Indians in Kenya, often known as Kenyan Asians, are citizens and residents of

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

with ancestral roots in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

. Significant Indian migration to modern-day Kenya began following the creation of the British

East Africa Protectorate East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was an area in the African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by Britai ...

in 1895, which had strong infrastructure links with

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. Indians in Kenya predominantly live in the major urban areas of

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...

and

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

, with a minority living in rural areas. According to the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

, the population of Indians in Kenya numbered around 100,000 in 2015. In 2017, Indians were recognised by the government of Kenya as the nation's 44th tribe.

Terminology

In Kenya, the word ''Asian'' usually refers specifically to people of South Asian ancestry. Prior to the partition of India, those of South Asian ancestry were referred to as Indians; however after 1947 the term ''Asian'' also started being used.

History

Early history

Vasco da Gama recorded encountering Indian merchants along the coast of east Africa in the late 15th century. In

Malindi Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Sabaki River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi was 119,859 as of the 2019 census. It is the largest urban cent ...

he obtained the service of a

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

speaking sailor to navigate ships across the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second l ...

. The

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

soon came to monopolise trade across the Indian Ocean and displace the existing

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

commercial dominance in the region. Although this affected India's commerce with East Africa, Indians were the accountants and bankers for the Portuguese as they had been for the Arabs.Herzig, Pascale, South Asians in Kenya: Gender, Generation and Changing Identities in Diaspora, LIT Verlag Münster, 2006, page 11 By the early part of the 19th century, small numbers of Indian merchants could be found settled across the trading posts of East Africa. Their interests were enhanced when

Said bin Sultan Sayyid Saïd bin Sultan al-Busaidi ( ar, سعيد بن سلطان, , sw, Saïd bin Sultani) (5 June 1791 – 19 October 1856), was Sultan of Muscat and Oman, the fifth ruler of the Busaid dynasty from 1804 to 4 June 1856. His rule commenced fol ...

the

Sultan of Muscat and Oman The sultan of the Sultanate of Oman is the monarchical head of state and head of government of Oman. It is the most powerful position in the country. The sultans of Oman are members of the Busaid dynasty, which has been the ruling family of ...

, subjected to the emergence of British naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean and direct British political support for Indian merchants along the East African coast, adopted a series of favourable policies towards Indians in the region. In 1887 the British East Africa Association was founded with its base in

. The following year the Association was given a royal charter, becoming the Imperial British East Africa Company and moving its base to

. Although now based in Africa, the company had a strong Indian orientation, employing guards, police officers, clerks and accountants from Bombay.Herzig, Pascale, South Asians in Kenya: Gender, Generation and Changing Identities in Diaspora, LIT Verlag Münster, 2006, page 13

East Africa Protectorate

Significant Indian migration to modern-day Kenya began following the creation of the

in 1895. The Protectorate took over the assets and personnel of the Imperial British East Africa Company and hence its Indian orientation. The rupee was instituted as the currency of the Protectorate and the legal system became an extension of Indian law. Initially, British officials envisioned developing Kenya as the "America of the Hindu", considering Indians as sub-imperialist agents of civilisation in the region. Among the local Indian ethnic populace, the vast majority of administrative roles were filled by Konkani

Goans Goans ( kok, गोंयकार, Romi Konkani: , pt, Goeses) is the demonym used to describe the people native to Goa, India, who form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Indo-Portuguese, and ...

Parsis Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...

and

Gujaratis The Gujarati people or Gujaratis, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who reside in or can trace their ancestry or heritage to the present-day western Indian state of Gujarat. They primarily speak Gujarati, an Indo-Aryan language. While G ...

, whilst the ranks of the British officered police and army mainly consisted of Punjabis. Between 1896 and 1901, some 32,000 indentured labourers were recruited from India to construct the

Uganda railway The Uganda Railway was a metre-gauge railway system and former British state-owned railway company. The line linked the interiors of Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya. After a series of mergers and splits, the li ...

. The principal recruiting centre was

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

, where coolies were engaged from the surrounding villages and sent to

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

in special trains to catch specially chartered steamers of the British India Steam Navigation Company. Construction of the railway was a remarkable engineering feat; however, approximately 2,500 labourers died during construction (about four deaths for each mile of track laid) and the project was notorious for the Tsavo maneaters. Once the railway was completed, some of these labourers voluntarily settled in the Protectorate and brought families from India. The railway opened the interior to trade, and many soon began migrating away from the coastal cities. Over the following years, large numbers of Gujaratis and Punjabis migrated freely seeking to utilise new economic possibilities in the Protectorate. These migrants often came with family members or members of the same village or caste. Asian settlers were soon joined by European farmers, who from 1902 onward were given large tracts of land in the

White Highlands The White Highlands is an area in the central uplands of Kenya. It was traditionally the homeland of indigenous Central Kenyan communities up to the colonial period, when it became the centre of European settlement in Kenya, and between 1902 and 19 ...

