112-731: Imale is a settlement in Kenya , located in Kitui County in the Eastern Province . The Commission on Revenue Allocation has identified it as a marginalised area in their Second Policy Focus, as it lies within the bottom 20% for deprivation of the 7,131 country-wide lowest-level administrative units. The village had a population of 662 in the 1962 Census. There is an Imale School located in Makueni County , which educates 400 students and 150 boarding school students. There
224-534: A civil war rather than a rebellion. One reason that the revolt was largely limited to the Kikuyu people was, in part, that they had suffered the most as a result of the negative aspects of British colonialism. Wunyabari O. Maloba regards the rise of the Mau Mau movement as "without doubt, one of the most important events in recent African history". David Anderson, however, considers Maloba's and similar work to be
336-514: A 'water-medicine') so this may be the origin of Mau Mau. As the movement progressed, a Swahili backronym was adopted: " Mzungu Aende Ulaya, Mwafrika Apate Uhuru", meaning "Let the foreigner go back abroad, let the African regain independence". J. M. Kariuki, a member of Mau Mau who was detained during the conflict, suggests the British preferred to use the term Mau Mau instead of KLFA to deny
448-581: A Bantu cultural core. DNA evidence has found that the Swahili people were of mixed African and Asian (particularly Persian) ancestry. The Kilwa Sultanate was a medieval sultanate centred at Kilwa , in modern-day Tanzania. At its height, its authority stretched over the entire length of the Swahili Coast , including Kenya. Since the 10th century, rulers of Kilwa would go on to build elaborate coral mosques and introduce copper coinage. Swahili,
560-566: A Bantu language with Arabic , Persian , and other Middle-Eastern and South Asian loanwords , later developed as a lingua franca for trade between the different peoples. Since the turn of the 20th century, Swahili has adopted numerous loanwords and calques from English, many of them originating during English colonial rule. The Swahili built Mombasa into a major port city and established trade links with other nearby city-states, as well as commercial centres in Persia, Arabia, and even India. By
672-401: A cloud. Surely it cannot be necessary to go on killing these defenceless people on such an enormous scale." You may travel through the length and breadth of Kitui Reserve and you will fail to find in it any enterprise, building, or structure of any sort which Government has provided at the cost of more than a few sovereigns for the direct benefit of the natives. The place was little better than
784-543: A colonist's perspective is found in the memoir Out of Africa by Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, published in 1937. By the 1930s, approximately 30,000 white settlers lived in the area and gained a political voice because of their contribution to the market economy. The central highlands were already home to over a million members of the Kikuyu people, most of whom had no land claims in European terms and lived as itinerant farmers. To protect their interests,
896-516: A countrywide political party began on 1 October 1944. This fledgling organisation was called the Kenya African Study Union. Harry Thuku was the first chairman, but he soon resigned. There is dispute over Thuku's reason for leaving KASU: Bethwell Ogot says Thuku "found the responsibility too heavy"; David Anderson states that "he walked out in disgust" as the militant section of KASU took the initiative. KASU changed its name to
1008-541: A great amount of land, in the plains where people did not put up much resistance. The Nandi peoples managed to oppose the Masai, while the Taveta peoples fled to the forests on the eastern edge of Mount Kilimanjaro , although they later were forced to leave the land due to the threat of smallpox . An outbreak of either rinderpest or pleuropneumonia greatly affected the Masai's cattle, while an epidemic of smallpox affected
1120-439: A herd. In addition to physical warfare, the Mau Mau rebellion also generated a propaganda war, where both the British and Mau Mau fighters battled for the hearts and minds of Kenya's population. Mau Mau propaganda represented the apex of an 'information war' that had been fought since 1945, between colonial information staff and African intellectuals and newspaper editors. The Mau Mau had learned much from - and built upon -
1232-463: A legal challenge against the expropriation of their land, but a Kenya High Court decision of 1921 reaffirmed its legality. In terms of lost acreage, the Masai and Nandi people were the biggest losers of land. The colonial government and white farmers also wanted cheap labour which, for a period, the government acquired from native Kenyans through force. Confiscating the land itself helped to create
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#17327720491681344-672: A peaceful resolution to native Kenyan land-hunger was ended. Through a series of expropriations , the government seized about 7,000,000 acres (28,000 km ; 11,000 sq mi) of land, most of it in the fertile hilly regions of Central and Rift Valley Provinces , later known as the White Highlands due to the exclusively European-owned farmland there. In Nyanza the Commission restricted 1,029,422 native Kenyans to 7,114 square miles (18,430 km ), while granting 16,700 square miles (43,000 km ) to 17,000 Europeans. By
1456-558: A pool of wage labourers, but the colony introduced measures that forced more native Kenyans to submit to wage labour: the introduction of the Hut and Poll Taxes (1901 and 1910 respectively); the establishment of reserves for each ethnic group, which isolated ethnic groups and often exacerbated overcrowding; the discouragement of native Kenyans' growing cash crops ; the Masters and Servants Ordinance (1906) and an identification pass known as
1568-434: A prejudiced legal-system. The vast majority of Kenyan employees' violations of labour legislation were settled with "rough justice" meted out by their employers. Most colonial magistrates appear to have been unconcerned by the illegal practice of settler-administered flogging; indeed, during the 1920s, flogging was the magisterial punishment-of-choice for native Kenyan convicts. The principle of punitive sanctions against workers
