Kenya - for Jomo Kenyatta who, legend tells, did not want the country named for him therefore the change in pronunciation. KEN-ya from KEEN=yatta.

I think he came to power after the Mau Mau raised some hell, killed some British planters/farmers and the Brits responded by interning many hundreds of native peoples and confiscating their lands etc. Then came independence. I believe Kenyatta was leader of the Thicka (sp?) party of which the Mau Mau were a militant off-shoot group.

Whew! my memory dredged that up from where (God-alone-knows) I had it tucked it away.