It's on 1885,(25 Feb.) Berlin Conference of 1884-85 concludes with Berlin Act signed by Great Britain, Germany, Austro-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the United States, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Luxembourg, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire; although signatories claim their aim is to further "the moral and material well-being of the native populations" their true purpose is to regulate the "scramble" for Africa by the European powers.
British East Africa Association formed by Sir William Mackinnon.
1888 (3 Sept.) Royal Charter granted to Imperial British East Africa Company, the renamed British East Africa Association; poorly administered, IBEACO lasts only 7 years.
1890 (1 July) Building on 1886 agreement, Anglo-German Treaty allots interior of Tanganyika to Germany and interior of Kenya as well as Uganda to Britain; Lugard establishes IBEACO trading post at Dagoretti.
Punitive expedition against Taita near coast kills chief and many followers. The history of the next twenty five years is littered with such many expeditions, described ironically by McGregor Ross as "such swift thunderbolts of retribution" that the victims "put up with the peace".
Waiyaki wa Hinga, having earlier in the year made treaty with Lugard, perceives actual intention of British, and attacks and burns British station at Dagoretti..
Refusal by Kamba to sell food to British at Machakos station---in protest against theft, rape, and destruction of property by British employees---ends as result of Lugard's diplomacy.
1889 Year of the locust plague in Kiambu (Ngigí), which gives its name to age-set.
1892 Waiyaki is captured, wounded, and buried alive at Kibwezi.
Punitive expeditions against Taita in southeastern Kenya result in "a large number of dead on the ground".
1893 Sir Gerald Portal, on behalf of Foreign Office, takes over IBEACO interests in Uganda.
1894 Punitive expeditions against Githunguri Gikuyu; 90 killed in June, many more in July.
Mr. & Mrs. J Stuart Watt arrive in Highlands as first white settlers, establishing themselves the next year near Machakos.
1895 (1 July) With A. H. Hardinge as the first Commissioner, British establish East Africa Protectorate, replacing IBEACO; Gikuyu population is 300,000.
(Aug.) At Chetambe in Western Kenya, C. W. Hobley defeats Bukusu and other Luhya, killing over 420 and confiscating 1900 cattle and an unknown number of sheep and goats. Battle becomes hallmark of Abaluhya nationalism; it is symbolically undone 52 years later by Elijah Masinde and continues to resonate to this day, as witnessed by dedication of a 1985 collection of historical essays: "To all the Bukusu heroes,/Who fell at Chetambe's Fort/They and their cattle/Died one by one, before the British machine guns/In their last stand against armed colonial invasion".
Preliminary work begins at Mombasa on railway to Uganda. Labour is provided by coolies recruited from Punjab, with transport provided by Swahilis.. In following year, with IBEACO gone, British government appropriates £3 million loan for railway.
(16 July) In Western Kenya, the Nandi kill Peter West to exact revenge for theft of Nandi cattle by West's partner, Andrew Dick, and for Dick's murder of Nandi warriors, as well as West's intrusion into their territory; West's murder and most of his thirty porters ushers in eleven years of fierce Nandi resistance and corresponding British retaliation. First punitive expedition against Nandi, which takes place immediately, results in 190 Nandi killed and confiscation of 230 cattle and 2400 sheep and goats; other punitive expeditions in Nandi take place in 1897, 1900, 1903 and 1905..
(Nov.) Dick, a "choleric Scot" who leads caravans to the interior and "inspires the natives with wholesome dread", is murdered by Maasai in Kedong Valley when he attacks them and captures some of their cattle in retaliation for Maasai attack on a large caravan of Swahilis and Gikuyu (known as Kedong Massacre). But since Kedong Massacre is itself in retaliation for the Swahilis' having taken two girls from Maasai kraal, British inquiry holds that the Maasai have been so provoked---and have lost so many men by time of Dick's attack---that only token punishment is necessary. Some four years later, bleached skulls of Dick's porters greet builders of Uganda Railway, who dub the place "the Plain of Skulls".
1896 (Aug.) Construction of railway starts on mainland.
1897 Native Courts Regulations provide Protectorate government "with powers of preventive detention, and restriction of movement" of any person "disaffected to the Government...about to commit an offence against the regulations or...conducting himself so as to be dangerous to peace and good order".
1898 Vagrancy Regulations provide for detention of Africans "asking for alms or wandering about without any employment or visible means of subsistence. A version of this law remains in Kenya today.
