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Updates: 

A new constitution for Kenya was enacted on 2010-08-27. It provides for devolved county government. There are 47 counties, as shown in the table below. The counties became active on 2013-03-27. They coincide almost exactly with the districts of Kenya as they were configured in ~1989. President Kibaki has stated that the number of counties will be increased in the future if this division proves unsatisfactory.

Update 11 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes (GEC, formerly FIPS 10-4) is dated 2013-04-30. It assigns codes to the new counties. "Geopolitical Entities, Names, and Codes, Edition 2" (GENC), a U.S. standard that's supposed to correspond to ISO 3166-2, was issued on 2014-03-31. It gives codes for the new counties, different from the GEC codes. On 2014-10-30, ISO revoked the codes for the provinces and added codes for the new counties, which exactly match the GENC codes.

When ISO 3166-2 came out in a second edition, dated 2007-12-15, it unexpectedly changed the code for Western province from 900 to 800.

Country overview: 

Short name	KENYA
ISO code	KE
GEC code	KE
Language	English (en), Swahili (sw)
Time zone	+3
Capital	Nairobi

 

At the start of the 20th century, British East Africa included the territory of Kenya and Uganda, plus some parts of Congo, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Kenya was split off as a British colony on 1905-04-01, under the same administration as the Kenya Protectorate, a coastal strip about ten miles wide owned by the Sultan of Zanzibar and leased to the British. The tiny Witu Protectorate was also included. The name British East Africa continued in use as a geographical term. Kenya became independent on 1963-12-12.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Kenya
2. Dutch: Kenia, Republiek Kenia (formal)
3. English: Republic of Kenya (formal)
4. Finnish: Kenia
5. French: Kenya m
6. German: Kenia n
7. Icelandic: Kenía
8. Italian: Kenia, Kenya m
9. Norwegian: Kenya, Republikken Kenya (formal)
10. Portuguese: Quénia, Quênia (Brazil), República f do Quénia m (formal)
11. Russian: Республика Кения (formal)
12. Spanish: Kenia, República f de Kenya f (formal)
13. Turkish: Kenya Cumhuriyeti (formal)
14. Swahili: Jamhuri ya Kenya (formal)
15. Swedish: Kenya

Origin of name: 

after Mount Kenya, from Kikuyu kere-nyaga: Mountain of Whiteness

Primary subdivisions: 

Kenya is divided into 47 counties.

