East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was a

British protectorate British protectorates were protectorates under the jurisdiction of the British government. Many territories which became British protectorates already had local rulers with whom the Crown negotiated through treaty, acknowledging their status wh ...

in the

African Great Lakes The African Great Lakes (; ) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. The series includes Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake in the world by area; Lake Tangan ...

, occupying roughly the same area as present-day

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

in the west. Controlled by the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in the late 19th century, it grew out of British commercial interests in the area in the 1880s and remained a protectorate until 1920 when it became the

Colony of Kenya A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often o ...

, save for an independent coastal strip that became the Kenya Protectorate.British East Africa Company
/ref>Kenya Protectorate Order in Council 1920 ( SR&O 1920/2343), S.R.O. & S.I. Rev. VIII, 258, State Pp., Vol. 87 p. 968

Administration

European

Christian mission A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and a ...

aries began settling in the area from

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

Mount Kilimanjaro Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world, at above sea level and above its plateau base. It is also the highest volcano i ...

in the 1840s, nominally under the protection of the

Sultanate of Zanzibar The Sultanate of Zanzibar (, ), also known as the Zanzibar Sultanate, was an East African Muslim state controlled by the Sultan of Zanzibar, in place between 1856 and 1964. The Sultanate's territories varied over time, and after a period of de ...

. In 1886, the British government encouraged William Mackinnon, who already had an agreement with the Sultan and whose shipping company traded extensively in the

, to establish British influence in the region. He formed a British East Africa Association which led to the

Imperial British East Africa Company The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) was a commercial association founded to develop African trade in the areas controlled by the British Empire. The company was incorporated in London on 18 April 1888 and granted a royal charter by ...

being chartered in 1888 and given the original grant to administer the dependency. It administered about of coastline stretching from the

Jubba River The Jubba River or Juba River (, ) is a river in southern Somalia which flows through the region of Jubaland. It begins at the border with Ethiopia, where the Dawa and Ganale Dorya rivers meet, and flows directly south to the Somali Sea, where ...

via Mombasa to

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; ) was a German colonial empire, German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Portugu ...

which were leased from the Sultan. The British "

sphere of influence In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military, or political exclusivity. While there may be a formal a ...

", agreed at the

Berlin Conference The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 was a meeting of colonial powers that concluded with the signing of the General Act of Berlin,

of 1885, extended up the coast and inland across the future Kenya. Mombasa was the administrative centre at this time.British East Africa, by Grant Sinclair
/ref> However, the company began to fail, and on 1 July 1895, the British government proclaimed a

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over ...

, the administration being transferred to the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

. In 1902, administration was again transferred to the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created in 1768 from the Southern Department to deal with colonial affairs in North America (particularly the Thirteen Colo ...

. In 1897 Hugh Cholmondeley, the pioneer of white settlement, arrived in the Kenya highlands, which was then part of the Protectorate."Commonwealth and Colonial Law" by

Kenneth Roberts-Wray Sir Kenneth Owen Roberts-Wray (1899–1983) was a British lawyer and civil servant. An authority on Commonwealth and colonial law, he was Legal Adviser to the Commonwealth Relations Office ( Dominions Office until 1947) and the Colonial Offi ...

, London, Stevens, 1966. P. 761 Lord Delamere was impressed by the agricultural possibilities of the area. In 1902, the boundaries of the protectorate were extended to include what was previously the Eastern Province of

. Also, in 1902, the East Africa Syndicate received a grant of to promote white settlement in the

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally, ''upland'' refers to a range of hills, typically from up to , while ''highland'' is usually reserved for range ...

s. Lord Delamere now commenced extensive farming operations, and in 1905, when a large number of new settlers arrived from England and South Africa, the Protectorate was transferred from the authority of the Foreign Office to that of the Colonial Office. The capital was shifted from Mombasa to

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

in 1905. A regular government and legislature were constituted by Order in Council in 1906. This constituted the administrator, known as a governor, and provided for legislative and executive councils. Lieutenant Colonel J. Hayes Sadler was the first governor and commander in chief. There were occasional troubles with local tribes, but the country was opened up by the government and the colonists with little bloodshed. After the First World War, more farmers arrived from England and South Africa, and by 1919 the European population was estimated at 9,000 settlers. On 23 July 1920, the inland areas of the protectorate were annexed as British dominions by Order in Council. That part of the former protectorate was thereby constituted as the

. The remaining coastal strip (with the exception of Witu), remained a protectorate under an agreement with the Sultan of Zanzibar. That coastal strip, remaining under the sovereignty of the Sultan of Zanzibar, was constituted as the Protectorate of Kenya in 1920. The East Africa Protectorate was bounded to the north by the

Ethiopian Empire The Ethiopian Empire, historically known as Abyssinia or simply Ethiopia, was a sovereign state that encompassed the present-day territories of Ethiopia and Eritrea. It existed from the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty by Yekuno Amlak a ...

and the

Huwan Ciid or 'Iid () is an archaic native geographic name for the land between the region of Mudug and the Nugaal Valley, roughly congruous with the northern Bookh. As such, Ciid constitutes the tripoint of the two former colonial powers Britain and ...

