Kenya Colony

Kenya, 1920–1963. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, commonly known as British Kenya or British East Africa, was a colony part of the British Empire located in East Africa from 1920 until 1963. It was established when the former East Africa Protectorate was transformed into a British Crown colony in 1920. The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960) was an armed conflict in the British Colony of Kenya between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) and the British colonial authorities. The colony came to an end in 1963 when a native Kenyan majority government was elected for the first time and eventually declared independence.

Seat of power: Nairobi

Rulers

Edward Northey

Governor of Kenya, 1919–1922

Major-General Sir Edward Northey took command of a colonial force in Nyasaland in the East African campaign, later becoming Governor of Kenya.

Portrait of Edward Northey: Walter Stoneman (Life time: 1876–1958), PD-US, file

Robert Coryndon

Governor of Kenya, 1922–1925

Sir Robert Thorne Coryndon, a former secretary of Cecil Rhodes, became Governor of Uganda and then of Kenya. He was one of the most powerful of colonial administrators of his day.

Edward Grigg, 1st Baron Altrincham

Governor of Kenya, 1925–1930

In 1925, Grigg resigned his seat to accept an appointment as governor of Kenya. He was frustrated in his assigned task to merge Kenya with the bordering British colonies of Uganda and Tanganyika, but he provided energetic administration to the colony by improving agriculture, education and infrastructure during his governorship. However, he opposed consideration of the colony's development into a multi-racial state and believed that the native African population was ill-prepared for managing the government.

Portrait of Edward Grigg, 1st Baron Altrincham: Walter Stoneman (Life time: 1876–1958), PD-US, file

Henry Monck-Mason Moore

Governor of Kenya, 1930–1931

Sir Henry Monck-Mason Moore was a British colonial administrator of British Sierra Leone, Kenya and Ceylon.

Joseph Aloysius Byrne

Governor of Kenya, 1931–1936

In 1931 Byrne was made Governor of Kenya. His time in Kenya coincided with the worldwide depression, and his government undertook various austerity measures. His lack of sympathy towards the European settlers, and implementation of an income tax long opposed by many settlers, meant he was an unpopular figure in sections of the settler community.

Armigel Wade

Governor of Kenya, 1936–1937

Armigel Wade was Chief Secretary to the Government of Kenya between 1934 and 1939. He had two spells as Acting Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Kenya.

Robert Brooke-Popham

Governor of Kenya, 1937–1940

Brooke-Popham was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Kenya in 1937 and his military expertise was useful in helping the colony prepare for a possible war with Italy. Brooke-Popham's governorship was also marked by improved relations with the settlers.

Portrait of Robert Brooke-Popham: Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain, file

Henry Monck-Mason Moore

Governor of Kenya, 1940–1944

From 1940 to 1944, he was Governor of Kenya and then from 1944 to 1948 he was Governor of Ceylon.

Philip Euen Mitchell

Governor of Kenya, 1944–1952

Mitchell was Governor of Kenya from 11 December 1944 until 1952. He has been described as having been "particular insensitive to African unrest in Kenya during his tenure in the years before the Emergency."

Evelyn Baring, 1st Baron Howick of Glendale

Governor of Kenya, 1952–1959

As Governor of Kenya, Baring declared a State of Emergency on 20 October 1952 before launching Operation Jock Scott, which targeted alleged Mau Mau leaders, especially Jomo Kenyatta. Baring's administration created the "dilution technique", the systematic torture of detainees, to force compliance.

Portrait of Evelyn Baring, 1st Baron Howick of Glendale: Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), Public domain, file

Henry Steven Potter

Governor of Kenya, 1952–1952

He became Chief Secretary of Uganda in 1948 and later Kenya in 1952.

Patrick Muir Renison

Governor of Kenya, 1959–1962

Sir Patrick Muir Renison served as Governor of Kenya between 1959 and 1962.

Culture

In the 1920s, Kenyans objected to the reservation of the White Highlands for Europeans, especially British war veterans.
The Mau Mau rebellion, 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. 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.

Picture

Suppressing the Mau Mau Uprising in the Kenyan colony cost Britain £55 million and caused at least 11,000 deaths among the Mau Mau and other forces, with some estimates considerably higher.

Image: Ministry of Defence POST-1945 OFFICIAL COLLECTION, Public domain, file

Sources

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.