However, the creation of clove plantations, intensification of the slave trade and relocation of the Omani capital to Zanzibar in 1839 by Seyyid Said had the effect of consolidating the Omani power in the region. Arab governance of all the major ports along the East African coast continued until British interests aimed particularly at ending the slave trade and creation of a wage-labor system began to put pressure on Omani rule.
By the late nineteenth century, the slave trade on the open seas had been completely outlawed by the British and the Omani Arabs had little ability to resist the British navy’s ability to enforce the directive. The Omani presence continued in Zanzibar and Pemba until the 1964 revolution, but the official Omani Arab presence in Kenya was checked by German and British seizure of key ports and creation of crucial trade alliances with influential local leaders in the 1880s.
However, the Omani Arab legacy in East Africa is currently found through their numerous descendants found along the coast
that can directly trace ancestry to Oman and are typically the wealthiest and most politically
influential members of the Kenyan coastal community
Kenya-Uganda railway near Mombasa, about 1899However, most historians consider that the colonial history of Kenya dates from the establishment of a German protectorate over the Sultan of Zanzibar's coastal possessions in 1885, followed by the arrival of
the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1888. Incipient imperial rivalry was forestalled when Germany handed its coastal holdings to Britain in 1890.
This followed the building of the Kenya-Uganda railway passing through the country. Although this was also resisted by some tribes,
notably the Nandi led by Orkoiyot Koitalel Arap Samoei for ten years from 1895 to 1905,
these did not stop the British building the railway.
It is believed that the Nandi were the first tribe to be put in a native reserve to stop them from
disrupting the building of the railway.
At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the governors of British East Africa (as the Protectorate was generally known) and German East Africa agreed a truce in an attempt to keep
the young colonies out of direct hostilities.
However Lt Col Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck took command of the German military forces, determined to tie down as many British resources as possible.
Completely cut off from Germany by the British Navy, von Lettow conducted an effective guerrilla warfare campaign, living off the land, capturing British supplies, and remaining undefeated. He eventually surrendered in Zambia eleven days after the Armistice was signed in 1918.
To chase von Lettow the British deployed Indian Army troops from India and then needed large numbers of
porters to overcome the formidable logistics of transporting supplies far into the interior by foot.
The Carrier Corps was formed and ultimately mobilised over 400,000 Africans, contributing to their long-term politicisation.
Lt Col Paul von Lettow-VorbeckDuring the early part of the twentieth century, the interior central highlands were settled by British and other European farmers, who became wealthy farming
coffee and tea. By the 1930s, approximately 30,000 white settlers lived in the area and were
offered undue political powers because of their effects on the economy.
The area was already home to over a million members of the Kĩkũyũ tribe, most of whom had no land claims in European terms (but the land belonged to the ethnic group), and lived as itinerant farmers.
To protect their interests, the settlers banned the growing of coffee, 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 provide a living from the land dwindled.
In 1951, Sir Horace Hector Hearne became Chief Justice in Kenya (coming from Ceylon,
where he had been Chief Justice and sat in the Supreme Court, Nairobi). He held that position
until 1954 when he became an Appeal Justice of the West African Court of Appeal.
On the night of the death of George VI, 5 February 1952, Hearne escorted the Princess Elizabeth,
as she then was, to a state dinner at the Treetops Hotel, which is now a very popular tourist retreat.
It was there that she "went up a princess and came down a Queen".[citation needed] She returned immediately to England, accompanied by Hearne.
From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was under a state of emergency arising from the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule. The governor requested and obtained British and African troops, including the King's African Rifles. In January 1953, Major General Hinde was appointed as director
of counter-insurgency operations. The situation did not improve for lack of intelligence,
so General Sir George Erskine was appointed commander-in-chief of the colony's armed forces
in May 1953, with the personal backing of Winston Churchill. The capture of Warǔhiǔ Itote (a.k.a. General China) on 15 January 1954 and the subsequent interrogation led to a better understanding
of the Mau Mau command structure.
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, and the occupants were screened and the Mau Mau supporters moved to detention camps.
May 1953 also saw the Home Guard officially recognized as a branch of the Security Forces. The Home Guard formed the core of the government's anti-Mau Mau strategy as it was composed of loyalist Africans, not foreign forces like the British Army and King's African Rifles.
By the end of the emergency the Home Guard had killed no fewer than 4,686 Mau Mau, amounting to 42% of the total insurgents. 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.
Post-colonial history
Lake VictoriaThe first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative Council took place in 1957. Despite British hopes of handing power to "moderate" African rivals,
it was the Kenya African National Union (KANU) of Jomo Kenyatta, that formed a government
shortly before Kenya became independent on 12 December 1963. In the same year
the Kenyan army fought the Shifta War against Somali ethnics determined to see NFD join with
the Republic of Somalia, the Shifta's inflicted heavy casualties on the Kenyan armed forces but
were defeated in 1967.
Kenya, fearing an invasion from militarily stronger Somalia, signed a defence pact with Ethiopia in 1969 which is still intact
Suffering from droughts and floods NFD
is the least developed region in Kenya, throughout the 1990s wealthy Somali businessmen have transformed Eastleigh from a residential community to the commercial centre of Eastlands, and increasinglymuch of Nairobi.
In 1963, Kenyatta became Kenya's first president. At Kenyatta's death in 1978, Daniel arap Moi became President. Daniel arap Moi retained the Presidency, being 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 an abortive military coup
attempt on August 1, 1982. The abortive coup was masterminded by a lowly ranked Air Force serviceman, Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka and was staged mainly by enlisted men in the Air Force.
The attempt was quickly suppressed by Loyalist forces led by the Army, the General Service Unit (GSU) — paramilitary wing of the police — and later the regular police, but not without civilian casualties.
This event led to the disbanding of the entire Air Force and a large number of its former members were either dismissed or court-martialled. 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 secret ballot.
This was seen as the climax of a very undemocratic regime and it led to widespread agitation for constitutional reform. Several contentious clauses, including the one allowing only one political party were changed in the following years.
In democratic, multiparty elections in 1992 and 1997, Daniel arap Moi won re-election. In 2002, Moi was constitutionally barred from running, and Mwai Kǐbakǐ, running for the opposition coalition
"National Rainbow Coalition" — NARC, was elected President.
The elections, judged free and fair by local and international observers, marked a turning point in Kenya's democratic evolution. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fedha / Money of Kenya
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