Kenya gained its independence from Britain with Jomo Kenyatta as the country’s first Prime Minister.
How Kenya Got Independence
On 12 December 1963 Kenya gained long-awaited independence from Britain, after nearly 80 years of British colonial rule.
British influence in the area was established by the Berlin Conference of 1885 and the foundation of the Imperial British East Africa Company by William Mackinnon in 1888. In 1895, with the East Africa Company floundering, the British government took over the administration of the region as the British East African Protectorate.
The Colony of Kenya
After the First World War, during which British East Africa was used as a base for operations against German East Africa, Britain annexed the inland areas of the British East Africa Protectorate and declared it a crown colony, establishing The Colony of Kenya in 1920. The coastal region remained a protectorate.
Throughout the 1920s and 30s, colonial policies eroded the rights of the African population. Further land was bought up by the colonial government, primarily in the most fertile upland areas, to be farmed by white settlers, who produced tea and coffee. Their contribution to the economy ensured their rights remained unchallenged, whereas the Kikuyu, Masai and Nandi peoples were driven from their lands or forced into poorly paid labour.
A growing nationalist movement resulted in the emergence of the Kenya African Union in 1946, led by Harry Thuku. But their inability to bring about reform from the colonial authorities led to the emergence of more militant groups.
Independence and reparations
The Mau Mau uprising convinced the British of the need for reform in Kenya and the wheels were set in motion for the transition to independence.
On 12 December 1963 Kenya became an independent nation under the Kenya Independence Act. Queen Elizabeth II remained the nation’s Head of State until exactly a year later when Kenya became a republic. The Prime Minister, and later President, Jomo Kenyatta, was one of the Kapenguria Six who had been arrested, tried and imprisoned by the British on trumped-up charges. Kenyatta’s legacy is somewhat mixed: some herald him as the Father of the Nation, but he favoured his ethnic group, the Kikuyu, and many saw his rule as semi-dictatorial and increasingly corrupt.
In 2013, after a lengthy legal battle following the alleged ‘losing’ of thousands of colonial records of abuse, the British Government announced that it would pay compensation totalling £20 million to more than 5,000 Kenyan citizens who were abused during the Mau Mau Uprising. At least thirteen boxes of records still remain unaccounted for to this day