County	HASC	ISO	GEC	KBS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Pr
Baringo	KE.BA	01	KE10	BAR	555,561	11,015	4,253	RV
Bomet	KE.BO	02	KE11	BMT	891,835	2,792	1,078	RV
Bungoma	KE.BN	03	KE12	BGM	1,375,063	3,032	1,171	WE
Busia	KE.BS	04	KE13	BSA	743,946	1,695	654	WE
Elgeyo Marakwet	KE.EM	05	KE14	EGM	369,998	3,030	1,170	RV
Embu	KE.EB	06	KE15	EBU	516,212	2,818	1,088	EA
Garissa	KE.GA	07	KE16	GSA	623,060	44,175	17,056	NE
Homa Bay	KE.HB	08	KE17	HMA	963,794	3,183	1,229	NY
Isiolo	KE.IS	09	KE18	ISL	143,294	25,336	9,782	EA
Kajiado	KE.KJ	10	KE19	KAJ	687,312	21,901	8,456	RV
Kakamega	KE.KK	11	KE20	KAK	1,660,651	3,018	1,165	WE
Kericho	KE.KR	12	KE21	KCO	590,690	2,158	833	RV
Kiambu	KE.KB	13	KE22	KBU	1,623,282	2,543	982	CE
Kilifi	KE.KF	14	KE23	KLF	1,109,735	12,610	4,869	CO
Kirinyaga	KE.KY	15	KE24	KIR	528,054	1,479	571	CE
Kisii	KE.KI	16	KE25	KSI	1,152,282	1,318	509	NY
Kisumu	KE.KU	17	KE26	KIS	968,909	2,086	805	NY
Kitui	KE.KT	18	KE27	KTU	1,012,709	30,497	11,775	EA
Kwale	KE.KW	19	KE28	KLE	649,931	8,270	3,193	CO
Laikipia	KE.LK	20	KE29	LKP	399,227	9,462	3,653	RV
Lamu	KE.LM	21	KE30	LAU	101,539	6,273	2,422	CO
Machakos	KE.MC	22	KE31	MCS	1,098,584	6,208	2,397	EA
Makueni	KE.MK	23	KE32	MUE	884,527	8,009	3,092	EA
Mandera	KE.MD	24	KE33	MDA	1,025,756	25,991	10,035	NE
Marsabit	KE.MB	25	KE34	MAR	291,166	70,961	27,398	EA
Meru	KE.ME	26	KE35	MRU	1,356,301	6,933	2,677	EA
Migori	KE.MG	27	KE36	MIG	917,170	2,596	1,002	NY
Mombasa	KE.MM	28	KE37	MBA	939,370	219	85	CO
Murang'a	KE.MU	29	KE38	MRA	942,581	2,559	988	CE
Nairobi	KE.NB	30	KE05	NBO	3,138,369	695	268	NA
Nakuru	KE.NK	31	KE39	NKU	1,603,325	7,495	2,894	RV
Nandi	KE.ND	32	KE40	NDI	752,965	2,884	1,114	RV
Narok	KE.NR	33	KE41	NRK	850,920	17,933	6,924	RV
Nyamira	KE.NM	34	KE42	NYI	598,252	899	347	NY
Nyandarua	KE.NN	35	KE43	NDR	596,268	3,245	1,253	CE
Nyeri	KE.NI	36	KE44	NER	693,558	3,337	1,288	CE
Samburu	KE.SA	37	KE45	SMB	223,947	21,022	8,117	RV
Siaya	KE.SI	38	KE46	SYA	842,304	2,530	977	NY
Taita Taveta	KE.TT	39	KE47	TVT	284,657	17,084	6,596	CO
Tana River	KE.TR	40	KE48	TAN	240,075	38,437	14,841	CO
Tharaka Nithi	KE.NT	41	KE49	TNT	365,330	2,639	1,019	EA
Trans Nzoia	KE.TN	42	KE50	TRN	818,757	2,496	964	RV
Turkana	KE.TU	43	KE51	TUR	855,399	68,680	26,518	RV
Uasin Gishu	KE.UG	44	KE52	USG	894,179	3,345	1,292	RV
Vihiga	KE.VI	45	KE53	VHG	554,622	564	218	WE
Wajir	KE.WJ	46	KE54	WJR	661,941	56,686	21,886	NE
West Pokot	KE.WP	47	KE55	PKT	512,690	9,169	3,540	RV
47 counties					38,610,097	581,309	224,445
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. GEC: Codes from GEC. KBS: Codes used by the Kenya Bureau of Standards. Population: 2009-04-15 census. Pr: Former province containing this county.

Postal codes: 

Kenya uses five-digit postal codes. Generally a space is inserted after the first digit. The first digit indicates the province, with some exceptions.

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of Kenya page.

When there were seven provinces, they were subdivided into 40 districts.

Territorial extent: 

Coast includes all the islands along Kenya's coast, such as Funzi, Wasini (Shimoni), and the Lamu Archipelago (Lamu, Pate, Manda, and others).

There are three sizable islands in Lake Turkana. North Island is entirely within Rift Valley, South Island is entirely within Eastern, and Central Island is split between the two.

The UN LOCODE page  for Kenya lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

1. Nairobi: Masai for the cool place
2. Rift Valley: contains the Kenyan section of the Great Rift

Change history: 

1. 1909: Kenya consisted of six provinces: Kenia, Naivasha, Nyanza, Seyide, Tanaland, and Ukamba.
2. ~1913: Jubaland and Northern Frontier provinces added, probably annexed from Somaliland and Uganda, respectively; Kenia and Naivasha provinces enlarged, probably at the expense of neighboring provinces. Spelling of Kenia changed to Kenya.
3. ~1922: Seyide and Tanaland provinces merged to form Coast. Name of Kenya province changed to Kikuyu. Masai province created, probably split from Ukamba.
4. 1925-06-29: Transjuba (everything west of the Juba River in modern Somalia) transferred from Kenya to Italian Somaliland.
5. The divisions of Kenya at the time of the 1948 census were as follows, according to source [1].