1680-557: A respected and well-read Christian teacher in his local Kikuyu community. He was known to meticulously record his attacks in a series of five notebooks, which when executed were often swift and strategic, targeting loyalist community leaders he had previously known as a teacher. The Mau Mau military strategy was mainly guerrilla attacks launched under the cover of darkness. They used improvised and stolen weapons such as guns, as well as weapons such as machetes and bows and arrows in their attacks. They maimed cattle and, in one case, poisoned
1792-475: A settler economy pay for the Uganda Railway . The success of this settler economy would depend heavily on the availability of land, labour and capital, and so, over the next three decades, the colonial government and settlers consolidated their control over Kenyan land, and forced native Kenyans to become wage labourers . Until the mid-1930s, the two primary complaints were low native Kenyan wages and
1904-557: A wedge between Mau Mau and the Kikuyu generally, these propaganda efforts essentially played no role, though they could apparently claim an important contribution to the isolation of Mau Mau from the non-Kikuyu sections of the population. By the mid-1960s, the view of Mau Mau as simply irrational activists was being challenged by memoirs of former members and leaders that portrayed Mau Mau as an essential, if radical, component of African nationalism in Kenya and by academic studies that analysed
2016-511: A wilderness when I first knew it 25 years ago, and it remains a wilderness to-day as far as our efforts are concerned. If we left that district to-morrow the only permanent evidence of our occupation would be the buildings we have erected for the use of our tax-collecting staff. —Chief Native Commissioner of Kenya, 1925 Settler societies during the colonial period could own a disproportionate share of land. The first settlers arrived in 1902 as part of Governor Charles Eliot 's plan to have
2128-714: Is another Imale school in Machakos County . Imale Primary School is located in Voo in Kyangwithya West . This Eastern Province (Kenya) location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Kenya Kenya , officially the Republic of Kenya ( Swahili : Jamhuri ya Kenya ), is a country in East Africa . With a population of more than 47.6 million in the 2019 census, Kenya
2240-716: Is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, Uganda to the west, Tanzania to the south, and the Indian Ocean to the southeast. Kenya's geography , climate and population vary widely, ranging from cold snow-capped mountaintops (Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya ) with vast surrounding forests, wildlife and fertile agricultural regions to temperate climates in western and rift valley counties and further on to dry less fertile arid and semi-arid areas and absolute deserts ( Chalbi Desert and Nyiri Desert ). Kenya's earliest inhabitants were hunter-gatherers , like
2352-644: Is the 28th-most-populous country in the world and 7th most populous in Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi , while its oldest and second-largest city, is the major port city of Mombasa , situated on Mombasa Island in the Indian Ocean and the surrounding mainland. Mombasa was the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate , which included most of what is now Kenya and southwestern Somalia, from 1889 to 1907. Other important cities include Kisumu and Nakuru . Kenya
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#17327720491682464-538: Is the second largest in eastern and central Africa, after Ethiopia, with Nairobi serving as a major regional commercial hub. Agriculture is the largest sector; tea and coffee are traditional cash crops, while fresh flowers are a fast-growing export. The service industry is also a major economic driver, particularly tourism. Kenya is a member of the East African Community trade bloc, though some international trade organisations categorise it as part of
2576-692: The Giriama tribe [from the coastal regions] was very bad. This tribe was moved backwards and forwards so as to secure for the Crown areas which could be granted to Europeans." The Kikuyu, who lived in the Kiambu , Nyeri and Murang'a areas of what became Central Province, were one of the ethnic groups most affected by the colonial government's land expropriation and European settlement; by 1933, they had had over 109.5 square miles (284 km ) of their potentially highly valuable land alienated. The Kikuyu mounted
2688-540: The Greater Horn of Africa . Africa is Kenya's largest export market, followed by the European Union. The Republic of Kenya is named after Mount Kenya . The earliest recorded version of the modern name was written by German explorer Johann Ludwig Krapf in the 19th century. While travelling with a Kamba caravan led by the long-distance trader Chief Kivoi , Krapf spotted the mountain peak and asked what it
2800-501: The House of Commons , "The only person who has up to the present time benefited from our enterprise in the heart of Africa has been Mr. Hiram Maxim " (inventor of the Maxim gun , the first automatic machine gun). During the period in which Kenya's interior was being forcibly opened up for British settlement, there was a great deal of conflict and British troops carried out atrocities against
2912-586: The Kalenjin , Samburu , Luo , Turkana , and Maasai . By the first millennium AD, Bantu -speaking farmers had moved into the region, initially along the coast. The Bantus originated in West Africa along the Benue River in what is now eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon . The Bantu migration brought new developments in agriculture and ironworking to the region. Bantu groups in Kenya include
3024-741: The Kenya African Union (KAU) in 1946. Author Wangari Maathai writes that many of the organizers were ex-soldiers who fought for the British in Ceylon, Somalia, and Burma during the Second World War. When they returned to Kenya, they were never paid and did not receive recognition for their service, whereas their British counterparts were awarded medals and received land, sometimes from the Kenyan veterans. The failure of KAU to attain any significant reforms or redress of grievances from
