| dc.description.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 | en |
