Colonial Kenya - Economic Development
The lack of important mineral resources was confirmed by early comprehensive surveys, and the British government concluded that agriculture for export was the only way to make the protectorate pay for itself. The most suitable land in the Kenya Highlands was usable both for temperate climate crops and at somewhat lower levels for tropical ones. To the few early settlers with capital, such as Lord Delamere, the answer was obvious: temperate-zone wheat and wool, both items then booming on the world markets. Ecological conditions, however, proved far from similar to those in Britain, Canada, and Australia, and substantial losses were suffered before several years of experimentation brought some success.
Meanwhile, smallholders grew a mixture of crops while attempting to determine their suitability. This kind of agriculture contributed little to the overall support of the protectorate, and after about 1905 the administration decided to promote the production of staples. Cotton cultivation was attempted but soon failed. The emphasis placed on coffee, however, brought eventual success. By 1910 high coffee prices on the world market attracted substantial new investment, and by 1920 coffee had become the protectorate's largest earner of foreign exchange.
Coffee growing required only moderate funding in contrast to the large-scale financing required by the sizable plantations. Coffee's continuing profitability encouraged some middle-class British families and even a few aristocrats to venture a new life in the pleasant surroundings of the Kenya Highlands. A new character was also given to smallholder settler operations, which had often been precarious, when maize was found to grow well in the highlands. Although seen essentially as an export crop, the domestic demand also proved great. Nonetheless, maize exports increased, and in 1930 they were second only to coffee as a foreign exchange earner. Another promoted crop was sisal, which became a major export item.
By 1914 the economic situation was much improved from the standponts of both settler and administration. The previous year domestic revenues for the first time had met government expenditures. A network of shops and trading posts, spread across the country by a growing number of Asians, helped stimulate the economy.
The African population was reluctant to become involved in the wage economy. The hut and poll taxes imposed on them were intended to secure revenue, but an underlying purpose was also to get the Africans to furnish the labor needed by the settlers. Against this the Africans, generally provided for by their subsistence agriculture, saw little reason to work for cash wages much beyond the one or two months needed to secure money for their taxes. Consequently, the labor turnover was tremendous, adding greatly to the settlers' costs. Moreover, free choice of the working period affected seasonal supply, and settlers demanded government action to force longer labor stints.
When the administration began the practice of informally conscripting labor for public works for which it was unable to hire willing workers, the settlers insisted that it recruit labor for them as well, and local officers cooperated to use varying degrees of pressure to effect this. In 1908 the British government came out strongly against the use of forced labor, but the situation remained relatively unchanged in the protectorate, and officers followed their own judgment as to what constituted involuntary impressment. For the Africans this situation was not improved by the Native Authority Ordinance of 1912, which officially recognized the position of local headmen, perforce friendly to the British, who were frequently accused of abetting forced recruitment.
World War I brought an economic setback for the European population, largely through neglect of farms and a decline in exports, as settlers left for military service. Hostilities on Kenyan soil occurred only in the southern border area and had a minimal effect on the African population, but thousands of Kenyan African soldiers served with other British Empire forces in the difficult campaign in German East Africa.
The greatest African participation in the war was, however, as porters of the Carrier Corps. The road system was unsuitable for motor transport, and tsetse fly infestations practically prevented the use of draft animals. As a result, about 150,000 Africans were recruited or conscripted to provide the needed porterage. Work conditions were poor, and at the same time, East Africa was hit by the worldwide influenza epidemic. More than 40,000 Africans died during their service, including soldiers killed in combat. Adding to the woes of the African population was the serious famine in the protectorate in 1918.
Economic recovery was relatively rapid right after the war, but by 1921 world commodity prices had tumbled (coffee prices, for example, declined by 60 percent and more), bringing hardship to many of the 1,100 settler farms. By 1923, however, export prices were again rising, and farming profitability returned until 1928 and 1929 when locust plagues devastated the country. The world depression of the 1930s, aggravated by a major drought between 1931 and 1934, put not only the farmer but also the government in dire straits. Throughout the depression, however, coffee and sisal production continued to rise, and two new crops, tea and pyrethrum (used in insecticides), brightened the economic picture. The large tea plantations started in the mid-1920s were reaping profits by 1935, and before the end of the 1930s tea was in second place among exports. Pyrethrum, only introduced in the mid-1930s, was producing large earnings within two to three years.
In 1923 the government announced that it would promote cash crops in the reserves. Little came of this, however, because African farmers, more intent on providing for local food needs, showed little interest in producing for the export market. Strong opposition from the settlers to the suggested introduction of coffee cultivation on African farms ended the initiative. The depression, which proportionately had affected customary African market products (such as animal skins) even more than settler crops, brought new support for African export production. African maize output increased greatly during the 1930s, more than offsetting a substantal decline on settler farms, and cotton cultivation was successfully promoted in western Kenya. Finally, in 1937 the introduction of coffee growing in the reserves began, although African cultivation of the cash crop did not attain importance until the mid-1950s.
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