Trace and Tell your Family's Empire Stories
Country Histories
The region of East Africa comprising modern-day Kenya has had trading contact with the outside world for over a thousand years. However, it was only in the late nineteenth century that British rule was established and began to penetrate the interior of the country.
The white settlers who followed the building of the Uganda railway to establish huge farms in the region caused enormous frustration among the disenfranchised majority African population.
This culminated in the Mau Mau uprising that was brutally suppressed by the British from 1952. By this time, the African independence movement could not be ignored and Kenya became independent in 1963.
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Jomo Kenyatta, new leader of independent Kenya, walks along a railway platform accompanied by members of his female bodyguard. Kenya, circa 1963. Copyright Images of Empire.
The British East Africa Protectorate became the Kenya Colony on 23 July 1920. Politics at first were dominated by the dispute between white settlers and Indians over representation on Kenya's legislative council. In 1924 it was agreed that there would be eleven European, one Arab and five Indian elected representatives. Africans were entirely left out of this equation and had appointed white representatives.
In 1923 British policy began to stress the concept of a 'trusteeship' to protect the interests of black Africans in Kenya. But there was little official provision for native peoples. The Young Kikuyu Association was founded in 1921 (renamed the Kikuyu Central Association in 1925) to campaign for equal political rights. Jomo Kenyatta (1894-1978), the nationalist leader and first prime minister of post-independence Kenya, was an early recruit, and became its leader in 1928.
During the Second World War, Kenyan soldiers fought in many areas. Their exposure to political developments in other parts of the Empire and in Europe, especially in India, inspired many to join the nationalist movement upon their return. African frustration was underscored by widespread unemployment among veterans, who believed that they deserved a better deal in return for having loyally served the crown. The British only gradually introduced black representation onto the Legislative Council from 1944, and these representatives were appointed, not elected.
