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 the United Kingdom. The Kenya Protectorate was established on 29 November 1920 when the territories of the former East Africa Protectorate which were not annexed by the United Kingdom were established as a British Protectorate.
The Protectorate of Kenya The Protectorate of Kenya, also commonly known as the Coastal Protectorate, was the second part of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, which existed within the same state, but had a separate legal status to the rest of Kenya. Based in the Coastal province of Kenya, it was legally autonomous, with the Sultan of Zanzibar retaining sovereignty over the territory by legal agreement, like he did with the Sultanate of Zanzibar. The governor of the Protectorate was elected by the
Qadis, and officially appointed by the Sultan of Zanzibar, with British assent. The Protectorate had the same legal freedoms as the Sultanate of Zanzibar within the empire, but was not a sovereign nation, with the Protectorate being a part of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, alongside the Colony. The Protectorate had significant autonomy, having its own police force, courts, and laws, with its inhabitants being
protected persons and not subjects, like the citizens of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Its governors' official, local titles, were Liwali, the Swahili adaptation of the Arabic term Wali or governor in English.
History of the Colony of Kenya In the 1920s, Kenyans objected to the reservation of the
White Highlands for Europeans, especially British war veterans. Bitterness grew between the Kenyan people 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, The population in 1921 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, 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 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 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 the Protectorate of Kenya. On 26 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 a republic under the name "
Republic of Kenya". == Administration ==