. The cooler Highlands, seen as more suitable for European settlement were reserved by the government for the sole occupation of Europeans. Asian exclusion from these favourable lands caused friction between Asians and Europeans which would last for decades. Many Asians instead settled in the new town of

which from 1905 became the capital of the British protectorate, and where, unlike black Africans, Asians were permitted to reside legally. One of the most significant early pioneers was A. M. Jeevanjee. In 1890 his company A.M. Jeevanjee of

was awarded the contract to supply labour for the building of the Uganda railway, and he subsequently went on to establish himself as the pre-eminent Asian businessman in the new colony. He established Kenya's first newspaper now known as The Standard in 1901 and was the first non-white to be elected to the Legislative Council in 1910. Such was his success that in 1904 it was estimated that he owned half of Mombasa and the greater part of Nairobi. In 1900 the Mombasa Indian Association was established on the initiative of L.M Savle, and with the backing of wealthy businessmen Allidina Visram and the Jevanjee brothers, and became the first political organisation in the protectorate to represent the interests of Asians.Howard Schwartz, The Rise and Fall of Philanthropy in East Africa: The Asian Contribution, Routledge, 5 July 2017 Regional branches later emerged, including in Nairobi in 1906 which soon became more influential than the Mombasa association. To co-ordinate the aims of the different branches, the British East Africa Indian Association was formed in 1907, however it soon became representative of only local interests and remained relatively unimportant. In 1914 the East African Indian National Congress was established in Mombasa and was modelled on the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the militant anti-imperialist

Ghadar Party The Ghadar Movement was an early 20th century, international political movement founded by expatriate Indians to overthrow British rule in India. The early movement was created by conspirators who lived and worked on the West Coast of the Unite ...

established a branch in East Africa, and attracted support from a number of the Asian community.Durrani, Shiraz, Never Be Silent: Publishing and Imperialism 1884-1963, Vita Books, 25 November 2016 The British authorities took a serious view of what they regarded as the Ghadar party's political terrorism and sentenced a number of members to death for either belonging to the party or possessing seditious material.

Kenya Colony

By the early 1920s, there was a sizeable Asian population who demanded a greater role in the developing political life of what became

Kenya Colony The Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, commonly known as British Kenya or British East Africa, was part of the British Empire in Africa. It was established when the former East Africa Protectorate was transformed into a British Crown colony in ...

. Racial hostilities gradually intensified in the 1920s; however, Indians, who enjoyed significantly greater economic strength than black Africans, had greater bargaining power with the colonial government. As early as 1920, they turned down the offer of two seats on the legislative council as this was not representative of the size of their community. Tensions with Europeans remained high until 1927 when Indians won the right to five seats on the council, compared to eleven reserved for the Europeans. Both parties prevented any African representation. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Asians were found in all occupations in Nairobi and the townships: in business, the police force, bureaucracy, and the professions. Their commercial skills contributed to the economic development and prosperity of Kenya and the rest of East Africa. The 1950s saw increased sentiment against the inequalities of colonial rule, and many Asians were at the forefront of the push for increased rights. These included:

Pio Gama Pinto Pio Gama Pinto (31 March 1927 – 24 February 1965) was a Kenyan journalist, politician and freedom fighter. He was a socialist leader who dedicated his life to the liberation of the Kenyan people and became independent Kenya's first martyr in ...

, founder of the

Kenya African National Union The Kenya African National Union (KANU) is a Kenyan political party that ruled for nearly 40 years after Kenya's independence from British colonial rule in 1963 until its electoral loss in 2002. It was known as Kenya African Union (KAU) from 19 ...

newspaper, Makhan Singh who is regarded as laying the foundations of Kenyan trade unionism, and A.R. Kapila and Fitz de Souza known in the legal profession for their representation of those accused of Mau Mau links. By 1962, the Asian community had firmly established its dominance within the urban economy. Despite accounting for only 2 percent of the overall population, they constituted one-third of the population of Nairobi, where their businesses dominated the main street. Prior to independence Asians owned nearly three-quarters of the private non-agricultural assets in the country. The Gujarati community, in particular, thrived in a wide range of industries. Some of Kenya's largest most prominent companies to date are controlled by Gujaratis, including Comcraft Group Manu Chandaria (Manufacturing).

Independence

Kenya achieved independence from Britain in 1963 and thereafter followed a period of volatility in African and Asian relations. Asians, along with Europeans, were given two years to acquire Kenyan citizenship and surrender their

British passports A British passport is a travel document issued by the United Kingdom or other British dependencies and territories to individuals holding any form of British nationality. It grants the bearer international passage in accordance with visa requ ...

