protectorate · Horn and East Africa
East Africa Protectorate
Origins
In 1895 the British government took over the territory between the coast and the Rift Valley from the Imperial British East Africa Company. The ten-mile coastal strip remained nominally part of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. The administration was based at Mombasa until 1905, when the capital moved to Nairobi, a railway depot.
Rule and society
The Uganda Railway, built from 1896 to 1901 largely by Indian indentured workers, opened the interior. Commissioner Charles Eliot encouraged white settlement in the fertile highlands, which were reserved for Europeans, while Maasai and Kikuyu lost land and Africans were taxed and pressed into labour. Military expeditions subdued resisting peoples such as the Nandi.
Decline and legacy
In 1920 the interior was annexed as Kenya Colony and the coastal strip became the Kenya Protectorate. The settler-dominated order set up in these years shaped Kenyan politics up to the Mau Mau uprising and independence.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (2)
- East Africa Protectorate was a protectorate of British Empire1895 CE – 1920 CE
- Wanga Kingdom was a protectorate of East Africa Protectorate1895 CE – 1920 CE
More states of Horn and East Africa →
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). East Africa Protectorate. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/east-africa-protectorate
- MLA
- “East Africa Protectorate.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/east-africa-protectorate. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “East Africa Protectorate.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/east-africa-protectorate.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘East Africa Protectorate’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/east-africa-protectorate (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