Colonial Policy and the Highlands of Kenya, 1934–1944

The idea that certain highland areas of the East Africa Protectorate should be reserved for European settlement dates effectively from the appointment of Sir Charles Eliot as Commissioner in 1901. Although a number of European settlers had arrived in the Protectorate in the last decade of the nineteenth century, it was generally felt in official circles that the country was not suitable for European settlement, but that Indian settlement, on the other hand, should be actively encouraged. Eliot, however, took the view that, while Indians should be allowed to settle in the low-lying areas near Lake Victoria and along the coastal strip, the Highlands were pre-eminently suitable for European settlement and indeed should be specifically reserved for that purpose. In May 1903 he instructed his Land Officer not to grant rural land in the Highlands to Indians and thus laid the basis of the White Highlands policy.