History Kenya

• 10 million Africans. 66,000 white settlers violently opposed to black majority rule.

• Around 200,000 Indians and 35,000 Muslim Arabs.

• Main Kenyan African leader: Jomo Kenyatta.

-Member of the Kikuyu Tribe. Veteran among African nationalists.

-Became leader of the Kenya African Unity Party (KAU) 1947.

• Wanted to win African majority rule gradually by gaining more African seats on the Legislative Council.

• The more radical wing of this party (Forty Group) wanted to drive the British out by force.

• British gov’t was under pressure from both sides. White settlers supported by big business interests in Britain.

• KAU made little progress. The only British concession being to allow six Africans to join the Legislative Council of 54 members.

• In 1952: African impatience burst out in an uprising against the British. Attacked European-onwed farms. Organized by the “Mau Mau” secret society.

• Kenyatta was kept in jail for six years although he had publicly condemned violence and insisted that the KAU had not been involved in organizing the rebllion.

• British committed 100,000 troops to flush out the terrorists, and over the next eight years some 10,000 people were killed. 90,000 Kikuyu imprisoned.

• Less than 100 whites were killed.

• Harold Macmillan (Prime Minister) decided to move Kenya towards independence.

-Africans allowed to settle in fertile highland plateau.

• Attempts were made to increase the political role of the Africans. 1957 elections