3136-606: The Kikuyu , Luhya , Kamba , Kisii , Meru , Kuria , Aembu , Ambeere , Wadawida -Watuweta, Wapokomo, and Mijikenda , among others. Notable prehistoric sites in the interior of Kenya include the (possibly archaeoastronomical) site Namoratunga on the west side of Lake Turkana and the walled settlement of Thimlich Ohinga in Migori County . The Kenyan coast had served as host to communities of ironworkers and Bantu subsistence farmers, hunters, and fishers who supported
3248-700: The Mau Mau uprising , Mau Mau revolt , or Kenya Emergency , was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, and the British authorities. Dominated by Kikuyu , Meru and Embu fighters, the KLFA also comprised units of Kamba and Maasai who fought against the European colonists in Kenya - the British Army , and
3360-588: The Ming Dynasty , visited the East African coast on one of his last ' treasure voyages '. Malindi authorities also welcomed the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498. During the 18th and 19th century C.E, the Masai people moved into central and southern Rift Valley plains of Kenya, from a region north of Lake Rudolf (now Lake Turkana ). Although there were not many, they managed to conquer
3472-524: The Pleistocene epoch. During excavations at Lake Turkana in 1984, palaeoanthropologist Richard Leakey , assisted by Kamoya Kimeu , discovered the Turkana Boy , a 1.6-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil. East Africa, including Kenya, is one of the earliest regions where modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) are believed to have lived. Evidence was found in 2018, dating to about 320,000 years ago, of
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3584-707: The Somali Republic to the north. A ceasefire was eventually reached with the signing of the Arusha Memorandum in October 1967, but relative insecurity prevailed through 1969. To discourage further invasions, Kenya signed a defence pact with Ethiopia in 1969, which is still in effect. On 12 December 1964, the Republic of Kenya was proclaimed, and Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya's first president. Under Kenyatta, corruption became widespread throughout
3696-424: The kipande (1918) to control the movement of labour and to curb desertion; and the exemption of wage labourers from forced labour and other detested obligations such as conscription. Native Kenyan labourers were of three categories: squatter , contract , or casual . By the end of World War I, squatters had become well established on European farms and plantations in Kenya, with Kikuyu squatters constituting
3808-410: The 15th century, Portuguese voyager Duarte Barbosa claimed that "Mombasa is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships, both of which are bound from Sofala and others which come from Cambay and Melinde and others which sail to the island of Zanzibar." In the 17th century, the Swahili coast was conquered and came under
3920-439: The 1930s, and for the Kikuyu in particular, land had become the number one grievance concerning colonial rule, the situation so acute by 1948 that 1,250,000 Kikuyu had ownership of 2,000 square miles (5,200 km ), while 30,000 British settlers owned 12,000 square miles (31,000 km ), albeit most of it not on traditional Kikuyu land. "In particular", the British government's 1925 East Africa Commission noted, "the treatment of
4032-470: The 1963 independence constitution with a new one. As a result, the elections of 2007 took place following the procedure set by the old constitution. Kibaki was reelected in highly contested elections marred by political and ethnic violence . The main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, claimed the election was rigged and that he was the rightfully elected president. In the ensuing violence, 1,500 people were killed and another 600,000 internally displaced, making it
4144-415: The 2002 elections. Moi's plan to be replaced by Uhuru Kenyatta failed, and Mwai Kibaki , running for the opposition coalition "National Rainbow Coalition" ( NARC ), was elected president. David Anderson (2003) reports the elections were judged free and fair by local and international observers, and seemed to mark a turning point in Kenya's democratic evolution. In 2005, Kenyans rejected a plan to replace
4256-739: The Air Force. It was quickly suppressed by forces commanded by Chief of General Staff Mahamoud Mohamed , a veteran Somali military official. They included the General Service Unit (GSU)—a paramilitary wing of the police—and later the regular police. On the heels of the Garissa Massacre of 1980, Kenyan troops committed the Wagalla massacre in 1984 against thousands of civilians in Wajir County . An official probe into
4368-682: The British presence in Kenya. His assassination gave Evelyn Baring the final impetus to request permission from the Colonial Office to declare a State of Emergency. The Mau Mau attacks were mostly well organised and planned. ...the insurgents' lack of heavy weaponry and the heavily entrenched police and Home Guard positions meant that Mau Mau attacks were restricted to nighttime and where loyalist positions were weak. When attacks did commence they were fast and brutal, as insurgents were easily able to identify loyalists because they were often local to those communities themselves. The Lari massacre
4480-458: The Embu call it "Kirinyaa". All three names have the same meaning. Ludwig Krapf recorded the name as both Kenia and Kegnia . Some have said that this was a precise notation of the African pronunciation / ˈ k ɛ n j ə / . An 1882 map drawn by Joseph Thompsons, a Scottish geologist and naturalist, indicated Mt. Kenya as Mt. Kenia. The mountain's name was accepted, pars pro toto , as
4592-511: 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. This included 1,090 executions by hanging. The origin of the term Mau Mau is uncertain. According to some members of Mau Mau, they never referred to themselves as such, instead preferring the military title Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA). Some publications, such as Fred Majdalany's State of Emergency: The Full Story of Mau Mau , claim it
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4704-522: The Masai themselves. After the death of the Masai Mbatian , the chief laibon (medicine man), the Masai split into warring factions. The Masai caused much strife in the areas they conquered; however, cooperation between such groups as the Luo people , Luhya people , and Gusii people is evidenced by shared vocabulary for modern implements and similar economic regimes. Although Arab traders remained in
