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Naivasha Virtual Fieldcourse

Colonial politics up to independence

At the turn of the XIX century, the country that we now know as Kenya constituted in reality a 600 mile long "footpath" stretching from Mombasa, on the Indian Ocean, to Kisumu on Lake Victoria. From then onwards, the settlement by Europeans  proceeded forcibly and violently, dispossessing native Africans of their traditional farmland and physically deporting them into "reserves" situated on marginal land. During the early XX century, the Colonial Government instituted a set of taxes to induce Africans to provide cheap labour for European farms. As a consequence, natives left the reserves in search for jobs to repay their debts, to gain bride money and to acquire land; some became attracted by the rapid development of city centres and little by little a small African middle class developed. The social and political transformations that ensued, played a decisive role in the creation of a modern generation of Kenyans provided with clear political consciousness and a desire to acquire self-determination and recognition of human rights for its nation. The colonial transformation of the country reached a peak in 1960 when Kenya was inhabited by 61,000 Europeans, 169,000 Asian (Indians, Pakistanis, Goans and Arabs from different emirates) and 7.8 million Africans. European farms extended over 83% of the fertile agricultural soils, each one with over 2000 acres; most of the production was oriented for export crops (coffee, tea) and the European masters (for a great majority British) lived very comfortably. Starting in 1951, independence movements led by the 'Mau-Mau' (acronym of the Swahili slogan Mzungu Aende Ulaya - Mwafrika Apate Uhuru, meaning: let the European go back to Europe and let the African get back his Freedom) manifested their intention to seize control of the country with a series of violent attacks on people and property. The 'guerillas' or 'freedom-fighters' (depending on the reader's perspective) were militarily ineffective but politically successful, especially when the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, made a now-famous speech to the Apartheid South African parliament in on 3rd February 1960, called "The Wind of Change". 

Macmillan actually said "The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it." Between 1960 and 1963, a large number of European settlers left, selling their homes back to the British Government. Civil servants and Asian traders also left the country. Kenya gradually reached its independence when (Mzee) Jomo Kenyatta, acclaimed as a natural leader without rivals by a large majority of the African population, was released from prision (1961) to become prime minister (1 June 1963), and was then sworn as first President of the Republic of Kenya one year later. Kenyan Independence was officially celebrated on the 12th of December 1963. President Kenyatta embraced a politics of reconciliation inviting European settlers to stay in the country as Kenyan citizens; according to most historians he did not particpate directly in the formation of the Mau Mau movement. His government was later accused of nepotism and tribalism by Kenyan opponents and by the international press. The Republic of Kenya is currently ruled by his son, President Uhuru Kenyatta.