After years of struggle, Kenya gained independence from British colonization on 12 December 1964 and Jomo Kenyatta became first president. He adopted the national motto 'Harambee' as a concept of pulling the country together to build a new nation. He encouraged all communities to WORK TOGETHER to rebuild the country with white people, who had oppressed them until then.
The natural enviroment is truly remarkable: the characteristic bottle-shaped Baobabs, including giants Acacias and Lobelia, the largest mangroves and bamboo forest, populated by lions, buffaloes, leopards, elephants and rhinoceros (the Black Rhino living here, is endangered). On the coasts alternate beaches, palm trees and swampy areas, limited by coral reefs that make it difficult to dock. Proceeding inward, the fertile plains become an arid steppe plateaus, between 1500 and 300 meters, divided from north to south by the deep Rift Valley (famous for its finding prehistoric remains). Here are great millennial lakes: Lake Turkana (formerly Lake Rudolf), the Nakuru, Naivasha until the Victory, shallow but the largest tropical lake in the world, rich in fish and most important reservoir of the Nilo river. On the sides of the Rift Valley there are volcanic mountains of considerable height, including the snow-covered Mount Kenya, despite being just south of the Equator, Mount Kilimanjaro on the border with Tanzania and Mount Elgon near the Uganda.