
Kenyan Time:
Fossils found in East Africa suggest that primates roamed the area more than 20 million years ago. Recent finds near Kenya's Lake Turkana indicate that these finds are possible direct ancestors of modern Homo sapiens and lived in Kenya during the pleistocene epoch. In 1984 one particular discovery made at Lake Turkana by famous paleanthropologist Richard Leakey and Kamoya Kimeu was the skeleton of a Turkana boy belonging to Homo erectus from 1.6 million years ago.
In the late 15th Century, the Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama, was the first Westerner to sail around the Cape of Good Hope to Asia, set up a trading post at Malindi. In 1895, the British Government declared East Africa a Protectorate and subsequently in 1963 Kenya became independent under Jomo Kenyatta as the first Prime Minister, and later in 1964 became a Republic.
The Swahili language developed as a lingua franca for trade between the different peoples, with English being widely spoken across the country and is used in everyday life.
