Men who ruled Kenya : the Kenya administration, 1892-196
By: Charles Chenevix Trench
Type: English : Book : Non-fiction
Publisher: London : Radcliffe Press, 1993.
ISBN: 1850435715
Introduction
From the book, Kenya is pretty much the creation of the brits, and what we are basically dealing with in Kenya today is a continuation( classism replacing racisim today) of that legacy as far as administration is concerned. The administration of Kenya has not significantly changed since the days of colonialism,the Fundamental systems are still in place and dare I say it, it is one of the the few reasons that Kenya is supposedly more developed,simply because it is connected to what are considered and were considered the centers
of power in Europe.
Here is an interesting fact. Most of the administrators who governed Kenya were supposedly the best 'the empire' had to offer. Apparently in all of Colonial Britian,Most of the officers( DO DCs, Governors,etc),Kenya produced the largest percentage of administrators who rose to the very top in colonial administration office in the U.K.Most of them were supposedly the smartests of Oxford trained administrators.Another thing on Administration was that the Chief systems was a creation of Colonial Government(which was sometimes used to take power from the more resistive traditional leaders, Interestingly some chiefs were actually african women).
The Jungus can pretty much be divided into 3; the administrators( who saw themselves as doing the job of protecting the interests of the King), the Settlers( who wanted Kenya to be a white mans country), and the missionaries who came to 'save' the African by showing him the ways of the christianity.
Another thing, is that Kenya was pretty much built by black Africans paying taxes. It had one of the most extensive and efficient tax systems of the british colonies, especially in Central province( that is one of the reason they where some of the first people who to push for change).Black Africans were active players in alot of things.Both on the resistive and co-operative components of colonial Kenya
Stereotypes
I will start with the way they viewed some of the communites. The Luos and Lunjes were know as the Kavirondo and in the jungu adminstrators on words, where' strong in the arm and thick in the head', perfect administratees.
The Kikuyu was seen as cunning and good traders. Same could be said of the Kamba. The Massai were seen as noble and potentially dangerous. The Kipsigis was the ' Gentleman thief( cattle rustler)' . To stop them from raiding for cattle, the DC over there introduced running to them and, so it goes, the next generation became olympic champions.
The somali was proud , hot tempered and did not see himself as an African and infact demanded to be taxed at a higher rate( apparently that was just a ploy to stop paying taxes since you paid taxes by you racial classification, no classification means you don't pay taxes). They also interacted alot with the meru and the Pokomo. The Swahili were 'civilised savages or something were referred to as 'Arabs'.The Somali was not to be wiped or humilited, beacause it usually ended up with him getting his clansmen and pretty much wiping out the DCs Boma and everyone in it.Afew DCs met their fate this way after ignoring that rule of thumb
Quiet a few jungu DC(by the way,some were black African DCs in the colonial government, some who are still alive and all refused to be intreviewed for the book) took the identity of the tribes in there districts and actually would go as far as fighting with other DCs because they let their tribe graze in their district without permission or something like that. The onces who go it bad, were said to suffer from Massai-ites or Somali-ites( depending on which tribe they started identify with and acting like). Such guys were usually transferred.Some even had harems of say Kalenjin/Masaai women or of women in the district they were in.
Surprisingly, Black Kenyans who had restrictions were not necessarily poor, they had a lot of real money( indian rupees before the introduction of the shilling). Once, men were coming with whole family( several wives) each carrying sacks of money to convert it when the shilling was introduced, and these were 1920s Kalenjins!,Maasais, Turkanas,etc. In Meru alone, there were 6000 tea/coffee farmers in the late 40s pulling a some good money every year.By the late 50s, there was an Embu co-operative that made a quarter of a million british pounds in one year for its farmers. There were some black Kenyans who were doing really well.Not as well as the settlers, but they were doing well.Of course they were in the minority.
Kikuyus pretty much learnt things quickly and even established independent private schools in the 1920s.Most were connected to akina Harry Thuku and Kenyatta and run by educated africans who taught for a while in white mission schools but felt that african culture was ignored and things like circumcision which, the mission spoke against,were necessary for the black African. The Maasai(settled) used to employ many Kikuyus to tend their farms. Kenyans of all tribes used to work as far as western, making money just like today. After the Mau Mau revolt started, many Kikuyus were forced by the government to move back to central, so that the government could keep an eye on them.
Nairobi
Nairobi has not really changed much. The Eastern part was negelected( just as it is now) because that is where all the blacks lived.Apparenlty that side was just like american ghettos, from the book' it was controlled by Kikuyu armed gangs thriving on crime, prostituiton and protection rackets' This is 1950s Nairobi by the way.
Anyway as Nairobi grew, there was a increasing educated middle class. Some Africans were pretty well off(Harry Thuku owned huge tracts of Land since the 1920s after he was realised from detention).In fact some jungus wanted to engage the less radical african urabinites instead of dealing with Jomo Kenyatta, but they did not follow through, just like they ignored warnings on the coming of the Mau Mau until it was too late.
On Dedan kimathi, from the book "In March 1952 Mau Mau oathing started..... Jomo Kenyatta held a KAU mass meeting in June, and appointed a Shell Company clerk, Dedan Kimathi, as secretary of the local branch KAU.Soon after this he left his job in Shell and became the local oath adminstrator'.Far from being a 'peasant' revolt, a large part of the mau mau cadre were actually educated people or world war two veterans.
Independence
On the way to independence, at around 1960, on the request of Jomo,a large number of Africans were trained in 1 year to take over 10% of the civil service( this seems insignificant but I think it is one of the reasons Kenya did not collapse immediately after independence,considering how the Portugese and Belgians left their colonies after trashing offices and pretty much leaving things as non functional as possible). The jungu training them, even had them taught to play golf! infact it was the main reason that it is still is the main pass time for most old school senior government officials( Kibaki and crew).
Paradoxically, even the most racist settlers played a part in the new governement.The House speaker who stayed on after Kenya got independence was one of the most vocal anti independence advocate not to mention some who became cabinet ministers.
Anecdotes
A British DC in Samburu in the 1940s was trying to encourage them to change their ways so he brought out a small battle tank and had it driving around, showing some more morans what it could do.The message was modernise in the jungu way and you will have this impressive stuff.One of the morans went to inspect the tanks tracks( wheels) and went like 'Much too loose.You 'd never gotten away with that in the fourteenth Army.' The Moran was a sergant on leave.He was one of the hunderds of WW2 african/samburu soldiers.
Then there was this DC in Turkana who was infuriated with the cattle rustling and went to tell off the Turkanas in a Baraza saying that 'everyone should stick to their country' One of the Turkanas stood up and offerred that maybe the jungu would like to set an example by going back to his.
On those 1920 Kalenjins. When the money was being changed, the Jungu DC set to advertise the change and alot of Africans came to change their money from rupees to shillings.The thing was so succesful that the DC was so pleased with himself.Until his translator told him that the only reason people came in droves was that they thought that the white men were taking their money back as they(the brits) were preparing to leave for good and the faster they changed their money, the sooner the jungu would be gone.
Then during the Mau Mau. Many prisoners were moved to work in the plantations at the coast at Hola. (this is verbatim from the book).Sometimes a dhow-captain , rolling into the harbour would ask for a private talk with the DC on a confidential manner.There was, he would explain , a grave shortage of slaves in Arabia.He understood that the British government kept several hundred Kikuyu slaves at a place called Hola.Would it be possible.....?
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Men who ruled Kenya : the Kenya administ... -
10-29-2004, 08:56 PM
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