For most of the twentieth century, nearly half of Kenya’s land area existed outside the national imagination. The Northern Frontier District (NFD) — stretching from the Tana River to the Ethiopian border — was a vast, semi-arid expanse of deserts, plateaus, and seasonal rivers. Populated by nomadic pastoralists such as the Somali, Borana, Rendille, Samburu, … Read more
Kenya’s independence on 12 December 1963 marked the end of more than seventy years of British colonial rule. The road to freedom was long, violent, and complex, shaped by both armed resistance and political negotiation. It was not granted as a gift but won through generations of struggle — from the earliest uprisings against imperial … Read more
In the 1950s, the British Empire fought its final and most violent colonial war in Kenya. What began as a counterinsurgency against the Mau Mau uprising turned into one of the largest systems of mass detention in modern imperial history. Between 1952 and 1960, colonial authorities confined over a million Kikuyu, Embu, and Meru people … Read more
Every empire begins by pretending it brings order. The British said they were bringing “civilization” to Kenya; what they brought to Kisii in 1908 was the hut tax, whips, and the rifle. Today, when Kenyans talk about colonial resistance, the story usually jumps straight to the Mau Mau in the 1950s, or maybe the Giriama … Read more
When people ask how long Kenya was colonized, the standard answer—“from 1895 to 1963”—glides past the complications. It’s true, on paper: 67 years. But like most colonial timelines, the dates conceal more than they reveal. Kenya’s colonization was not simply an occupation. It was a series of overlapping experiments in control—first by a private company, … Read more
Long before cannabis became a global controversy, colonial Kenya banned it under international pressure—despite Britain’s own scientific findings that showed it caused no serious harm. The decision, shaped by diplomacy rather than evidence, continues to influence Kenyan drug laws to this day. Britain’s Early Knowledge: The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission In 1893, the British government … Read more
The Legislative Council (LEGCO) of colonial Kenya, first established in 1907, began as an exclusive instrument of settler influence but evolved into a crucible of political transformation. It reflected the structural contradictions of British colonial rule: race-based governance, settler economic interests, and the gradual — often reluctant — accommodation of African political aspirations. From its … Read more
At the turn of the twentieth century, Jewish leaders faced a desperate crisis. Pogroms in Eastern Europe and growing anti-Semitism convinced many that an urgent solution was needed to save persecuted Jews. In 1903, a surprising proposal emerged from the heart of British East Africa. Under the auspices of Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain, an offer … Read more
The Turkana of northwestern Kenya developed a distinctive social and military culture long before encountering European colonizers. In The Scattering Time: Turkana Responses to Colonial Rule, John Lamphear (1992) draws on oral traditions and archival records to reconstruct how the Turkana navigated shifting power dynamics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By juxtaposing … Read more
Kenya’s colonial history was shaped by British imperial ambitions, economic exploitation, and African resistance. The British declared Kenya a protectorate in 1895 and later a colony in 1920. Over the next six decades, colonial policies deeply altered the country’s political, social, and economic structures. Land alienation, forced labor, and racial segregation became defining features of … Read more