4816-498: The Mau Mau rebellion international legitimacy. Kariuki also wrote that the term Mau Mau was adopted by the rebellion in order to counter what they regarded as colonial propaganda. Author and activist Wangari Maathai indicates that, to her, the most interesting story of the origin of the name is the Kikuyu phrase for the beginning of a list. When beginning a list in Kikuyu, one says, " maũndũ ni mau " , "the main issues are...", and holds up three fingers to introduce them. Maathai says
4928-468: The Mau Mau was the culminating response to colonial rule. Although there had been previous instances of violent resistance to colonialism, the Mau Mau revolt was the most prolonged and violent anti-colonial warfare in the British Kenya colony. From the start, the land was the primary British interest in Kenya, which had "some of the richest agricultural soils in the world, mostly in districts where
5040-772: The Protectorate of Kenya so that all of Kenya would become one sovereign state. In this way, Kenya became an independent country under the Kenya Independence Act 1963 of the United Kingdom. On 12 December 1964, Kenya became a republic under the name "Republic of Kenya". Concurrently, the Kenyan army fought the Shifta War against ethnic Somali rebels inhabiting the Northern Frontier District who wanted to join their kin in
5152-507: The UK and the colony led to the Mau Mau revolution , which began in 1952, and the declaration of independence in 1963. After independence, Kenya remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations . The current constitution was adopted in 2010 and replaced the 1963 independence constitution . Kenya is a presidential representative democratic republic, in which elected officials represent
5264-473: The United Kingdom. Kenya itself was the site of fighting between Allied forces and Italian troops in 1940–41, when Italian forces invaded. Wajir and Malindi were bombed as well. From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was in a state of emergency arising from the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule. The Mau Mau, also known as the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, were primarily Kikuyu people. During
5376-466: The area, trade routes were disrupted by the hostile Masai, though there was trade in ivory between these factions. The first foreigners to successfully get past the Masai were Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann , two German missionaries who established a mission in Rabai , not too far from Mombasa . The pair were the first Europeans to sight Mount Kenya . The colonial history of Kenya dates from
5488-598: The article by stating the cost of the stability in terms of human rights abuses. The opposition party started by Oginga Odinga — Kenya People's Union (KPU)—was banned in 1969 after the Kisumu Massacre and KPU leaders were still in detention without trial in gross violation of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights . The Kenya Students Union, Jehovah Witnesses and all opposition parties were outlawed. Kenyatta ruled until his death on 22 August 1978. After Kenyatta died, Daniel arap Moi became president. He retained
5600-453: The atrocities was later ordered in 2011. The election held in 1988 saw the advent of the mlolongo (queuing) system, where voters were supposed to line up behind their favoured candidates instead of casting a secret ballot. This was seen as the climax of a very undemocratic regime and led to widespread agitation for constitutional reform. Several contentious clauses, including the one that allowed for only one political party, were changed in
5712-410: The beginning of British colonialism in Kenya were successful. The nature of fighting in Kenya led Winston Churchill to express concern about the scale of the fighting: "No doubt the clans should have been punished. 160 have now been killed outright without any further casualties on our side .… It looks like a butchery. If the H. of C. gets hold of it, all our plans in E.A.P. will be under
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#17327720491685824-475: The beginning of the end of Moi's leadership and the rule of KANU. Moi retained the presidency and George Saitoti became vice president. Although it held on to power, KANU won 100 seats and lost 88 seats to the six opposition parties. The 1992 elections marked the beginning of multiparty politics after more than 25 years of KANU rule. Following skirmishes in the aftermath of the elections, 5,000 people were killed and another 75,000 displaced from their homes. In
5936-573: The bulk of the skilled labour required for construction. They and most of their descendants later remained in Kenya and formed the core of several distinct Indian communities, such as the Ismaili Muslim and Sikh communities. While building the railway through Tsavo , a number of the Indian railway workers and local African labourers were attacked by two lions known as the Tsavo maneaters . At
6048-546: The centuries, the Kenyan coast has played host to many merchants and explorers. Among the cities that line the Kenyan coast is Malindi. It has remained an important Swahili settlement since the 14th century and once rivalled Mombasa for dominance in the African Great Lakes region. Malindi has traditionally been a friendly port city for foreign powers. In 1414, the Chinese trader and explorer Zheng He , representing
6160-585: The coast and the interior between 250 BC and 500 AD. European contact began in 1500 AD with the Portuguese Empire , and effective colonisation of Kenya began in the 19th century during the European exploration of Africa . Modern-day Kenya emerged from a protectorate established by the British Empire in 1895 and the subsequent Kenya Colony , which began in 1920. Numerous disputes between
6272-614: The coastal hotel business, with Kenyatta personally owning the Leonard Beach Hotel. Kenyatta's mixed legacy was highlighted at the 10-year anniversary of Kenya's independence. A December 1973 article in The New York Times praised Kenyatta's leadership and Kenya for emerging as a model of pragmatism and conservatism. Kenya's GDP had increased at an annual rate of 6.6%, higher than the population growth rate of more than 3%. But Amnesty International responded to