1899 (May) Railway reaches Nairobi, which originates as work camp and depot for railway construction supplies; colonial administration is transferred from Mombasa to Nairobi eight years later. Chief engineer on railway describes site: "bleak, swampy stretch of soppy landscape wind-swept, devoid of human habitation of any sort, the resort of thousands of wild animals of every species.." On arriving here, the railway company begins training "wild savages" (Gikuyu) so as to replace "most of the expensive imported labour".
1900 Native Passes Regulations, requiring purchase of pass for one rupee, permit Commissioner to control "the movement of natives travelling into, out of [German territory], or within the limits of the protectorate".
First successful coffee plantation established in Nairobi by St. Austin's Mission; it becomes "mother" plantation of others that develop, including Lord Delamere's. That the first coffee plantation arises at a mission helps explain frequently quoted Gikuyu proverb Gútirí Múthúngú na Múbía, "There is no difference between the European and the missionary priest". Other crops similarly regulated include sisal, tea, and, from about 1933, pyrethrum.
1901 (23 Oct.) Hut Tax Ordinance establishes tax of 2 rupees per year to be paid in kind, labour, or money; a main purpose of this and related legislation in coming years is to force "the native to leave his reserve for the purpose of seeking work". . .
Preservation of Order by Night Regulations permit government to impose curfew, curtailing communal activities such as ngomas (dances).
(20 Dec.) Railway completed from Mombasa on coast to Kisumu on Lake Victoria.
1902 (4 Jan.) Society "to promote European immigration into East Africa" is formed; sounding note to be heard repeatedly over the next five decades..
(5 Mar.) British East Africa Protectorate takes over rule of all upland areas between Indian Ocean and Lake Victoria.
(27 Sept.) Crown Lands Ordinance, building on the previous year's East African Lands Order, provides for sale and leasing (for 99 years instead of the previous 21) of land that appears not to be "in the actual occupation of the natives"; non-Europeans are permitted one-year leases of five acres. The effect is "to compel, by legislation, a people to vacate their traditional lands". Resting on misunderstanding of African land customs, the law regards unoccupied land as unowned; as a result, many Africans become squatters on land that, according to Gikuyu law, they themselves own. The Government "never, of course, explained this novel and rapacious invention to the natives, and they only found out piecemeal and by bitter experience that the Government could evict them, without sympathy or compensation, from lands which the tribe had occupied from time immemorial". . .
Ngugi wa Thiong'o: The Making of a Rebel
Carol Sicherman, 1990.
British East Africa Association formed by Sir William Mackinnon.
1888 (3 Sept.) Royal Charter granted to Imperial British East Africa Company, the renamed British East Africa Association; poorly administered, IBEACO lasts only 7 years.
1890 (1 July) Building on 1886 agreement, Anglo-German Treaty allots interior of Tanganyika to Germany and interior of Kenya as well as Uganda to Britain; Lugard establishes IBEACO trading post at Dagoretti.
Punitive expedition against Taita near coast kills chief and many followers. The history of the next twenty five years is littered with such many expeditions, described ironically by McGregor Ross as "such swift thunderbolts of retribution" that the victims "put up with the peace".
Waiyaki wa Hinga, having earlier in the year made treaty with Lugard, perceives actual intention of British, and attacks and burns British station at Dagoretti..
Refusal by Kamba to sell food to British at Machakos station---in protest against theft, rape, and destruction of property by British employees---ends as result of Lugard's diplomacy.
1889 Year of the locust plague in Kiambu (Ngigí), which gives its name to age-set.
1892 Waiyaki is captured, wounded, and buried alive at Kibwezi.
Punitive expeditions against Taita in southeastern Kenya result in "a large number of dead on the ground".
1893 Sir Gerald Portal, on behalf of Foreign Office, takes over IBEACO interests in Uganda.
1894 Punitive expeditions against Githunguri Gikuyu; 90 killed in June, many more in July.
Mr. & Mrs. J Stuart Watt arrive in Highlands as first white settlers, establishing themselves the next year near Machakos.
1895 (1 July) With A. H. Hardinge as the first Commissioner, British establish East Africa Protectorate, replacing IBEACO; Gikuyu population is 300,000.
(Aug.) At Chetambe in Western Kenya, C. W. Hobley defeats Bukusu and other Luhya, killing over 420 and confiscating 1900 cattle and an unknown number of sheep and goats. Battle becomes hallmark of Abaluhya nationalism; it is symbolically undone 52 years later by Elijah Masinde and continues to resonate to this day, as witnessed by dedication of a 1985 collection of historical essays: "To all the Bukusu heroes,/Who fell at Chetambe's Fort/They and their cattle/Died one by one, before the British machine guns/In their last stand against armed colonial invasion".
