Kenya Colony

KENYA COLONY (formerly known as British East Af rica), a country of East Africa, lying between Tanganyika Ter ritory in the south and Abyssinia in the north. It adjoins Uganda on the west and is bounded east by the Indian ocean and Italian Somaliland. Including the Rudolf province of Uganda, which is administered by Kenya, it has an area of about 225,00o sq. miles. The greater part of Jubaland, formerly part of the colony, was transferred to Italy in 1925. Included in Kenya are the north eastern shores of Lake Victoria and nearly the whole of Lake Rudolf. Part of the coast lands—from the Tanganyika frontier to Kipini—to a depth of so m. inland, together with Mombasa, Lamu and other small islands, are held on lease from the sultan of Zanzibar, and form the Kenya Protectorate as distinct from the Colony. For nearly all purposes, however, the distinction is one in name only. At the census taken in Feb. 1931 the population was returned as:—Natives (estimate) 2,966,816; Arabs, 12,166; other Asiatics (nearly all British Indians), ; Europeans, 16,812.

Topography.

The coast line extends from the mouth of the Umba river in the south to Dick's Head (Ras Kiambone) in the north. It has no deep indentations. From the coast lands the ground rises to a broad zone of high ground which is furrowed by the eastern Rift valley, formed by the subsidence of its floor, and occupied in parts by lakes without outlet West of the Rift valley the ground sinks to the level of Lake Victoria. In the north a well-defined escarpment marks the frontier with Abyssinia. The Tanganyika and Italian Somaliland frontiers are arbitrary straight lines. The colony takes its name from Mt. Kenya, the second highest mountain in Africa, which dominates the region in which white settlers are most numerous.

The first of the parallel zones—the coast plain or "Tembo rari"—is generally of insignificant width, varying from 2 to IO m., except in the valleys of the main rivers. The shore line is broken by bays and branching creeks, often cutting off islands from the mainland. Such are Mvita or Mombasa in 4' S., and the larger

islands of Lamu, Manda and Patta (the Lamu archipelago), be tween 20' and 2° S. Beyond the coast plain the country rises in a generally well defined step or steps to an altitude of some Boo f t., forming the wide level plain called "Nyika" (uplands). It contains large waterless areas, such as the Taru desert in the Mom basa district. The next stage in the ascent is marked by an inter mittent line of mountains—gneissose or schistose—running gen erally north-north-west, sometimes in parallel chains, and thought to represent the primitive axis of the continent. Their height varies from 5,00o to 8,000 feet. Farther inland, grassy uplands extend to the eastern edge of the Rift valley, though varied with cultivated ground and forest, the latter between o° and o° 4o' S. The most extensive grassy plains are those of Kapte or Kapote and Athi, between I° and 2° S. The general altitude of these up lands, the surface of which is largely composed of lava, varies from 5,000 to 8,000 feet. This zone includes the volcanic pile of Kenya (17,007 ft.), Sattima (13,214 ft.) and Nandarua (about 12,900 ft.). The Sattima (Settima) range, or Aberdare mountains, has a general elevation of fully io,000 feet. To the west the fall to the Rift valley is marked by a line of cliffs, of which the best defined portions are the Kikuyu escarpment (8,000 ft.), just south of I° S., and the Laikipia escarpment, on the equator.

One of the main watersheds of East Africa runs close to the eastern wall of the Rift valley, separating the basins of inland drainage from the rivers of the east coast, of which the two larg est within the colony are the Sabaki and Tana, both separately noticed. The Guaso Nyiro rises in the hills north-west of Kenya and flows in a north-east direction. After a course of over 35o m. the river in about I° N., 39° 3o' E. enters a marshy expanse known as the Lorian swamp. From the swamp issues an inter mittent stream, the Lak Dera, nominally a tributary of the Juba.