6384-606: The colonial administration's crackdown, over 11,000 freedom fighters had been killed, along with 100 British troops and 2,000 Kenyan loyalist soldiers. War crimes were committed on both sides of the conflict, including the publicised Lari massacre and the Hola massacre . The governor requested and obtained British and African troops, including the King's African Rifles . The British began counter-insurgency operations. In May 1953, General Sir George Erskine took charge as commander-in-chief of
6496-593: The colonial authorities shifted the political initiative to younger and more militant figures within the native Kenyan trade union movement, among the squatters on the settler estates in the Rift Valley and in KAU branches in Nairobi and the Kikuyu districts of central province. Around 1943, residents of Olenguruone Settlement radicalised the traditional practice of oathing , and extended oathing to women and children. By
6608-478: The colonial side, the uprising created a rift between the European colonial community in Kenya and the metropole , as well as violent divisions within the Kikuyu community: "Much of the struggle tore through the African communities themselves, an internecine war waged between rebels and 'loyalists' – Africans who took the side of the government and opposed Mau Mau." Suppressing the Mau Mau Uprising in
6720-737: The colony's armed forces, with the personal backing of Winston Churchill . The capture of Waruhiu Itote (nom de guerre "General China" ) on 15 January 1954 and the subsequent interrogation led to a better understanding of the Mau Mau command structure for the British. Operation Anvil opened on 24 April 1954, after weeks of planning by the army with the approval of the War Council. The operation effectively placed Nairobi under military siege. Nairobi's occupants were screened and suspected Mau Mau supporters moved to detention camps. More than 80,000 Kikuyu were held in detention camps without trial, often subject to brutal treatment. The Home Guard formed
6832-430: The constitution to allow Moi to remain president for another term. Subsequently, Moi stood for reelection and won a 5th term in 1997. His win was strongly criticised by his major opponents, Kibaki and Odinga , as fraudulent. Following this win, Moi was constitutionally barred from another presidential term. Beginning in 1998, he attempted to influence the country's succession politics to have Uhuru Kenyatta elected in
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#17327720491686944-464: The core of the government's strategy as it was composed of loyalist Africans, not foreign forces such as the British Army and King's African Rifles. The capture of Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 in Nyeri signified the ultimate defeat of the Mau Mau and essentially ended the military offensive. During this period, substantial governmental changes to land tenure occurred. The most important of these
7056-479: The country. The building of the railway was resisted by some ethnic groups—notably the Nandi , led by Orkoiyot Koitalel Arap Samoei from 1890 to 1900—but the British eventually built it. The Nandi were the first ethnic group to be put in a native reserve to stop them from disrupting the building of the railway. During the railway construction era, there was a significant influx of Indian workers, who provided
7168-427: The direct rule of the Omani Arabs , who expanded the slave trade to meet the demands of plantations in Oman and Zanzibar . Initially, these traders came mainly from Oman, but later many came from Zanzibar (such as Tippu Tip ). In addition, the Portuguese started buying slaves from the Omani and Zanzibari traders in response to the interruption of the transatlantic slave trade by British abolitionists. Throughout
7280-404: The doubling of Nairobi 's population between 1938 and 1952. At the same time, there was a small, but growing, class of Kikuyu landowners who consolidated Kikuyu landholdings and forged ties with the colonial administration, leading to an economic rift within the Kikuyu. Mau Mau were the militant wing of a growing clamour for political representation and freedom in Kenya. The first attempt to form
7392-441: The early emergence of modern behaviours , including long-distance trade networks (involving goods such as obsidian), the use of pigments, and the possible making of projectile points. The authors of three 2018 studies on the site suggest that complex and modern behaviours had already begun in Africa around the time of the emergence of Homo sapiens . The first inhabitants of present-day Kenya were hunter-gatherer groups, akin to
7504-411: The economy with agriculture, fishing, metal production, and trade with foreign countries. These communities formed the earliest city-states in the region, which were collectively known as Azania . By the 1st century CE, many of the city-states such as Mombasa , Malindi , and Zanzibar began to establish trading relations with Arabs . This led to the increased economic growth of the Swahili states,
7616-419: The elevation and climate make it possible for Europeans to reside permanently". Though declared a colony in 1920, the formal British colonial presence in Kenya began with a proclamation on 1 July 1895, in which Kenya was claimed as a British protectorate . Even before 1895, however, Britain's presence in Kenya was marked by dispossession and violence . In 1894, British MP Sir Charles Dilke had observed in
7728-434: The establishment of a German Empire protectorate over the Sultan of Zanzibar 's coastal possessions in 1885, followed by the arrival of the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1888. Imperial rivalry was prevented by the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty , Germany handed its East African coastal holdings to Britain in 1890. The transfer by Germany to Britain was followed by the building of the Uganda Railway passing through
7840-478: The experience and advice of newspaper editors since 1945. In some cases, the editors of various publications in the colony were directly involved in producing Mau Mau propaganda. British Officials struggled to compete with the 'hybrid, porous, and responsive character' during the rebellion, and faced the same challenges in responding to Mau Mau propaganda, particularly in instances where the Mau Mau would use creative ways such as hymns to win and maintain followers. This
