← History and Citizenship / 1 Themes in Kenyan History and Citizenship

1.2 Establishment of colonial rule

History and Citizenship · Grade 10 · 12 lessons in the design

What this covers

  • Reasons for the establishment of colonial rule in Kenya
  • Methods used by the British: treaties, collaboration, force, divide and rule
  • The process of establishing colonial rule
  • Kenyan responses: resistance and collaboration
  • Lessons from the establishment of colonial rule

What you will be able to do

  • examine the reasons for the establishment of colonial rule
  • evaluate the methods applied by the British in the establishment of colonial rule in Kenya
  • discuss the process of establishment of colonial rule in Kenya
  • apply lessons learnt from the process of establishment of colonial rule in Kenya
  • desire to maintain independence and unity in Kenya

Key questions

“Why was it wrong for the British to impose their rule on Africans in Kenya?”

“How can we maintain independence in daily life?”

Lessons

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  1. Why Britain came, and how colonial rule was imposed
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    The motives behind colonisation and the four methods used to establish control.
  2. Kenyan responses, the process, and what it teaches
    40 min · 2 practice tasks · quiz
    Why communities resisted or collaborated, how rule was actually imposed, and the lessons drawn from it.
  3. Economic motives: land, labour and the railway bill
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    How raw materials, markets, highland land, cheap labour and the cost of the Uganda Railway drove British occupation of Kenya.
  4. Strategy, Berlin and the German neighbour
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Why the Nile, the Berlin rules and rivalry with Germany made Kenya a British prize even before settlers arrived.
  5. Treaties and company rule: the IBEACo
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    How a bankrupt company collected English-language treaties and how Britain turned those papers into a protectorate in 1895.
  6. Collaboration as a British method
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    How the British rewarded allies with rank, guns and recognition, using those alliances to occupy neighbours.
  7. Force: the Maxim gun and punitive expeditions
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    How military columns, allied fighters and the Maxim gun were used wherever communities refused paper rule.
  8. Divide and rule: using Kenyans against Kenyans
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    How existing rivalries, allied columns and separate administration kept communities from a common front.
  9. The process: from posts to a Crown Colony
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    How company posts, the railway, districts, appointed chiefs, tax and land law turned a claim into daily colonial government by 1920.
  10. Resistance: Nandi, Agiriama, Bukusu and others
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Why particular communities fought, who led them, and what the campaigns show without turning neighbours into villains.
  11. Collaboration as a Kenyan response
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Why some leaders allied, what they hoped to gain, and why calling them traitors fails as history.
  12. Lessons: independence, unity and reading the paper
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    What the occupation teaches about unity, sovereignty, unequal agreements and keeping independence in daily civic life.