Early History

The early history of Kenya began when ancestors of modern day humans roamed the land 4 million years ago.  The first settlers to come to Kenya were the Cushitic people, the Bantu people, and the Nilotic people.  On the coast of Kenya is the Indian Ocean where many Arab settlers had started living in 700AD.  The Arabs influenced the Bantu people by sharing their culture and they got along with them.  The mix between the Arabs and Bantu formed the Swahili culture and language found in Kenya today. 

In 1498, the Portuguese arrived and settled along Kenya’s coast.  This is when Arab authority ended.  When the Portuguese took over, they built the famous Fort Jesus in Mombasa.  In the late 1600s, the Imam of Oman, an Arabic Bantu, defeated the Portuguese and brought Kenya’s coast under Islamic control.

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Fort Jesus in Mombasa