district encompassing Mombasa constituted the two urban centers with densities of 1,210 per square kilometer in Nairobi and 1,622 per square kilometer in Mombasa. The more densely populated regions constituted about 8 percent of the land area, and 58 percent of the population lived in these areas. With the addition of several other comparatively small areas with high density, more than 70 percent of the population lived in less than 11 percent of the land area, with most of the densely settled territory in the southwestern quadrant; the coastal region constitutes a secondary area of concentration. In the less populated areas, density ranged from 395 persons per square kilometer in the Kisii District to one per square kilometer in the Marsabit District. There were no urban centers in Kenya before the arrival of the British, with the exception of a few coastal towns. Since the end of the nineteenth century, there has been some growth in urban regions during the colonial era and since independence, but Kenya has remained predominantly rural just the same. In 1969 some 10 percent of the population was considered urban, meaning they lived in towns of 2,000 persons or more. By 1979 the urban population had increased to about 13 percent and to perhaps 15 percent by the early 1980s.
The economy of Kenya is a mix of private and public sector enterprise. Since independence, the nation has relied heavily on private enterprise to develop the economy, though the government has taken a hand in various ways to prevent unbridled private entrepreneurship while at the same time modifying traditional customary practice to solve new circumstances faced in the development of a modern economy. One of the most importance changes in this regard has been the large-scale introduction of private ownership of agricultural and pastoral land through registered title. The government has also been widely involved in the economy by means of a number of ...