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

be able to implement any kind of pro-African policy after the war. This was because, in Dawe’s view, the CO had long ago lost control over the Kenya settlers. The problem was thus to find a future form of government that could accommodate “this intractable settler element.” This presented the CO with a dilemma: “The events in Kenya are obviously shaping in a way that is in conflict with the doctrines of native policy accepted in Parliament here.”¹²

The most satisfactory means for dealing with the difficulties in East Africa, Dawe concluded, was to grant self-government to Kenya’s European settlers. He wrote, “A constitution on Southern Rhodesian lines would be the obvious next step.”¹³ Southern Rhodesian whites had attained self-governing status in 1923. The colony’s internal affairs since that time had been controlled by an elected parliament and a small cabinet headed by a prime minister. Such a solution was now advocated for application to Kenya. Nevertheless, as Dawe detailed in part 2 of his memo, only the white highlands of Kenya with an outlet to the sea, and possibly including the settled Arusha and Moshi areas of then Tanganyika, would be part of “a white settler state with a considerable measure of responsible government,” given that it could not be denied that “the settlers are capable of governing themselves: there seems to be no escape from the present unsatisfactory system unless they are allowed to do so.”¹⁴ The rest of Kenya would remain under the direct control of the CO, as would Uganda and Tanganyika.

Although Dawe was able to persuade Lord Cranborne and his successor as SofS, Oliver Stanley, as to the necessity of going ahead with his federation scheme, or something similar, the policy Dawe outlined in his lengthy memo never became a reality. There were a variety of reasons for this. Considerable opposition to giving the settlers self-government in the white highlands so that they would not come to dominate all of East Africa emerged within the CO. It was also significant that Moore opposed Dawe’s scheme and advocated his own vision of an East Africa united under a single union government. Moreover, it became clear in 1943, after considerable discussion in London, that any scheme that gave self-government to Kenya’s settlers would not have the support of the