FACTBOX: Key facts about Kenya

(Reuters) - Kenyans vote for a new president and parliament on Thursday. Here are key facts about Kenya:

COUNTRY:

* Famous for its palm-fringed beaches and wildlife parks, Kenya shares borders with Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. The country of 36 million people, split into more than 40 ethnic groups, is widely regarded as a haven of relative peace and prosperity in a region plagued by conflict, poverty and disease. Kenya is one of the few countries in Africa whose post-independence history has not been stained by coups, major ethnic conflict or war with neighbors.

* Kenya's gross domestic product has grown an average 5 percent annually since President Mwai Kibaki won power in 2002. It reached 6.1 percent in 2006 from just 0.6 percent in 2002, the last year of his predecessor Daniel arap Moi's reign. Economists credit Kibaki with giving private enterprise the freedom to flourish. But they say growth could have been better if the government had tackled corruption, crime and speeded infrastructure improvements. In 2001, the unemployment rate was estimated at 40 percent. Key exports include tea, flowers, coffee, petroleum products, fish and cement.

FAMOUS KENYANS:

* Environmentalist Wangari Maathai in 2004 became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping the continent's poor with a campaign to plant millions of trees to slow down deforestation.

* Long-distance runner Paul Tergat held the world marathon record of two hours four minutes 55 seconds until his great rival Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia broke the record this year.

* Paleontologist Louis Leakey, who in the 1960s made fossil bone discoveries in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge which led to a drastic revision of theories about the origin of man.

* One of the giants of African literature, Ngugi wa Thiong'o was arrested in 1977 by the regime of former president Daniel arap Moi after peasants and workers performed his play "Ngaahika Ndeenda" ("I will marry when I want"). He is best known for his novels "Devil on the Cross" and "A Grain of Wheat".

* Barack Obama. The Democratic senator who could be the next president of the United States was born to a Kenyan father and white American mother, and has become an idol to many in Kenya who see him as their native son.

COLONIAL LINKS:

* Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963, but its influence lingers from red post box pillars and warm beer to the London cabs that help clog the streets downtown. Former British envoy Edward Clay raised hackles in 2004 when he equated Kenya's tolerance of grand corruption to vomiting on the shoes of the donors who provide aid. The Thomas Cholmondeley murder trial is another case that has stirred simmering animosity towards Britain. The descendant of one of Kenya's most famous white settlers is on trial for killing a black man.

SWAHILI PHRASES:

* "Jambo, habari yako?" -- "Hello, how are you?" and "hakuna matata" -- "no worries" are stock phrases spoken to tourists. Kenyans, however, are more likely to say to each other "Sasa?" -- "what's up?", to which the common answer is "Poa" -- "cool", or "mzuri" -- "fine". Nairobi's Kiswahili is notoriously rough-and-tumble and a far cry from the more formal version spoken on the coast from which it takes its name. Young Kenyans speak a version called Sheng which mixes in English and pronunciations that irk their parents' generation.

(Compiled by Wangui Kanina, Helen Nyambura-Mwaura and George Obulutsa in Nairobi; Writing by Katie Nguyen, editing by Mary Gabriel)