, a semi-independent vassal state of the Ethiopian Empire; to the east by the Italian Geledi, to the south by German East Africa; to the west by the Uganda Protectorate.

Development

In April 1902, the first application for land in British East Africa was made by the East Africa Syndicate – a company in which financiers belonging to the

British South Africa Company The British South Africa Company (BSAC or BSACo) was chartered in 1889 following the amalgamation of Cecil Rhodes' Central Search Association and the London-based Exploring Company Ltd, which had originally competed to capitalize on the expecte ...

were interested – which sought a grant of , and this was followed by other applications for considerable areas, many of which came from prospective settlers in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. In 1903,

Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...

, then serving as

Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom's government minister, minister in charge of managing certain parts of the British Empire. The colonial secretary never had responsibility for t ...

, offered at Uasin Gishu in British East Africa to

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

settlers as part of the

Uganda Scheme The Uganda Scheme was a proposal by British colonial secretary Joseph Chamberlain to create a Jewish homeland in a portion of British East Africa. It was presented at the Sixth World Zionist Congress in Basel in 1903 by Theodor Herzl, the foun ...

. However, opposition to the scheme at the

Sixth Zionist Congress The Sixth Zionist Congress was held in Basel, opening on August 23, 1903. Theodor Herzl caused great division amongst the delegates when he presented the "Uganda Scheme", a proposed Jewish colony in what is now part of Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. ...

led to the plan falling through and Chamberlain swiftly withdrew the offer. In April 1903, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, an American scout then serving as a director of the East African Syndicate, sent an expedition consisting of John Weston Brooke, John Charles Blick, Mr. Bittlebank and Mr. Brown, to assess the mineral wealth of the region. The party, known as the "Four B.'s", travelled from

via

Mount Elgon Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale. The mountain's highest point, named "Wagagai", is located entirely within Uganda.

northwards to the western shores of

Lake Rudolf Lake Turkana () is a saline lake in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya, Kenyan Rift Valley, in northern Kenya, with its far northern end crossing into Ethiopia. It is the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largest Soda lake, alkal ...

, experiencing plenty of privations from want of water, and of the danger from encounters with the

Maasai Maasai may refer to: *Maasai people *Maasai language *Maasai mythology * MAASAI (band) See also * Masai (disambiguation) Masai may refer to: *Masai, Johor, a town in Malaysia * Masai Plateau, a plateau in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India *Maasai peopl ...

. With the arrival in 1903 of hundreds of prospective settlers, chiefly from South Africa, questions were raised concerning the preservation for the

of their rights of pasturage, and the decision was made to entertain no more applications for large areas of land. In the process of carrying out this policy of colonisation a dispute arose between Sir Charles Eliot,

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...

of British East Africa, and Lord Lansdowne, the British Foreign Secretary. The East Africa Syndicate had applied for and been pledged the lease of of land. Lansdowne, believing himself bound by the pledges, decided the applications should be approved. In a separate matter, two South African applicants who were each attempting to lease were declined by Lansdowne, and he refused Eliot permission to conclude the transactions. In view of this Eliot resigned his post, giving his reason in a public telegram to the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, dated

, 21 June 1904, stating: Sir Donald William Stewart, the chief commissioner of Ashanti (

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

), was announced as Sir Charles' successor on the day the telegram was sent.

Legislation

In 1914, the British government banned

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

("bhang") in the Protectorate.

Stamps and postal history of British East Africa

The protectorate upon becoming a direct possession of

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

in 1895 had overprinted postal stamps from India and the former

issued. Along with this the territory was incorporated into the

Universal Postal Union The Universal Postal Union (UPU, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system. It has 192 member states and is headquartered in Be ...

. By 1896, the first line of official stamps was issued, although the protectorate's postage service was short lived as in 1901 it was merged with the

Protectorate of Uganda The Protectorate of Uganda was a protectorate of the British Empire from 1894 to 1962. In 1893 the Imperial British East Africa Company transferred its administration rights of territory consisting mainly of the Kingdom of Buganda to the Br ...

's mail service becoming the East Africa and Uganda protectorates issuing their first stamps in 1904.

References

Notes

External links

* ttp://purl.pt/787/1/index.html Purl.pt: ''A map of part of Eastern Africa, prepared by authority of the Imperial British East Africa Company'' (1889) {{Authority control Former British colonies and protectorates in Africa Kenya Colony East Africa 1890s in Kenya 1900s in Kenya 1910s in Kenya States and territories established in 1895 States and territories disestablished in 1920 1895 establishments in Kenya 1920 disestablishments in Kenya 1895 establishments in the British Empire 1920 disestablishments in the British Empire 19th century in Kenya 20th century in Kenya Former countries of the interwar period