Administration and politics in colonial Kenya

Abstract

This study employs contemporary bureaucratic and organization th20ry in an analysis of the decision-making and communications processes and characteristic attitudes and values of the Administration in Colonial Kenya and the effect of these factors on its relationship to the larger political system and the processes of socio-economic development in the colony. The Kenya Administration 'Has an integrated prefectoral organization characterized by conservatism, resistance to change and innovation, and a preoccupation with the maintenance of law and order. The decision process was protracted, the policy focus fragmented and shortrun, and critical decisions could be made only with extreme difficulty. The Central Secretariat was preoccupied with the affairs of the European and Asian immigrants and the Provincial Administration largely left on its own to deal with the Africans. Although largely of middle-class origin, administrators possessed the attitudes and values of aristocratic, organicist conservatism. They were ambivalent about both African society and the development of bourgeois industrial society in Britain. Colonial Kenya had a dual political system. In the European arena the white settlers gained a dominant influence over important policy areas, but were blocked by the Administration and London authorities from achieving self-government.. This led to a stalemate over the direction of the political and economic development of the colony. In the African arena the Provincial Administration acted as an authoritarian and paternalistic guardian. African political activity was dealt with through a combination of cooptation and coercion, and African politicians were viewed as corrupt and power-hungry exploiters from whom the unsophisticated tribesman had to be protected