NATIONALISM IN KENYA
Conflict and resentment defined the the colonial experience between the white settlers and native Africans. With Nairobi evolving from a shantytown in the early 1900s into a major urban centre for East Africa, white settlers slowly migrated to the country lured by the prospect of land. They settled in the fertile highlands outside Nairobi, an area later dubbed the "White Highlands." Both the Maasai and the Kikuyu tribes lost large amounts of land to these European settlers. Their resentment grew deeper with each acre lost and the inevitable conflicts would not fully be resolved until independence.
Successful large-scale farming depended to a great degree upon an adequate labour force, namely Africans. They, however, did not see any advantage or gain in working for the European encroachers. In response, the colonial authorities introduced hut taxes and other laws that forced the Africans into low-paying wage employment. This marked the introduction of a cash economy into a land dominated by the barter system.
World War I provided a hiatus in white settlement but after the war Britain gained possession of this region under the Treaty of Versailles and began a policy of inequitable land distribution that further fuelled growing African resentment. The government offered land in the Kenyan highlands to war veterans at inexpensive prices but only white veterans, not African veterans, could take advantage of this offer. White settlers streamed in and increasing numbers of Kenyans, led by the bitter Kikuyu, formed political groups whose primary focus was the return of their land.
KENYAN NATIONALIST MOVEMENTS AND THE EMERGENCE OF JOMO KENYATTA
The first pan-Kenyan nationalist movement was led by Harry Thuku to protest against the white-settler dominance in the government. His party, the East African Association, traced its roots to the early