| dc.description.abstract | This is a study of Mijikenda political activities in
Colonial Kenya in the Mombasa and Kilifi Districts of the Coast
Province. The study is limited to the period 1920 - 1963. It
aims at portraying the colonial conditions at the Kenya Coast
within which the Mijikenda, aroused by a section of the educated
elite, participated in nationalist organizations between 1920
and 1963.
Our central hypothesis is that Mijikenda political
activities in Kilifi District between 1920 and 1963 were a
reaction to three major issues. The first problem was the denial
of the Mijikenda land rights in the Coastal Strip through the
creation of the Nyika Reserves. Taxation, and colonial labour
policies were the other two. The impact of these on the Mijikenda
was aggravated by perpetual drought conditions in the Northern
Nyika Reserve. Consequently, these conditions forced the Mijikenda
to migrate into the Coastal Strip for alternative sources of livelihood
either as squatters or wage labourers on European plantations
or as casual workers in Mombasa. However, the challenges
posed by these new occupations paved the way for the rise of a
new leadership among the Mijikenda from some of the educated
elite. Thus, this emergent leadership formed various organizations
through which they sought to express the grievances of the
Mijikenda. The presence of the Arab Community at the Kenya Coast has been a major factor in the shaping of Kenya's Coastal African
Political development. The problems created by this community
such as elements of favouritism by the official colonial policy
led the educated Mijikenda to perceive political action as one way
of protecting their interests. Understandably, alienation of
Mijikenda lands in favour of the coastal community became the
dominant theme on which Mijikenda leaders capitalised to forge
Mijikenda political unity | en |
