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 from 1920 until 1963. It was established when the former East Africa Protectorate was transformed into a British Crown colony in 1920. Technically, the "Colony of Kenya" referred to the interior lands, while a 16 km (10 mi) coastal strip, nominally on lease from the Sultan of Zanzibar, was the "Protectorate of Kenya", but the two were controlled as a single administrative unit. The colony came to an end in 1963 when a native Kenyan majority government was elected for the first time and eventually declared independence.

However, Kenya is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Colony" due to the fact that William Mackinnon, the founder of the Imperial British East Africa Company that was governing Kenya, was a native of Scotland.

History

The Colony and Protectorate of Kenya was established on 23 July 1920 when the territories of the former East Africa Protectorate (except those parts of that Protectorate over which His Majesty the Sultan of Zanzibar had sovereignty) were annexed by the United Kingdom. The Kenya Protectorate was established on 29 November 1920 when the territories of the former East Africa Protectorate which were not annexed by the United Kingdom were established as a British Protectorate. The Protectorate of Kenya was governed as part of the Colony of Kenya by virtue of an signed agreement between the King of the United Kingdom and the Sultan of Zanzibar dated 14 December 1895."Commonwealth and Colonial Law" by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. p. 762

In the 1920s, natives objected to the reservation of the White Highlands for Europeans, especially British war veterans. Bitterness grew between the natives and the Europeans. Describing the period in 1925, the African–American historian and Pan-Africanist W. E. B. Du Bois wrote in an article which would be incorporated into the pivotal Harlem Renaissance text ''The New Negro'',

The population in 1921 was estimated at 2,376,000, of whom 9,651 were Europeans, 22,822 Indians and 10,102 Arabs. Mombasa, the largest city in 1921, had a population of 32,000 at that time.

The Mau Mau rebellion, that was a revolt against British colonial rule in Kenya, lasted from 1952 to 1960. The rebellion was marked by war crimes and massacres committed by both sides. Caroline Elkins's 2005 book, '' Britain's Gulag'', uncovered that the UK ran concentration camps and "enclosed villages" in Kenya during the 1950s, where nearly the entire Kikuyu population was confined. Many thousands were tortured, murdered, or died from hunger and disease. The British government systematically destroyed almost all records of these crimes, burning them or dumping them at sea in weighted crates, and replaced them with fake files.
However, Elkins's book later served as a foundation for successful legal claims by former Mau Mau detainees against the British government for crimes committed in the camps.

The Colony and the Protectorate each came to an end on 12 December 1963. The United Kingdom ceded sovereignty over the Colony of Kenya under an agreement dated 8 October 1963. The Sultan agreed that simultaneous with independence for Kenya, the Sultan would cease to have sovereignty over the Protectorate of Kenya. In this way, Kenya became an independent country under the Kenya Independence Act 1963, which established the independent Commonwealth realm of Kenya, with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. ''Mzee'' Jomo Kenyatta was the first prime minister. On 26 May 1963, Kenya had its first elections and a new red, green, black and white flag was introduced. Exactly 12 months after independence, on 12 December 1964, Kenya became a republic under the name "Republic of Kenya".

Administration

In 1948, the Kenyan government consisted of the Governor, the Executive Council advising him and the Legislative Council. The Executive Council consisted of seven ex officio members, two appointed Europeans, one appointed European representing African interests, and one appointed Asian (Indian) Ambalal Bhailalbhai Patel. The Legislative Council consisted of 16 appointed officials and 22 elected unofficial members.

In 1954, the government was reformed to create a Council of Ministers as "the principal instrument of government". This council consisted of six official members from the civil service, two nominated members appointed by the governor, and six unofficial members appointed by the governor from among the members of the Legislative Council. Of the unofficial members, three were Europeans, two were Asian, and one was African.

The Executive Council continued in existence with all the members of the Council of Ministers also being members of the Executive Council. In addition, the Executive Council also included one Arab and two appointed Africans. The full Executive Council retained certain prerogatives, including approving death sentences and reviewing draft legislation.

The Legislative Council in 1956 consisted of the Governor as president, a Speaker as vice-president and 56 members. Of the 56, eight sat ex officio, 18 were appointed by the Governor and took the government whip, 14 were elected Europeans, six were elected Asians, one was an elected Arab, and eight were appointed Africans sitting on the non-government side. There was one appointed Arab sitting on the non-government side.

Military forces formed in the Colony and Protectorate from the 1880s included the East African Regiment, which became the King's African Rifles; the East African Military Labour Service 1915–1918; the East African Mounted Rifles during the First World War 1914–17; the East African Ordnance Corps; the East African Pay Corps; the East African Pioneer Corps; three East African Reconnaissance Regiments; the East African Artillery the East African Road Construction Corps; the East African Scouts from March 1943, which served as 81st (West Africa) Division's reconnaissance unit in Burma; the East African Signal Corps; the East African Army Service Corps, expanded quickly at the start of the campaign against Italy in 1941 from 300 to 4,600; the East African Transport Corps; the Kenya Armoured Car Regiment; the Kenya Regiment of white settlers; the Kenya Defence Force, and the Kikuyu Guard during the Mau Mau Uprising.. Throughout the postcolonial period, Kenya transitioned to a republic that consisted of two legislative chambers that was outlined in their Constitution created in the mid-1960s. Since its implementation, it has been amended to give the region a unicameral assembly that consists of ministers who sit in on the assembly.

Law

Corporal punishment, such as flogging, caning, and birching, was the primary legal punishment for many crimes used in colonial Kenya, particularly against young offenders. Though the metropolitan Colonial Office was sceptical of the use of such punishments, its unease did little to hinder their application by local authorities. Prisons were eschewed by most judges, due to the belief that it would erode the morality of convicts and consign them to a positive feedback loop of criminality. Corporal punishment was also used by government authorities against disobedient local ethnic chiefs, an example of this being the flogging of a Kikuyu chief by Colonel Algernon E. Capell after the latter was lied to by the former.

See also

* Mau Mau rebellion (1952)

References

*

Further reading

* Kitching, Gavin N. ''Class and economic change in Kenya: The making of an African petite bourgeoisie 1905–1970'' (Yale University Press, 1980)
* Lonsdale, John, and Bruce Berman. "Coping with the contradictions: the development of the colonial state in Kenya, 1895–1914." ''Journal of African History'' 20#04 (1979): 487–505.
* Mungeam, Gordon Hudson. ''British rule in Kenya, 1895–1912'' (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1966)
* Ochieng, William Robert. ''A history of Kenya'' (Macmillan Kenya, 1985)
* Ochieng, William Robert, and Robert M. Maxon, eds. ''An economic history of Kenya'' (East African Publishers, 1992)
* Wolff, Richard D. ''Britain and Kenya, 1870–1930: The Economics of Colonialism'' (Transafrica Publishers, 1974)

External links

The British Empire — Kenya

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1920 establishments in the British Empire
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