7952-430: The first two decades of European settlement was noted by the East Africa Commission. The resentment of colonial rule would not have been decreased by the wanting provision of medical services for native Kenyans, nor by the fact that in 1923, for example, "the maximum amount that could be considered to have been spent on services provided exclusively for the benefit of the native population was slightly over one-quarter of
8064-431: The following years. In 1991, Kenya transitioned to a multiparty political system after 26 years of single-party rule. On 28 October 1992, Moi dissolved parliament, five months before the end of his term. As a result, preparations began for all elective seats in parliament as well as the president. The election was scheduled to take place on 7 December 1992, but delays led to its postponement to 29 December. Apart from KANU,
8176-515: The government, civil service, and business community. Kenyatta and his family were tied up with this corruption as they enriched themselves through the mass purchase of property after 1963. Their acquisitions in the Central, Rift Valley, and Coast Provinces aroused great anger among landless Kenyans. His family used his presidential position to circumvent legal or administrative obstacles to acquiring property. The Kenyatta family also heavily invested in
8288-613: The insights of agrarian and agricultural experts, of economists and historians, or even of Europeans who had spent a long period living amongst the Kikuyu such as Louis Leakey . Not for the first time, the British instead relied on the purported insights of the ethnopsychiatrist; with Mau Mau, it fell to John Colin Carothers to perform the desired analysis. This ethnopsychiatric analysis guided British psychological warfare, which painted Mau Mau as "an irrational force of evil, dominated by bestial impulses and influenced by world communism", and
8400-518: The introduction of Islam , Arabic influences on the Swahili Bantu language , cultural diffusion , as well as the Swahili city-states becoming members of a larger trade network. Many historians had long believed that the city-states were established by Arab or Persian traders, but archaeological evidence has led scholars to recognise the city-states as an indigenous development which, though subjected to foreign influence due to trade, retained
8512-606: The land, capturing British supplies, and remaining undefeated. He eventually surrendered in Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia) 14 days after the Armistice was signed in 1918. To chase von Lettow, the British deployed the British Indian Army troops from India but needed large numbers of porters to overcome the formidable logistics of transporting supplies far into the interior on foot. The Carrier Corps
8624-605: The last Mau Mau leaders, was killed shortly after Kenya attained self-rule. The KLFA failed to capture wide public support. Frank Füredi , in The Mau Mau War in Perspective , suggests this was due to a British divide and rule strategy, which they had developed in suppressing the Malayan Emergency (1948–60). The Mau Mau movement remained internally divided, despite attempts to unify the factions. On
8736-466: The later official study of the uprising, the Corfield Report. The psychological war became of critical importance to military and civilian leaders who tried to "emphasise that there was in effect a civil war, and that the struggle was not black versus white", attempting to isolate Mau Mau from the Kikuyu, and the Kikuyu from the rest of the colony's population and the world outside. In driving
8848-481: The local Kenya Regiment (British colonists, local auxiliary militia, and pro-British Kikuyu). The capture of Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 signalled the defeat of the Mau Mau, and essentially ended the British military campaign. However, the rebellion survived until after Kenya's independence from Britain, driven mainly by the Meru units led by Field Marshal Musa Mwariama . General Baimungi, one of
8960-540: The majority of agricultural workers on settler plantations . An unintended consequence of colonial rule, the squatters were targeted from 1918 onwards by a series of Resident Native Labourers Ordinances—criticised by at least some MPs —which progressively curtailed squatter rights and subordinated native Kenyan farming to that of the settlers. The Ordinance of 1939 finally eliminated squatters' remaining tenancy rights, and permitted settlers to demand 270 days' labour from any squatters on their land. and, after World War II,
9072-492: The measures brought in as part of its land expropriation and labour 'encouragement' efforts to craft the third plank of its growth strategy for its settler economy: subordinating African farming to that of the Europeans. Nairobi also assisted the settlers with rail and road networks, subsidies on freight charges, agricultural and veterinary services, and credit and loan facilities. The near-total neglect of native farming during
9184-452: The mid-1950s, 90% of Kikuyu, Embu and Meru were oathed. On 3 October 1952, Mau Mau claimed their first European victim when they stabbed a woman to death near her home in Thika. Six days later, on 9 October, Senior Chief Waruhiu was shot dead in broad daylight in his car, which was an important blow against the colonial government. Waruhiu had been one of the strongest supporters of
9296-636: The modern Khoisan speakers. These people were later largely replaced by agropastoralist Cushitic (ancestral to Kenya's Cushitic speakers) from the Horn of Africa . During the early Holocene , the regional climate shifted from dry to wetter conditions, providing an opportunity for the development of cultural traditions such as agriculture and herding , in a more favourable environment. Around 500 BC, Nilotic -speaking pastoralists (ancestral to Kenya's Nilotic speakers) started migrating from present-day southern Sudan into Kenya. Nilotic groups in Kenya include
9408-401: The movement as a modern and nationalist response to the unfairness and oppression of colonial domination. There continues to be vigorous debate within Kenyan society and among the academic community within and outside Kenya regarding the nature of Mau Mau and its aims, as well as the response to and effects of the uprising. Nevertheless, partly because as many Kikuyu fought against Mau Mau on
