and injured five thousand others. Al Qaeda has adopted it.

After the Kenyan army entered Somalia in 2011 to fight the extremist Islamist movement Al-Shabaab, attacks multiplied, including an attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013 and then on Garissa University in 2015, killing 67 and 148 people, respectively.

In 2019, 21 people were killed in an attack on the Dusit hotel complex in Nairobi.

Since then, the attacks have become more sporadic and concentrated in the east of the country.