The system of government in colonial Kenya

Abstract

The object of the study of this work is the government system of colonial Kenya (1890-1950's). The subject of the study is public authorities, their powers, area of responsibility and features of functioning in East African realities. The author has carried out a detailed analysis of the administrative structure, the law enforcement system, and key management links at the central and regional levels. Special attention was paid to the issues of urban development based on the principle of racial segregation and local self-government, as well as the problem of combating specific crime. The article focuses on a number of non-trivial aspects of the British approach to organizing the work of government agencies, including special recruitment, active lawmaking, largely based on borrowing decisions from British India, and also the introduction of the institute of chiefs at the local level. The methodological basis of the article was historical-legal and problem-chronological approaches, in addition, the author turned to general scientific methods of analysis and deduction. The British system of government was built up in Kenya during the 1900s and 1920s, acquiring features of completeness in the main institutions by the 1930s. Before the arrival of the European colonialists, there was no civilizational basis for the existence of state entities. Therefore the leading role at all levels of the administrative structure belonged to people of European origin. The full power in the colony actually belonged to the governor, who unconditionally pursued the policy of the metropolis. This state of affairs was consolidated by a cultivated ideological paradigm that presupposes the superiority of the British and Europeans in general in all spheres of society, including management. The strength and coherence of the work of the state mechanism was ensured by the homogeneity of the nomenclature. By the time of gaining independence in 1963, the newly-minted Kenyan authorities inherited a completely efficient system of government bodies from the colonial regime.