The Kenya National Archives: Historical Landmine

By eCentury Team
The Kenya National Archives is a historical goldmine in the heart of Nairobi yet it is one of the least visited places in the city centre. The eCentury team visited the National Archive recently and discovered rich historical facts which the average Kenyan has no idea of. The map of Kenya as an East African Protectorate in 1918 is one such interesting discovery. Did you know, for instance, that Kenya was then a mere province with only four districts under it? Or that three quarters of L.Turkana was part of Uganda in Rudolf Province? Kenya had also extended to Somalia in a province then known as Jubaland. The province had four districts.Kenya then was larger than what it is today. It extended from Kisumu to the West to Kismayu to the East. At that time Kenya’s neighbours were Italian Somaliland to the East, to the North were Abyssinia and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, to the West was Uganda and Tanganyika to the South.

The East African Protectorate had eight provinces namely: Nyanza, Naivasha, Ukamba, Kenya, Tanaland, Jubaland, North Frontier, and Seyidie. Nyanza then had five districts -- Kisumu, North Kavirondo (now Western Province) Nandi, Lumbwa (Kericho and Sotik) and South Kavirondo (Kisii,Kuria). In other words, present day Nyanza and Western provinces constituted one province. Nandi and Kericho, currently in Rift Valley, were also part of Nyanza. In 1918, the present-day Rift Valley was known as Naivasha Province. Naivasha province had six districts: Turkana, Uasin Gishu, Ravine, Laikipia, Naivasha and Masai Reserve. The Masai Reserve is the present-day Kajiado and Narok districts. Naivasha district included current day Nakuru and Naivasha districts. Ravine district covered Keiyo, Baringo, Koibatek and Pokot.

Interestingly, the name Kenya only stood for a province with four districts: Nyeri, Meru, Fort Hall, and Embu. Ukamba Province had four districts namely Kitui, Machakos, Nairobi and Kikuyu (Kiambu). The Tanaland Province had three districts: Tana River, Lamu and Witu Sultanate while Jubaland Province had four districts: Afmadu, Serenu, Kismayu and Alexandria.
Seyidie Province had five districts namely: Teita, Vanga, Niyika, Mombasa and Malindi. The Kenyan map we know today began to take shape in 1902 when Nyanza and Naivasha provinces were transferred to Kenya from Uganda. In 1925, Jubaland Province was transferred to Somalia and in 1926 Rudolf Province of Uganda became part of Kenya. The new territory eventually assumed the name ‘Kenya‘, which was then name of a province that several years later was to
be known as the ‘Gema region’.

The Coastal strip - now Kenya’s Coast Province - was leased from the Sultanate of Zanzibar in 1895. Idi Amin Dada, the Uganda dictator who overthrew Milton Obote in 1971, may have been a raving lunatic. But he had point when in the early 1970s, he declared that he wanted back part of Kenya which was Ugandan territory up to 1901. While Amin had gotten his historical facts right, he forgot that East African protectorate, just like the rest of colonised Africa, was like the estate of the British empire that could be moved, named and renamed whatever way that served the empire’s interests best. Thus the British moved part of Kenya to Somalia or part of Uganda to Kenya just the way a farmer might rearrange the paddocking of his land.

The partitioning of Africa did not involve the Africans thus Kenya’s geogenetic make up was designed by the British possibly as dictated by the hand of God. The tribal and Ethnographic map of colonial Kenya classified ethnic communities as follows; Nilo-Hamatic, Cushitic Hamatic and Bantu. The Cushitic Hamatic included: Orma, Boran, Gabbra, Somali, Sanya (Ariangulo), Gelubba (Merille) and Boni. They grouped the Nilo-Hamatic into Nandi, Suk (Pokot), Koni (Elgonyi), Pok, Merkweta (Marakwet) Endo, Geyo, Tugen (Kamasia), Nandi, Terik (Nyang‘ori) Kipsigis, Teso Group as Itesyo (Elgumi, Wamia) Karasuk, Turkana, and Karamojong, Maasai Group listed as Naasai,Sampur (Samburu) Loikop, Njems (Njamusi) .

They further classified the Kikuyu Group as Kikuyu, Embu, Meru and Kamba. Gisu Group as Bukusu (Kitosh) and Luyia group as Samia, Gwe, Khanyo (Tindi), Hanga (Wanga) Fafoyo (Warach), Tsotso, Kakaletwa-Lewi Lunyala, Kisa,Tiriki,Marima, Kakamega-Isukha,Idaho,Nyole (Nyore), Tachoni (Tatsoni), Logoli (Maragoli-Lurogoli) and Gusii group as Kisii (Kosova), Suba , Kuria (Tende). It is interesting how the colonialists treated the Africans and their history. These records exist as a point of reference and much as relics of the past. It is part of history.