Kenya and Costa Rica - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 192

be transported to Mombasa on the Indian Ocean for ships. Cash crops
were coffee, tea, and flax. In 1902 a Crown Lands Ordinance provided that
“empty lands” could be seized and given to whites. Of course, the lands
were not empty, for the indigenous Africans had small farmsteads, or used
the land to pasture their cattle, although perhaps only a month or two a
year in the case of nomads like the Maasai. Four years later the Master and
Servant Ordinance regularized the labor contracts. Only at this point did
agriculture begin to put pressure on the environment. Prior to coloniza-
tion, population density was low. Nomads moved their cattle about so the
grass could recover. Native farmers cultivated only a few acres. The African
population then was about two million, and the whites were only 20,000.
By 1945 the white population was about 60,000, and the British Colonial
Office had granted them limited self-governance in a Legislative Council.
Africans, with a population of six million, had only one representative.
Instead, Africans were granted Local Native Councils, headed by tribal
chiefs, who were not allowed to organize nationwide. The oppression
fell particularly hard on the Kikuyu tribe because their home was the
Highlands that the whites found so appealing for farms. Since 1920 dis-
posed Africans had been forced to move to the cities because little land was
available for farming and herding. One such migrant was Johnson Kamau,
who organized the Young Kikuyu Association in 1924. He changed his
name to Jomo Kenyatta. The group was banned during World War II,
but it reorganized as the Kenya African Union (KAU), and tried to find
alliances with other tribes. In 1951 the KAU presented to colonial secre-
tary with demands for more money for education, more jobs in the civil
service, an end to racial discrimination, and eight seats on the Legislative
Council. At the time only, two Africans served. 2
Indians, called Asians, who first came to build the railroad, soon moved
into jobs as small merchants, and in the lower ranks of the civil service
and the railway. By 1950 there were slightly more of them than whites. The
British gave them five seats on the Legislative Council (compared to eleven
for whites). Racial relations with Africans were often bad. For example,
Indians often owned the only store in an African village and were accused
of charging high prices.
By 1950 Africans had established a terrorist movement, the Mau Mau.
The organization was secret and required members to take an oath to expel
the whites, killing them if necessary. They attacked them on their farms
and in ambushes. They also attacked fellow Africans who did not support
their movement. Traitors were tortured and killed. Most members were