. Out of approximately 180,000 Asians and 42,000 Europeans in Kenya at the time, fewer than 20,000 had submitted their applications by the deadline. This, in turn, led to growing animosity and distrust from Africans. They considered those who failed to take up Kenyan citizenship as being disloyal. Those without Kenyan citizenship soon became subject to increasing discrimination by the ruling government, led by Jomo Kenyatta. Despite the entrepreneurial success of the community, in 1970, 70% of the economically active Asian population consisted of wage and salary earners, and 30% worked for the civil service. A policy of Africanisation meant many were sacked in favour of black Africans. The Kenyan Immigration Act 1967 required Asians to acquire work permits, whilst a Trade Licensing Act passed in the same year limited the areas of the country in which non-Kenyans could engage in trade. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, faced with a dim future in Africa, many Asians choose to utilise their British passports and settle in the United Kingdom. Consequently, the Asian population in Kenya declined from 179,000 in 1962 to 139,000 in 1969 and to 78,000 in 1979. Asian migrants to the United Kingdom settled mainly in the English cities of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and Leicester.

Present day

Visiting Kenya in the 1970s, the Indo-Trinidadian writer V.S. Naipaul referring to the inward focus of the Asian community, commented that "the Indian in East Africa brought India with him and kept it inviolate". The same was said about the Europeans. Those who remained saw a gradual improvement in their legal status, however, the Asian community continued to be cautiously inward and self-reliant. Despite varying degrees of acculturation, most have retained their strong Indian ties and traditions, and are a close-knit,

endogamous Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting those from others as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. Endogamy is common in many cultu ...

community. Following the

1982 Kenyan coup d'état attempt The 1982 Kenyan coup d'état attempt was a failed attempt to overthrow President Daniel arap Moi's government. At 3 A.M. on Sunday, 1 August 1982, a group of soldiers from the Kenya Air Force took over Eastleigh Air Base just outside Nairobi, ...

to remove President Moi, many Asian shops and businesses in Nairobi were attacked and pillaged. Despite fears at the time within the community, it did not result in another exodus of Asians from the country. On 22 July 2017, the

Uhuru Kenyatta Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born 26 October 1961) is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022. Kenyatta was chosen by Daniel Arap Moi as his preferred successor, but Kenyatta was defeated by opposition le ...

government announced that the Asian community would be officially recognised as the 44th tribe in Kenya recognising the community's contribution to Kenya from the dawn of the nation.

Demography and religion

Brothers_Jagjit,_Partap_&_Santokh_Singh_Ahdan

The 2019 Kenyan Census recorded 47,555 Kenyan citizens of Asian origin, while Asians without Kenyan

citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

numbered 42,972 individuals. Asian ethnic groups mostly originate from a few places in South Asia. The majority of Asians trace their ancestry to the regions of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

and the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

. There are also large numbers who originate from Maharashtra,

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

, and

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. Languages spoken by Asians include

, Hindustani, Marathi, Konkani, Kutchi (as well as the

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...

Kutchi-Swahili), Odia, Punjabi, Sindhi, and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

. The majority of Asians are

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

. The leading caste-based subgroups within Kenyan Hinduism include

Lohanas Lohana, also referred to as Loharana, Thakkar and Lohrana, are an Indian trading or mercantile '' jāti''. Lohanas claim to be descendants of the Lava, son of Rama, and to descend from the Raghuvanshi dynasty.Lachaier, Pierre. "Cérémonies D'ho ...

Lohar Lohar is a social group in India, Nepal and Pakistan. They are associated with iron smelting work. They form part of a loose grouping of traditionally artisanal castes known as Panchals. Lohars worship Lord Vishwakarma and other Hindu gods and ...

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

, Patels and Mehtas, among others.Kinanga, Dr Moywaywa Charles, 'The Origins and Settlement of Hindus in Nairobi, Kenya' International Journal of Arts and Commerce Vol. 4 No. 8 October 2015, Page 119 Their largest concentration is in Nairobi, where mandirs can be found in most neighbourhoods. The next largest community are

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

; the majority being Sunni Muslims, however there is a significant

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mo ...

minority, including Ismailis, Bohras and Ithnā'ashariyyah.Oded, Arye, Islam and Politics in Kenya, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000, page 15 There are also sizeable communities of Sikhs and

Jains Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

, and smaller numbers of Roman Catholics.

References

Bibliography

Indians of Africa
Rudy Brueggemann, 2000.

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

15 March 2000.
More Kenyan Asians flee to Britain
BBC, 4 February 1968. Reprinted by BBC.co.uk, "On this Date", n.d.
The Lost Indians of Kenya
Salim Lone, New York Times Review of Books, Volume 17, Number 5 · 7 October 1971.
'We're all Kenyans here'
Shashi Tharoor,

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

, 7 November 2004.
The Indian Diaspora in Africa
Ruth DeSouza. * Vincent Cable The Asians of Kenya, African Affairs, Vol. 68, No. 272 (Jul. 1969), pp. 218–231 *Randall Hansen. THE KENYAN ASIANS, BRITISH POLITICS, AND THE COMMONWEALTH IMMIGRANTS ACT, 1968. The Historical Journal (1999), 42: 809–834 .
Unfree Labour: Family History Sources for Indian Indentured Labour
Research Guide from The British National Archives, 2006.

External links

Asian African Heritage Trust
Richard Peck, Lewis and Clark College, 2006.
Immigration Department of Kenya
abstract history of nationality laws. *https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/namaskar-africana