ABSTRACT
Kenya's current estimated annual population growth rate of over 4% is one of staggering proportions. A more promising line of inquiry would suggest that the first three decades of the twentieth century were ones of rising mortality and declining population. The 1930s and 1940s would see modest declines in mortality resulting from the establishment of a new homeostasis between humans and their parasites and improved famine relief capabilities. The intensification of population movement during the colonial period was in terms not only of the numbers of people involved, but of distances traveled. The mortality of labor migrants was significant, with no major precolonial counterpart. Deaths among young males were characteristic of colonial mortality. The colonial transportation network contributed indirectly to the deterioration of health during the first three decades of this century. The growth of colonial cities had important epidemiological consequences.
