Kenya in Conflict

British colonisation of Kenya
British involvement in Kenya began late in the 19th century when at the Berlin Conference of 1885, European nations carved up the African continent.
East and southern Africa fell under the British sphere of influence.

In 1888, the Imperial British East Africa Company was granted a Royal Charter to administer East Africa until, in 1895 the British government established a Protectorate.

‘Between 1965 and 1967, around 23 thousand Kenyan Asians left Africa for Britain’

In 1896, the British began construction of the Uganda Railway, which started at Mombassa, stretching nearly six hundred miles to Lake Victoria. It was largely constructed by labourers brought over from British India.  Many settled in East Africa and they were joined by other traders and artisans from the Indian subcontinent. This created significant Asian communities in Kenya and Uganda.

In 1920, the British East Africa Protectorate became the Kenya Colony.

Colonial Kenya
Kenyan society was clearly divided along racial lines during colonial rule. White Europeans dominated politics, economics and were at the top of the social scale. Asians occupied the middle levels of society. They were mainly involved in small-scale agriculture and industry, retail, trade, skilled and semi-skilled labour and generally worked in the middle level of the civil service. Africans, who formed the majority of the population, were mostly poor farmers and had very little say in how Kenya was run.

After the Second World War
The years following the end of the Second World War saw an increase in the number of white settlers to Kenya. Most were demobilised British officers who hoped to benefit from the comfortable lifestyle that was available to them and their families. Their arrival began to change Kenyan society. In addition, black Africans who had served with British forces during the Second World War returned home to Kenya with hopes for a better life.

The Mau Mau
During the early 1950s opposition to British colonial rule became more widespread and violent.  The Mau Mau uprising began in late 1952. Most of the rebels were from the Kikuyu tribe, which had lost a great deal of land to white settlers during the colonial era. They demanded Kenyan independence and the return of their lands.

The situation became so serious that on 25 October 1952 the colonial government declared a state of emergency. Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s leading nationalist was detained, and thousands of people were arrested during the following weeks. But the violence did not end. The situation was complicated by the fact that the Kikuyu also fought amongst themselves.

Although the rebels were poorly armed, it took the British more than four years to put down the uprising. The state of the emergency did not end until 1960. Although the Mau Mau uprising was not a military success, it laid the foundation for Kenya’s independence in 1963.