Kenya

Colonial Background

The first British came to Kenya in 1890 under the flagship of the Imperial British East African Company, and administrators as well as missionaries followed. Settler farmers also started occupying some of the most fertile land in Kenya (30% of the most fertile land was occupied by British settlers). Kenya became a British colony in 1920, and the British settlers decided Kenya was to be their home forever and had no intentions of leaving the country. They appropriated for themselves the most fertile lands, often referred to as the “White Highlands.” Africans could not own land in this exclusive area, and they existed only as workers or squatters.

The most affected ethnic group in the land issue was the Kikuyu of Central Highlands of the Kiambu, Nyeri, and Murang'a districts. Their population had been growing in numbers, and when the British came, the Kikuyu was the largest ethnic group and continues to be—to date, numbering about 7 million, or one-fifth of Kenya's total population of 30 million people. The Kikuyu were forced to live in crowded situations in the Central Province. They were also forced to work as cheap labor for the White settlers. Taxes were imposed in the colony and Western culture was introduced, and the Africans were forced, for example, through Christianity, to abandon many of their cultural traditions.

Many Kenya tribes felt deprived of their land, and the Kikuyu were the most agitated group, mainly because they were in close proximity to the land settled by the British. They were politically astute and started organizing political groups as early as the 1920s under the auspices of the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA). In 1928, they sent one of their own, Jomo Kenyatta, to England to present to the King and the Home Office their grievances, especially related to their “stolen land” and racial discrimination in their own country.

Such grievances went unattended, and this led to the violent movement, called the Mau Mau War, from 1952 through 1956. This was guerrilla-like war, where the majority of Kikuyu, Meru, and Embu youth went to the forests of Nyandarua and Mt. Kenya to fight against the British authorities, who firmly governed the country. While there is no unanimous agreement as to whether the British left and gave Kenya independence because of the violent Mau Mau, most agree that the Mau Mau disrupted peace and stability in Kenya. The movement also instilled fear in the settlers and disrupted their farming; they started to have second thoughts about making Kenya their permanent home. The colony also started being a liability, and the Home Office back in London had grown tired of subsidizing the Kenya colonial government.

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