Indians in Kenya
[5] Vasco da Gama recorded encountering Indian merchants along the coast of east Africa in the late 15th century.
[7] By the early part of the 19th century, small numbers of Indian merchants could be found settled across the trading posts of East Africa.
The following year the Association was given a royal charter, becoming the Imperial British East Africa Company and moving its base to Mombasa.
Although now based in Africa, the company had a strong Indian orientation, employing guards, police officers, clerks and accountants from Bombay.
Initially, British officials envisioned developing Kenya as the "America of the Hindu", considering Indians as sub-imperialist agents of civilisation in the region.
[9] Among the local Indian ethnic populace, the vast majority of administrative roles were filled by Konkani Goans, Parsis and Gujaratis, whilst the ranks of the British officered police and army mainly consisted of Punjabis.
Over the following years, large numbers of Gujaratis and Punjabis migrated freely seeking to utilise new economic possibilities in the Protectorate.
In 1890 his company A.M. Jeevanjee of Karachi was awarded the contract to supply labour for the building of the Uganda railway, and he subsequently went on to establish himself as the pre-eminent Asian businessman in the new colony.
[14] In 1900 the Mombasa Indian Association was established on the initiative of L.M Savle, and with the backing of wealthy businessmen Allidina Visram and the Jevanjee brothers, and became the first political organisation in the protectorate to represent the interests of Asians.
To co-ordinate the aims of the different branches, the British East Africa Indian Association was formed in 1907, however it soon became representative of only local interests and remained relatively unimportant.
[15] During the First World War the militant anti-imperialist Ghadar Party established a branch in East Africa, and attracted support from a number of the Asian community.
[16] By the early 1920s, there was a sizeable Asian population who demanded a greater role in the developing political life of what became Kenya Colony.
Some of Kenya's largest most prominent companies to date are controlled by Gujaratis, including Comcraft Group Manu Chandaria (Manufacturing).
Despite the entrepreneurial success of the community, in 1970, 70% of the economically active Asian population consisted of wage and salary earners, and 30% worked for the civil service.
[29] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, faced with a dim future in Africa, many Asians choose to utilise their British passports and settle in the United Kingdom.
Naipaul referring to the inward focus of the Asian community, commented that "the Indian in East Africa brought India with him and kept it inviolate".
[32] Following the 1982 Kenyan coup d'état attempt to remove President Moi, many Asian shops and businesses in Nairobi were attacked and pillaged.
