Kenya Colony

White settlement in the Trans-Nzoia and Uasin Gishu dis tricts, and the sudden development of cotton growing in Uganda, led, in 1921, to the adoption of a bold policy of railway develop ment. From Nakuru (452 m. from Mombasa) a new line was built north to Eldoret on the Uasin Gishu plateau, and thence north and east to the Uganda frontier and on to the Nile at Mbulamuti on the Busoga railway—the distance from Nakuru to the Nile being 35o miles. The line, opened in Jan. 1928, cost about £2,000,000. It at once became the main line; the section Nakuru-Kisumu being henceforth but a branch. Seventy miles from Nakuru, and a little north of the Equator, the new main line reaches an altitude of 9,130 ft., believed to be the highest point of any railway in the British empire. The line sinks at Eldoret, 5o m. farther on, to 7,000 ft., and thence continues to fall to some 3,500 ft. at its terminus. A branch (41 m.) from the new main line to Kitale serves the Trans-Nzoia district ; the Thika river line has been extended to Rongai river, west of Mt. Kenya and 140 m. from Nairobi (this line climbs 2,000 ft. in 15 m. by the free use of 3% grades). Other branches have been built, including one in Uganda from Tororo to Soroti (98 m.) serving a rich cotton district. In 1928 there were 1,500 m. of rail way open in Kenya and Uganda. The whole system is now known as the Kenya and Uganda Railways and Harbours administration.

Road development was slow and communications over the greater part of the colony—all the northern and eastern districts —are still primitive, but motorable roads run from Nairobi to Mombasa, to Tanganyika Territory and to Uganda and the Sudan. The building of roads and the general use, since the World War, of the motor-car, has done much to end the isolation of the white settlers. There are aerodromes at Jinja (Uganda), Kisumu and Nairobi. Efforts to open a regular air service with Khartoum were made. The postal and telegraphic service is well developed, and there is a cable and (since 1928) wireless communication with the outside world.

Government and Revenue.

At the head of the administra tion is a governor, who is aided by an executive council composed of officials and nominated unofficial members. There is a legisla tive council consisting (1929) of elected, nominated and ex officio members. The elected members are in a minority, so that ultimate control is in the hands of the Colonial Office, London, to which the governor is responsible. The white settlers and the Indians possess adult suffrage; the Arabs (at their own wish) male adult suffrage only. The franchise is communal, whites, Indians and Arabs having separate voting rolls. For whites the country is divided into 11 single member constituencies; for the Indians the colony and protectorate form a single five-membered constituency ; for the Arabs the whole country is also one con stituency. The Africans have not the franchise, but one member, chosen from the Christian missionaries, is nominated to represent them. For tribal purposes the chiefs are assisted by councils which, under an ordinance of 1924, possess a large measure of local self government. There is a chief native commissioner, with a department for native affairs under his control. The other central services include public works, medical, education, lands and agricultural departments. For local government purposes the country is divided into provinces, each with senior, district and resident commissioners. Separate control of the native and set tled areas has been in force since 1921. For customs purposes Kenya and Uganda, since April 1917, have formed an adminis trative unit. The judicature is distinct from the executive.

In the early years of the British administration, expenditure necessary for ordinary services and for opening up the country exceeded revenue, and to balance accounts the tax-payers of the United Kingdom furnished between 1896 and 1913 £2,843,000, in addition to heavy capital expenditure on railways and public works. In 1913-14 the country became self supporting. In that year expenditure was £1,115,000 and revenue £1,123,000. In 1900-01, just before the opening of the Uganda railway, revenue had been £64,000 and expenditure £302,000. In 1906-07, when the railway figures were first included, revenue was £461,000 and expenditure 1616,000. In 1920-21, the last year in which the railway returns were included in the ordinary budget, revenue was £2,978,000, expenditure £2,976,000. In 1926 the ordinary revenue was L2,627,000 and expenditure £2,414,000, the railway and harbours revenue in the same year was £2,058,000 and ex penditure £1,216,000 (not reckoning interest and loan redemp tion payments—about £400,000). The 1928 budget figures (or dinary and railway accounts) were: Revenue £5,291,000; expendi ture £5,122,000. The chief sources of revenue (railways and harbours apart) are customs and taxes, including a poll tax on all adult males of every race (at the age of 18 in the case of whites). The customs receipts in 1926 were £1,150,000. The public debt, incurred mostly for transport development, was, in 1929, L13, 500,000 ; viz., a 6% loan of 15,000,00o in 1921 ; a 5% loan of 15,000,000 in 1927, and a 41% loan of £3,500,000 in May 1928. The loans were raised on the London market.

Economic Conditions.

The prosperity of Kenya depends upon agriculture. In the highlands the white settlers cultivate, chiefly, coffee, maize and sisal. Wheat and barley, potatoes and other vegetables, fruits, sugar-cane, tobacco and other crops are also grown. There are very extensive pasture lands, but stock raising, except sheep, had not proved very successful up to 1928, though there should be a great future for pastoral industries. All the northern half of the country, though arid, has sufficient vegetation to permit its Somali, Galla and other inhabitants to keep large herds of cattle as well as of camels. Under irrigation much of this northern region would be very fertile. Cotton plantations are successful in the Kavarondo country around Lake Victoria ; in the coast lowlands coconut plantations yield copra, and there are also in these coast lands sisal, maize, sugar-cane and cotton areas. There are a great variety of minor crops and products, but the principal crops--f or the whole colony—in the order named are coffee, sisal, maize, wheat, coconuts and sugar cane. Most of the manual labour is done by Africans, but the white man must be prepared to work himself, and farms of over 500 acres require more than one European to manage. The difficulty of getting sufficient labour for such crops as coffee and sisal, which need many hands, led the governor (Sir Edward Grigg) in 1926 to advocate concentration by the white settlers on work which required fewest hands—stock-raising, dairying, mixed farming, wheat, maize, etc.—advice taken only to a cer tain extent. Plans for closer settlement and the introduction of men with small capital, or even none, were being put into execu tion in 1928-29. By 1928 over 5,000,000 ac. had been alienated to and occupied by Europeans, but not more than 500,000 ac. were being cultivated, apart from areas used for grazing. Small areas, about 20,000 ac., were being cultivated by Indians in the lowlands.