Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi

This paper will examine some aspects of capitalist development in Kenya before 1945. The role of the state will be evaluated in the context of opposing interests those of local and foreign capitalists, respectively. The paper endeavours to illustrate the process of domestic accumulation of capital that ran parallel with investment from metropolitan firms in the colony. The areas and types of investment are explored and a comparison is implicit in the argument with the present stage of indigenous capital accumulation. The analysis concludes with some detailed case studies on particular foreign companies that entered Kenya before 1945, where the aim is to show in some detail the competitive relations of capitalist production when applied to the control of a particular commodities; for instance, tea. The theme throughout this discussion is competition of capitals, a mechanism which was the driving force behind both the expansion of foreign firms into the region as well as the absorption by these foreign companies of local capita1.