Britain and Kenya’s Constitutions, 1950–1960 By Robert Maxon

African paramountcy, and its corollary British trusteeship on behalf of the African population, was always confirmed. The closer union issue of the late 1920s provided perhaps the most significant episode.

Closer union, the idea that Britain’s East African dependencies should be united in a federation, was backed by Kenya’s European settlers and by the CO in London. A joint select parliamentary committee examined the issue and heard opposing views from Africans in East Africa. The committee ended the controversy in 1931 by pronouncing against closer union. The committee, representing all political parties in Britain, concluded that federation was not a viable option or pressing necessity. So also was the settler demand for self-government rejected by the committee. It even refused to support settler politicians’ long-standing demand for an unofficial majority in the LegCo.⁶ The latter, in the view of George Bennett (the pioneer political historian of Kenya), closed the door on “the direct possibility of an independent settler-governed state.”⁷

Nevertheless, British and colonial state leaders also emphasized their determination to nurture and protect the immigrant communities in view of the value of their economic contributions to the colony. In line with the racist and paternalistic thinking of the time, moreover, the European settlers were seen as the “natural” leaders of Kenya. The Asians, and particularly the Africans, were not viewed as being “ready” to take up responsibility in government, particularly at the center. Thus, although African paramountcy might hold sway in theory, in practice Europeans clearly held the dominant political, economic, and social position in Kenya at the start of the 1950s. African paramountcy was a long way from fulfillment.

Race and Politics

This reality and the perceptions of the colonial rulers helped solidify the significance of race in Kenyan politics at the beginning of the 1950s. Writing in 1958, the American political scientist Carl Rosberg was typical of many academic analysts in asserting that in Kenya “racial categories” provided “the decisive divisions in the political structure.” Social and