Kenya

The struggle

Kenya was a settler colony: the highlands were reserved for Europeans and Africans confined to reserves and pass laws. The Mau Mau revolt from 1952 was met with a state of emergency, mass detention camps and tens of thousands of deaths, and it broke the settler project even as it was militarily defeated. Independence came on 12 December 1963, with the republic declared a year later on the same date.

Key people

• Jomo Kenyatta

  1897–1978

  KAU leader, imprisoned for Mau Mau links; first president

• Dedan Kimathi

  1920–1957

  Mau Mau field marshal; executed in 1957

• Me Katilili wa Menza

  1860–1924

  Led Giriama resistance to British rule in 1913

• Tom Mboya

  1930–1969

  Trade unionist and architect of the independence settlement