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East Africa Royal Commission

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39-610: The East Africa Royal Commission was a commission set up by the British government to review issues of economic development in British colonies across British East Africa . The Commission was established by Royal Warrant on 1 January 1953. It consisted of Hugh Dow , Sally Herbert Frankel , Arthur Gaitskell , Rowland Skeffington Hudson , Daniel Jack and Chief Kidaha Makwa . It focused on six issues East Africa Royal Commission Report 1953-5 British East Africa East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa )

78-580: 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

117-705: A republic under the name " Republic of Kenya ". 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,

156-428: 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 . 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

195-589: The Berlin Conference of 1885, extended up the coast and inland across the future Kenya. Mombasa was the administrative centre at this time. However, the company began to fail, and on 1 July 1895, the British government proclaimed a protectorate , the administration being transferred to the Foreign Office . In 1902, administration was again transferred to the Colonial Office . In 1897 Hugh Cholmondeley ,

234-645: The Highlands . Lord Delamere now commenced extensive farming operations, and in 1905, when a large number of new settlers arrived from England and South Africa, the Protectorate was transferred from the authority of the Foreign Office to that of the Colonial Office. The capital was shifted from Mombasa to Nairobi in 1905. A regular government and legislature were constituted by Order in Council in 1906. This constituted

273-648: The Kenya Defence Force , and the Kikuyu Guard during the Mau Mau Uprising . . Throughout the post colonial 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. Corporal punishment , such as flogging , caning , and birching ,

312-502: The Maasai . With the arrival in 1903 of hundreds of prospective settlers, chiefly from South Africa, questions were raised concerning the preservation for the Maasai of their rights of pasturage, and the decision was made to entertain no more applications for large areas of land. In the process of carrying out this policy of colonisation a dispute arose between Sir Charles Eliot , Commissioner of British East Africa, and Lord Lansdowne ,

351-524: The British Foreign Secretary . The East Africa Syndicate had applied for and been pledged the lease of 1,300 square kilometres (500 sq mi) of land. Lansdowne, believing himself bound by the pledges, decided the applications should be approved. In a separate matter, two South African applicants who were each attempting to lease 130 square kilometres (50 sq mi) were declined by Lansdowne, and he refused Eliot permission to conclude

390-688: The Colonies , offered 13,000 square kilometres (5,000 sq mi) at Uasin Gishu in British East Africa to Zionist settlers as part of the Uganda Scheme . However, opposition to the scheme at the Sixth Zionist Congress led to the plan falling through and Chamberlain swiftly withdrew the offer. In April 1903, Major Frederick Russell Burnham , an American scout then serving as a director of

429-995: 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

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468-952: 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;

507-465: The East African Syndicate, sent an expedition consisting of John Weston Brooke , John Charles Blick, Mr. Bittlebank and Mr. Brown, to assess the mineral wealth of the region. The party, known as the "Four B.'s", travelled from Nairobi via Mount Elgon northwards to the western shores of Lake Rudolf , experiencing plenty of privations from want of water, and of the danger from encounters with

546-555: The European population was estimated at 9,000 settlers. On 23 July 1920, the inland areas of the protectorate were annexed as British dominions by Order in Council. That part of the former protectorate was thereby constituted as the Colony of Kenya . The remaining 16-kilometre-wide (10 mi) coastal strip (with the exception of Witu ), remained a protectorate under an agreement with the Sultan of Zanzibar. That coastal strip, remaining under

585-408: 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

624-611: The Indian pressed his case, white South Africa rose in alarm. If the Indian became a recognized man, landholder and voter in Kenya, what of Natal? The British Government speculated and procrastinated and then announced its decision: East Africa was primarily a "trusteeship" for the Africans and not for the Indians. The Indians, then, must be satisfied with limited industrial and political rights, while for

663-439: The Indians asked rights, the whites replied that this would injure the rights of the natives. Immediately the natives began to awake. Few of them were educated but they began to form societies and formulate grievances. A black political consciousness arose for the first time in Kenya. Immediately the Indians made a bid for the support of this new force and asked rights and privileges for all British subjects—white, brown and black. As

702-595: The Kenya Protectorate. European Christian missionaries began settling in the area from Mombasa to Mount Kilimanjaro in the 1840s, nominally under the protection of the Sultanate of Zanzibar . In 1886, the British government encouraged William Mackinnon , who already had an agreement with the Sultan and whose shipping company traded extensively in the African Great Lakes , to establish British influence in

741-529: 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 26th 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

780-470: 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

819-466: The UK. The Kenya Protectorate was established on 29th November 1920 when the territories of the former East Africa Protectorate which were not annexed by the UK were established as a British Protectorate. The Protectorate of Kenya was governed as part of the Colony of Kenya by virtue of an agreement between the United Kingdom and the Sultan dated 14 December 1895. In the 1920s, natives objected to