9520-571: The name of the country. It did not come into widespread official use during the early colonial period, when the country was referred to as the East African Protectorate . The official name was changed to the Colony of Kenya in 1920. Hominids such as Homo habilis (1.8 to 2.5 million years ago) and Homo erectus (1.9 million to 350,000 years ago) are possible direct ancestors of modern Homo sapiens , and lived in Kenya in
9632-654: The native population. Opposition to British imperialism had existed from the start of British occupation. The most notable include the Nandi Resistance led by Koitalel Arap Samoei of 1895–1905; the Giriama Uprising led by Mekatilili wa Menza of 1913–1914; the women's revolt against forced labour in Murang'a in 1947; and the Kolloa Affray of 1950. None of the armed uprisings during
9744-468: The next five years, many political alliances were formed in preparation for the next elections. In 1994, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga died and several coalitions joined his FORD Kenya party to form a new party, United National Democratic Alliance. This party was plagued with disagreements. In 1995, Richard Leakey formed the Safina party, but it was denied registration until November 1997. In 1996, KANU revised
9856-608: The outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the governors of British East Africa (as the protectorate was generally known) and German East Africa initially agreed on a truce in an attempt to keep the young colonies out of direct hostilities. But Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck , the German military commander, determined to tie down as many British resources as possible. Completely cut off from Germany, Lettow-Vorbeck conducted an effective guerrilla warfare campaign , living off
9968-617: The people and the president is the head of state and government. Kenya is a member of the United Nations , the Commonwealth , World Bank , International Monetary Fund , World Trade Organization , COMESA , International Criminal Court , as well as other international organisations. It is also a major non-NATO ally of the United States . With a GNI of 1,840, Kenya is a lower-middle-income economy. Kenya's economy
10080-521: The present-day Hadza people . According to archaeological dating of associated artifacts and skeletal material, Cushitic speakers first settled in Kenya's lowlands between 3,200 and 1,300 BC, a phase known as the Lowland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic . Nilotic -speaking pastoralists (ancestral to Kenya's Nilotic speakers) began migrating from present-day South Sudan into Kenya around 500 BC. Bantu people settled at
10192-416: The presidency, running unopposed in elections held in 1979, 1983 ( snap elections ), and 1988, all of which were held under the single-party constitution. The 1983 elections were held a year early, and were a direct result of a failed military coup on 2 August 1982. The 1982 coup was masterminded by a low-ranking Air Force serviceman, Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka , and was staged mainly by enlisted men of
10304-426: The product of "swallowing too readily the propaganda of the Mau Mau war", noting the similarity between such analysis and the "simplistic" earlier studies of Mau Mau. This earlier work cast the Mau Mau war in strictly bipolar terms, "as conflicts between anti-colonial nationalists and colonial collaborators". Caroline Elkins ' 2005 study, Imperial Reckoning , awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction ,
10416-428: The purpose of protection", Professor David Anderson (amongst others) regards the "compulsory resettlement" of "1,007,500 Kikuyu" inside what, for the "most" part, were "little more than concentration camps" as "punitive ... to punish Mau Mau sympathisers". It is often assumed that in a conflict there are two sides in opposition to one another, and that a person who is not actively committed to one side must be supporting
10528-545: The requirement to carry an identity document, the kipande . From the early 1930s, however, two others began to come to prominence: effective and elected African-political-representation, and land. The British response to this clamour for agrarian reform came in the early 1930s when they set up the Carter Land Commission. The Commission reported in 1934, but its conclusions, recommendations and concessions to Kenyans were so conservative that any chance of
10640-404: The ruling party, other parties represented in the elections included FORD Kenya and FORD Asili. This election was marked by large-scale intimidation of opponents and harassment of election officials. It resulted in an economic crisis propagated by ethnic violence as the president was accused of rigging electoral results to retain power. This election was a turning point for Kenya as it signified
10752-403: The settlers banned the growing of coffee and introduced a hut tax, and the landless were granted less and less land in exchange for their labour. A massive exodus to the cities ensued as their ability to make a living from the land dwindled. By the 1950s, there were 80,000 white settlers living in Kenya. Throughout World War II , Kenya was an important source of manpower and agriculture for
10864-428: The side of the colonial government as joined them in rebellion, the conflict is now often regarded in academic circles as an intra-Kikuyu civil war, a characterisation that remains extremely unpopular in Kenya. In August 1952, Kenyatta told a Kikuyu audience "Mau Mau has spoiled the country...Let Mau Mau perish forever. All people should search for Mau Mau and kill it". Kenyatta described the conflict in his memoirs as
10976-460: The situation for squatters deteriorated rapidly, a situation the squatters resisted fiercely. In the early 1920s, though, despite the presence of 100,000 squatters and tens of thousands more wage labourers, there was still not enough native Kenyan labour available to satisfy the settlers' needs. The colonial government duly tightened the measures to force more Kenyans to become low-paid wage-labourers on settler farms. The colonial government used
