Sokoke cats have lived a long time in the forests of Arabuko Sokoke, a district in the east of Kenya, between Malindi and Kilifi.  They lived in trees and hunted insects.

In 1978 Jeni Slater, an English speaking woman who lived in Kenya, adobted 2 kittens she found. One of her friends, Gloria Moldrup, brought 2 kittens home to Denmark and started to breed them regulary in 1984. She started a breeding program together with some other persons who were interested in the breed. The breed got the name African shorthair in 1983. Sokokes was officially approved in 1992 on a FIFe breed recogintion show in Danmark. FIFe gave approval for the breed on their GA in 1993.
 

In 2001 Helle Lauridsen, a Sokoke breeder in Danmark, got information about new Sokokes in Kenya. It was Will Knocker who discovered that his mother Jeannie Knocker had Sokoke cats on her farm in Kenya. People planned to make a film about Sokokes. The film never started and Jeannie now had 8 Sokokes. 2 breeders decided to import Sokokes from Kenya, Edith och Robert Peulicke, S*Kasafari, in Sweden and Anita H. Engebakken, Kimburu, in Norway. Helle Lauritsen in Denmark offered to have them in quarantine.
The first Sokokes who came to Sweden were Genet and Mara, the ones who came to Norway got the names Pwani, Malaika and Bahati. 2 more Kenyan's made their way to Norway in 2008 after living for a long time in USA, Umande and Kaya. There are some other Kenyan cats who still live in USA, but only one of them is unrelated to those who live in Europe.

For more extensive information about the Sokoke breed, see Anita H Engebakken´s webbsite: www.kimburu.net