Representation

After 1918, Kenya became a focus of resettlement of young, upper-class British officers giving a strong aristocratic tone to the white settlers. If they had £1000 in assets they could get a free 1,000 acres (4 km2); the goal of the government was to speed up modernisation and economic growth. They set up coffee plantations, which required expensive machinery, a stable labour force, and four years to start growing crops. The veterans did escape democracy and taxation in Britain, but they failed in their efforts to gain control of the colony. The upper-class bias in migration policy meant that whites would always be a small minority.[21]

The European settlers were allowed to elect representatives to the Legislative Council in 1920, when the colony was established. The white settlers, 30,000 strong, sought "responsible government," in which they would have a voice. They opposed similar demands by the far more numerous Indian community. The European settlers gained representation for themselves and minimised representation on the Legislative Council for Indians and Arabs. The government appointed a European to represent African interests on the Council. In the "Devonshire declaration" of 1923 the Colonial Office declared that the interests of the Africans (comprising over 95% of the population) must be paramount.

Achieving that goal took four decades.

British officials sought to modernise Kikuyu farming in the Murang'a District between 1920-45. Relying on concepts of trusteeship and scientific management, they imposed a number of changes in crop production and agrarian techniques, claiming to promote conservation and "betterment" of farming in the colonial tribal reserves. While criticised as backward by British officials and white settlers, African farming proved resilient, and Kikuyu farmers engaged in widespread resistance to the colonial state's agrarian reforms.[23]

As a reaction to their exclusion from political representation, the Kikuyu people, the most subject to pressure by the settlers, founded in 1921 Kenya's first African political protest movement, the Young Kikuyu Association, led by Harry Thuku. The assciation was the first African organisation to defend African interests in a Kenya . It was a non-militant group that pursued a peaceful and structured liberation struggle with the government and missions.  AfterThuku's imprisonment and the bloodshed at Nairobi in 1921 the Young Kikuyu Association was banned by the government.  It was succeeded by the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA) in 1924.

The opportunities available to Africans came almost entirely through mission schools at first. Again, there was conflict between government and settlers on the question of education. The Colonial Office was committed, on paper at least, to the general development of the country for all its inhabitants, while the white farmers were on the whole adamant that raising educational standards could only lead to trouble. A crude form of Swahili had become the language of communication between Africans and Europeans. But the teaching of English was a controversial issue that hard-liners foresaw eventually rebounding on government and settlers alike. In frustration, the Kikuyu set up self-help independent schools in the 1930s, primarily in order to teach their own children English. 

By the late 1930s there were already enough educated Africans to pose the beginnings of a serious challenge to white supremacy.  One of these was Jomo Kenyatta, born Kamau wa Ngengi to parents Muigai wa Kung'u and Wambui in the village of Gatund, a member of the Kikuyu. His date of birth, sometime in the early to mid-1890s, is unclear, and was unclear even to him, as his parents were almost certainly illiterate, and no formal birth records of native Africans were kept in Kenya at that time.  He was educated at the Scottish Mission Center in nearby Thogoto, adopting his name from the traditional beaded belt (kenyatta) he always wore.  In 1922 Kamau began working, as a store clerk and water-meter reader for the Nairobi Municipal Council Public Works Department, under John Cook who was the Water Superintendent.   Meter reading helped him meet many Kenyan-Asians at their homes who would become important allies later on.

He entered politics after taking interest in the political activities of James Beauttah and Joseph Kang'ethe who were the leaders of the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA). He joined KCA in 1924 and rose up the ranks of the association. Eventually he began to edit the movement's Kikuyu newspaper. By 1928 he had become the KCA's general secretary.

In 1928 he launched a monthly Kikuyu language newspaper called Muigwithania (Reconciler) which aimed to unite all sections of the Kikuyu. The paper, supported by an Asian-owned printing press, had a mild and unassuming tone, and was tolerated by the colonial government.[3] He also made a presentation on Kikuyu land problems before the Hilton Young Commission in Nairobi in the same year.

The KCA became the spearhead of nationalism and lobbied hard for a return of alienated land, the lowering of taxes and for elected African representatives on the Legislative Council. It also protested against missionary efforts to outlaw female circumcision, on the grounds that the church was attempting to undermine Kikuyu culture.  This last conflict led to a leadership crisis in the KCA which for a number of years threatened to swamp other issues.