Province	Population	Area(km.²)	Capital
Central	2,104,910	77,705	Nyeri
Coast	501,121	64,074	Mombasa
Masai	67,130	39,451	Nairobi
Northern Frontier	187,451	302,464	Isiolo
Nyanza	1,866,677	28,751	Kisumu
Rift Valley	678,677	66,361	Nakuru
6 divisions	5,410,281	578,805
Province: except Masai, which was a district. Population: 1948-02-25 census.

1. ~1955: Name of Masai district changed to Nairobi. Name of Northern Frontier changed to Northern. Southern province formed; its capital was Ngong.
2. 1962: Kenya reorganized into Central, Coast, Eastern, Northern, Nyanza, Rift Valley, and Western regions, and the Nairobi area. By 1970 the status of the regions had changed to provinces.
3. 1963: North-Eastern province formed from Northern and part of Coast.

Province	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Pc	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Central	KE.CE	200	KE01	1	4,383,743	13,191	5,093	Nyeri
Coast	KE.CO	300	KE02	8	3,325,307	83,603	32,279	Mombasa
Eastern	KE.EA	400	KE03	6,9	5,665,123	159,891	61,734	Embu
Nairobi Area	KE.NA	110	KE05	0	3,138,369	684	264	Nairobi
North-Eastern	KE.NE	500	KE06	7	2,310,757	126,902	48,997	Garissa
Nyanza	KE.NY	600	KE07	4	5,442,711	16,162	6,240	Kisumu
Rift Valley	KE.RV	700	KE08	2,3	10,006,805	173,854	67,125	Nakuru
Western	KE.WE	800	KE09	5	4,334,282	8,361	3,228	Kakamega
8 divisions					38,610,097	582,648	224,960
Province: except Nairobi, which is an "area". HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Pc: First digit(s) of postal codes for province. Population: 2009-04-15 census.

1. 2013-03-27: Kenya reorganized into 47 counties, which are shown in the main table above.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Homa Bay: Asego (Swahili)
2. West Pokot: Pokot (variant)
3. Central: Kati (Swahili)
4. Coast: Pwani (Swahili)
5. Eastern: Mashariki (Swahili)
6. Nairobi Area: Federal Area, Nairobi City, Nairobi District (variant); Masai District (obsolete)
7. North-Eastern: Kaskazini Mashariki (Swahili)
8. Nyanza: Nyanza (Swahili)
9. Rift Valley: Bonde la Ufa (Swahili)
10. Western: Magharibi (Swahili)

Population history:

Province	1962-08-15	1969-08-24	1979-08-25	1989-08-24	1999-08-24	2009-04-15
Central	1,334,900	1,676,000	2,345,833	3,116,703	3,724,159	4,383,743
Coast	741,100	944,000	1,342,794	1,829,191	2,487,264	3,325,307
Eastern	1,556,900	1,907,000	2,719,851	3,768,677	4,631,779	5,665,123
Nairobi Area	343,500	509,000	827,775	1,324,570	2,143,254	3,138,369
North-Eastern	268,900	246,000	373,787	371,391	962,143	2,310,757
Nyanza	1,634,100	2,122,000	2,643,956	3,507,162	4,392,196	5,442,711
Rift Valley	1,739,800	2,210,000	3,240,402	4,981,613	6,987,036	10,006,805
Western	1,014,500	1,328,000	1,832,663	2,544,329	3,358,776	4,334,282
Totals	8,636,300	10,943,000	15,327,061	21,443,636	28,686,607	38,610,097

 

Notes: 1962 total includes 2,600 persons in transit at the time of the enumeration. 1962 figures proleptic to post-1963 boundaries.

Sources: 

1. [1] Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1957 edition.
2. [2] L'Évaluation des effectifs de la population des pays Africains, Tome I. Groupe de Démographie Africaine, Paris, 1982.
3. [3] Kenya Open Data  is the source for 2009 census data (retrieved 2011-12-31).
4. [4] http://www.provincialadministration.go.ke/ (dead link).
5. [5] National Atlas of Kenya, 3rd ed. Survey of Kenya, 1970.
6. [6] Central Bureau of Statistics census report (http://www.cbs.go.ke/census1999.html, dead link, retrieved 2004-01-10).