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858-405: The administrator, known as a governor, and provided for legislative and executive councils. Lieutenant Colonel J. Hayes Sadler was the first governor and commander in chief. There were occasional troubles with local tribes, but the country was opened up by the government and the colonists with little bloodshed. After the First World War, more farmers arrived from England and South Africa, and by 1919

897-667: The black native—the white Englishman spoke! A conservative Indian leader speaking in England after this decision said that if the Indian problem in South Africa were allowed to fester much longer it would pass beyond the bounds of domestic issue and would become a question of foreign policy upon which the unity of the Empire might founder irretrievably. The Empire could never keep its colored races within it by force, he said, but only by preserving and safeguarding their sentiments. The population in 1921

936-405: The chief commissioner of Ashanti ( Ghana ), was announced as Sir Charles' successor on the day the telegram was sent. In 1914, the British government banned cannabis ("bhang") in the Protectorate. The protectorate upon becoming a direct possession of British Empire in 1895 had overprinted postal stamps from India and the former Imperial British East Africa Company issued. Along with this

975-421: The fevers of the tropics and here England proposed to send her sick and impoverished soldiers of the war. Following the lead of South Africa, Britain took usurped five million acres of the best lands from the 3,000,000 native inhabitants, herded them towards the swamps giving them nothing as compensation, even there, no sure title; then by taxation the British forced sixty percent of the black adults into slavery for

1014-464: 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

1053-567: The pioneer of white settlement, arrived in the Kenya highlands, which was then part of the Protectorate. Lord Delamere was impressed by the agricultural possibilities of the area. In 1902, the boundaries of the protectorate were extended to include what was previously the Eastern Province of Uganda . Also, in 1902, the East Africa Syndicate received a grant of 1,300 square kilometres (500 sq mi) to promote white settlement in

1092-541: The region. He formed a British East Africa Association which led to the Imperial British East Africa Company being chartered in 1888 and given the original grant to administer the dependency. It administered about 240 kilometres (150 mi) of coastline stretching from the Jubba River via Mombasa to German East Africa which were leased from the Sultan. The British " sphere of influence ", agreed at

1131-566: 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 , Here was a land largely untainted by

1170-718: The sovereignty of the Sultan of Zanzibar, was constituted as the Protectorate of Kenya in 1920. The East Africa Protectorate was bounded to the north by the Ethiopian Empire and the Huwan , a semi-independent vassal state of the Ethiopian Empire; to the east by the Italian Geledi, to the south by German East Africa; to the west by the Uganda Protectorate. In April 1902, the first application for land in British East Africa

1209-520: The ten thousand white owners for the lowest wage. Here was opportunity not simply for the great landholder and slave-driver but also for the small trader, and twenty-four thousand Indians came. These Indians claimed the rights of free subjects of the empire—a right to buy land, a right to exploit labor, a right to a voice in the government now confined to the handful of whites. Suddenly a great race conflict swept East Africa—orient and occident, white, brown and black, landlord, trader and landless serf. When

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1248-643: The territory was incorporated into the Universal Postal Union . By 1896, the first line of official stamps was issued, although the protectorate's postage service was short lived as in 1901 it was merged with the Protectorate of Uganda's mail service becoming the East Africa and Uganda protectorates issuing their first stamps in 1904. Colony of Kenya The Colony and Protectorate of Kenya , commonly known as British Kenya or British East Africa ,

1287-503: The transactions. In view of this Eliot resigned his post, giving his reason in a public telegram to the Prime Minister , dated Mombasa , 21 June 1904, stating: "Lord Lansdowne ordered me to refuse grants of land to certain private persons while giving a monopoly of land on unduly advantageous terms to the East Africa Syndicate. I have refused to execute these instructions, which I consider unjust and impolitic." Sir Donald William Stewart,

1326-415: 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

1365-583: Was a British protectorate in the African Great Lakes , occupying roughly the same area as present-day Kenya , from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by the United Kingdom in the late 19th century, it grew out of British commercial interests in the area in the 1880s and remained a protectorate until 1920 when it became the Colony of Kenya , save for an independent 16-kilometre-wide (10 mi) coastal strip that became

1404-430: 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

1443-534: Was made by the East Africa Syndicate – a company in which financiers belonging to the British South Africa Company were interested – which sought a grant of 1,300 square kilometres (500 sq mi), and this was followed by other applications for considerable areas, many of which came from prospective settlers in South Africa . In 1903, Joseph Chamberlain , then serving as Secretary of State for

1482-562: 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

1521-450: 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

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