11088-551: The taxes paid by them". The tax burden on Europeans in the early 1920s, meanwhile, was very light relative to their income. Interwar infrastructure-development was also largely paid for by the indigenous population. Kenyan employees were often poorly treated by their European employers, with some settlers arguing that native Kenyans "were as children and should be treated as such". Some settlers flogged their servants for petty offences. To make matters even worse, native Kenyan workers were poorly served by colonial labour-legislation and
11200-483: The three issues for the Mau Mau were land, freedom, and self-governance. The principal item in the natural resources of Kenya is the land, and in this term we include the colony's mineral resources. It seems to us that our major objective must clearly be the preservation and the wise use of this most important asset. —Deputy Governor to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 19 March 1945 The armed rebellion of
11312-412: The war, with the most high-ranking being Field Marshal Muthoni . The British and international view was that Mau Mau was a savage, violent, and depraved tribal cult, an expression of unrestrained emotion rather than reason. Mau Mau was "perverted tribalism" that sought to take the Kikuyu people back to "the bad old days" before British rule. The official British explanation of the revolt did not include
11424-594: The willingness of Somalis in Kenya to join Somalia . The result of the referendum showed that 86% of Somalis in Kenya wanted to join Somalia , yet the British colonial administration rejected the result and the Somalis remained in Kenya. The first direct elections for native Kenyans to the Legislative Council took place in 1957. Despite British hopes of handing power to "moderate" local rivals, it
11536-489: The worst post-election violence in Kenya. To stop the death and displacement of people, Kibaki and Odinga agreed to work together, with the latter taking the position of a prime minister. This made Odinga the second prime minister of Kenya . Mau Mau revolution British victory [REDACTED] United Kingdom Mau Mau rebels 3,000 native Kenyan police and soldiers killed 1953 1954 1956 1959 The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as
11648-431: Was also controversial in that she was accused of presenting an equally binary portrayal of the conflict and of drawing questionable conclusions from limited census data, in particular her assertion that the victims of British punitive measures against the Kikuyu amounted to as many as 300,000 dead. While Elstein regards the "requirement" for the "great majority of Kikuyu" to live inside 800 "fortified villages" as "serv[ing]
11760-506: Was an anagram of Uma Uma (which means "Get out! Get out!") and was a military codeword based on a secret language game Kikuyu boys used to play at the time of their circumcision. Majdalany also says the British simply used the name as a label for the Kikuyu ethnic community without assigning any specific definition. However, there was a Maji Maji rebellion in German East Africa /Tanzania in 1905/6, ('Maji' meaning 'water' after
11872-508: Was by comparison rather outstanding and in contrast to regular Mau Mau strikes which more often than not targeted only loyalists without such massive civilian casualties. "Even the attack upon Lari, in the view of the rebel commanders was strategic and specific." The Mau Mau command, contrary to the Home Guard who were stigmatised as "the running dogs of British Imperialism", were relatively well educated. General Gatunga had previously been
11984-439: Was called. Kivoi told him " Kĩ-Nyaa " or " Kĩlĩma- Kĩinyaa ", probably because the pattern of black rock and white snow on its peaks reminded him of the feathers of the male ostrich. In archaic Kikuyu , the word 'nyaga' or more commonly 'manyaganyaga' is used to describe an extremely bright object. The Agikuyu, who inhabit the slopes of Mt. Kenya, call it Kĩrĩma Kĩrĩnyaga (literally 'the mountain with brightness') in Kikuyu , while
12096-654: Was far more effective than government newspapers; however, once colonial officials brought the insurgency under control by late 1954, information officials gained an uncontested arena through which they won the propaganda war. Women formed a core part of the Mau Mau, especially in maintaining supply lines. Initially able to avoid the suspicion, they moved through colonial spaces and between Mau Mau hideouts and strongholds, to deliver vital supplies and services to guerrilla fighters including food, ammunition, medical care, and of course, information. Women such as Wamuyu Gakuru , exemplified this key role. An unknown number also fought in
12208-512: Was formed and ultimately mobilised over 400,000 Africans, contributing to their long-term politicisation. In 1920, the East Africa Protectorate was turned into a colony and renamed Kenya after its highest mountain. During the early part of the 20th century, the interior central highlands were settled by British and other European farmers, who became wealthy farming coffee and tea. One depiction of this period of change from
12320-445: Was not removed from the Kenyan labour statutes until the 1950s. The greater part of the wealth of the country is at present in our hands. ... This land we have made is our land by right—by right of achievement. —Speech by Deputy Colonial Governor 30 November 1946 As a result of the situation in the highlands and growing job opportunities in the cities, thousands of Kikuyu migrated into cities in search of work, contributing to
12432-536: Was the Kenya African National Union (KANU) of Jomo Kenyatta that formed a government. The Colony of Kenya and the Protectorate of Kenya each came to an end on 12 December 1963, with independence conferred on all of Kenya. The U.K. ceded sovereignty over the Colony of Kenya. The Sultan of Zanzibar agreed that simultaneous with independence for the colony, he would cease to have sovereignty over
12544-549: Was the Swynnerton Plan , which was used to both reward loyalists and punish Mau Mau. This left roughly 1/3rd of Kikuyu bereft of any tenancy land arrangement and thus propertyless at the time of independence. Before Kenya got its independence, Somali ethnic people in present-day Kenya in the areas of Northern Frontier Districts petitioned Her Majesty's Government not to be included in Kenya. The colonial government decided to hold Kenya's first referendum in 1962 to check
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