Who they are
Kenyans of European descent are mainly descendants of British settlers who farmed the former "White Highlands", together with later arrivals.
Numbers
Sources disagree sharply on the size of the community. Published analyses of the 2019 census give very different figures, and the census separates Europeans who hold Kenyan citizenship from those who do not. Our source has not resolved the discrepancy against the official KNBS volume, so we give no figure here.
Further reading
- Knowing Ethnicity: Politics, Classification and Pluralism in Kenya, Samantha Balaton-Chrimes (2026)
Sources
From The Peoples of Kenya: An Ethnographic Reference (Kenya Experience, November 2026), a synthesis of published sources. Practices described as traditional are historical baselines; today most Kenyans are Christian or Muslim, live in or near towns and speak Swahili and English. Spot something to correct? Write to kibetck@kenyaexperience.org.
