Kenya is one of Africa's most important and controversial nations. It has simultaneously been heralded for its political stability and economic success and criticized as a wellspring of elitism and class exploitation. Kenya remains a close ally of the West and a symbol of capitalism in Africa, and it occupies a position of strategic importance to the Middle East and the Indian Ocean. Yet all of these distinctions are now coming under question in the fourth decade of independence.Kenya's exquisite natural beauty and renowned wildlife refuges hide a more mundane reality. The country is vast,...