ABSTRACT
The foundation of Kenya's modern constitutional order was established between 1887 and the outbreak of the Second World War. During this period, the goals of constitutional development were fivefold: first, to establish the initial machinery of the British rule; second, to transform Kenya from a protectorate to a colony; third, to extend British imperial influence; fourth, to entrench the settler supremacy and hegemony over other races; and fifth, to consolidate the colonial rule with attempts at multi-racialism. This chapter explores the formative stages of Kenya's constitutional development and identifies the key foundational elements of the emergent colonial constitutionalism. The effects of the First World War and the emergence of an educated African class had perhaps the greatest bearing on the early political movement among Africans against colonial rule in Kenya. The first 50 years of British occupation in Kenya saw the establishment of colonial legal and administrative structures complete with full political and economic infrastructure to sustain the system.
