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

example, raised significant issues as far as Kenya’s ultimate destiny was concerned. Acceptance of Asian demands for equality of treatment implied a rejection of European privileges, including the exclusive right to vote. A more fundamental issue was whether Kenya was to be a state governed by a European minority, or “white man’s country” (like South Africa), or if it was to evolve as an African state (like Nigeria). The imperial government attempted to compromise with the Devonshire Declaration of 1923. This set out British policy for Kenya as “African paramountcy.”

The white paper stated that Kenya was primarily an African territory and that African interests must be paramount “if, and when, those interests and the interests of the immigrant races should conflict, the former should prevail.” The interests of the Europeans, Asians, and Arabs “must severally be safeguarded” as well, but the British government pledged that in the administration of Kenya they would exercise “a trust on behalf of the African population.” The object of that trust was defined as “the protection and advancement of native races.”³ In terms of the colony’s constitutional future, the declaration stated that the British government “cannot but regard the grant of responsible self-government as out of the question within any period of time which need now be taken into consideration.”⁴ Asians were given the right to elect five members of the LegCo on a communal franchise, whereas Arabs would elect one. Africans were to be represented in the LegCo by a European missionary. Europeans retained the right to elect eleven members that had been approved in 1919 (the first European elections had been held in 1920).⁵ Moreover, the distribution of LegCo seats set out in the 1923 white paper remained unchanged until 1951 so far as the Europeans, Asians, and Arabs were concerned.

Although in theory African paramountcy was the policy that governed British actions in Kenya for the following decades, actual practice was quite different. Britain sought to develop Kenya as a multiracial colony with support and protection for the interests of the immigrant races as well as those of the African majority. The colonial state and the CO revisited the issue on several occasions through to the 1950s.