Preliminary work begins at Mombasa on railway to Uganda. Labour is provided by coolies recruited from Punjab, with transport provided by Swahilis.. In following year, with IBEACO gone, British government appropriates £3 million loan for railway.
(16 July) In Western Kenya, the Nandi kill Peter West to exact revenge for theft of Nandi cattle by West's partner, Andrew Dick, and for Dick's murder of Nandi warriors, as well as West's intrusion into their territory; West's murder and most of his thirty porters ushers in eleven years of fierce Nandi resistance and corresponding British retaliation. First punitive expedition against Nandi, which takes place immediately, results in 190 Nandi killed and confiscation of 230 cattle and 2400 sheep and goats; other punitive expeditions in Nandi take place in 1897, 1900, 1903 and 1905..
(Nov.) Dick, a "choleric Scot" who leads caravans to the interior and "inspires the natives with wholesome dread", is murdered by Maasai in Kedong Valley when he attacks them and captures some of their cattle in retaliation for Maasai attack on a large caravan of Swahilis and Gikuyu (known as Kedong Massacre). But since Kedong Massacre is itself in retaliation for the Swahilis' having taken two girls from Maasai kraal, British inquiry holds that the Maasai have been so provoked---and have lost so many men by time of Dick's attack---that only token punishment is necessary. Some four years later, bleached skulls of Dick's porters greet builders of Uganda Railway, who dub the place "the Plain of Skulls".
1896 (Aug.) Construction of railway starts on mainland.
1897 Native Courts Regulations provide Protectorate government "with powers of preventive detention, and restriction of movement" of any person "disaffected to the Government...about to commit an offence against the regulations or...conducting himself so as to be dangerous to peace and good order".
1898 Vagrancy Regulations provide for detention of Africans "asking for alms or wandering about without any employment or visible means of subsistence. A version of this law remains in Kenya today.
1899 (May) Railway reaches Nairobi, which originates as work camp and depot for railway construction supplies; colonial administration is transferred from Mombasa to Nairobi eight years later. Chief engineer on railway describes site: "bleak, swampy stretch of soppy landscape wind-swept, devoid of human habitation of any sort, the resort of thousands of wild animals of every species.." On arriving here, the railway company begins training "wild savages" (Gikuyu) so as to replace "most of the expensive imported labour".
1900 Native Passes Regulations, requiring purchase of pass for one rupee, permit Commissioner to control "the movement of natives travelling into, out of [German territory], or within the limits of the protectorate".
First successful coffee plantation established in Nairobi by St. Austin's Mission; it becomes "mother" plantation of others that develop, including Lord Delamere's. That the first coffee plantation arises at a mission helps explain frequently quoted Gikuyu proverb Gútirí Múthúngú na Múbía, "There is no difference between the European and the missionary priest". Other crops similarly regulated include sisal, tea, and, from about 1933, pyrethrum.
1901 (23 Oct.) Hut Tax Ordinance establishes tax of 2 rupees per year to be paid in kind, labour, or money; a main purpose of this and related legislation in coming years is to force "the native to leave his reserve for the purpose of seeking work". . .
Preservation of Order by Night Regulations permit government to impose curfew, curtailing communal activities such as ngomas (dances).
(20 Dec.) Railway completed from Mombasa on coast to Kisumu on Lake Victoria.
1902 (4 Jan.) Society "to promote European immigration into East Africa" is formed; sounding note to be heard repeatedly over the next five decades..
(5 Mar.) British East Africa Protectorate takes over rule of all upland areas between Indian Ocean and Lake Victoria.
(27 Sept.) Crown Lands Ordinance, building on the previous year's East African Lands Order, provides for sale and leasing (for 99 years instead of the previous 21) of land that appears not to be "in the actual occupation of the natives"; non-Europeans are permitted one-year leases of five acres. The effect is "to compel, by legislation, a people to vacate their traditional lands". Resting on misunderstanding of African land customs, the law regards unoccupied land as unowned; as a result, many Africans become squatters on land that, according to Gikuyu law, they themselves own. The Government "never, of course, explained this novel and rapacious invention to the natives, and they only found out piecemeal and by bitter experience that the Government could evict them, without sympathy or compensation, from lands which the tribe had occupied from time immemorial". . .
Ngugi wa Thiong'o: The Making of a Rebel
Carol Sicherman, 1990.