Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T15:53:59.175Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The African Press in Kenya, 1945–1952

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Fay Gadsden
Fay Gadsden
Affiliation:
University of Zambia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper discusses the African press in Kenya in the years between 1945 and 1952. The growth of an extensive vernacular press was caused by the political frustrations suffered by Kenya's Africans and the political, social and ethnic divisions which separated them. The press can be divided into three major categories: moderate nationalist, regional vernacular and populist newspapers. The moderate nationalist newspapers were edited by members of the educated elite who campaigned for constitutional change and social reforms. The regional vernacular papers were concerned more with local than national issues. The populist press was edited by semi-educated men active in politics at the grassroots level who came to reject the moderate leadership. All these papers publicized the activities of the Kenya African Union and demanded an improvement in the political and social position of Africans in Kenya. But they also expressed the ethnic, political and social hostilities which divided their editors. The decline of moderate leadership was reflected in the closure of their newspapers. The radicals who seized power in K.A.U. in 1951 were supported by the populist press and began new newspapers in 1951 and 1952.

Some of the African newspapers achieved quite large circulations, were distributed by agents throughout the towns of Kenya and attracted some advertising revenue. But they all suffered from lack of money and found it difficult to find and pay a printer, and they suffered also from the lack of experience of their editors. Many newspapers lasted only a short time. But throughout these years there were always a number of newspapers published. These were widely read and were politically influential. The populist press played a direct role in stimulating militant resistance. Government attempts to curb the African press and to replace it with government newspapers were not successful. Only in 1952 when a State of Emergency had been imposed and the government had assumed powers to refuse printing licences and to suppress newspapers could the African press be silenced.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , October 1980 , pp. 515 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Rosberg, C. G. and Nottingham, J., The Myth of ‘Mau Mau’ Nationalism in Kenya (Stanford and London, 1966), 211–12.Google Scholar For a brief pioneering survey, see Scotton, J. F., ‘Kenya's Maligned African Press: Time for a Reassessment,’ Journalism Quarterly, 52 (1975), 30–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 See Appendix.

3 Register of Newspapers, Office of the Registrar General, Nairobi.

4 ibid. Printed in Kisumu were Nyanza Times, Avaluhya Times, Dunia Kenya; printed in Mombasa were Coast African Express; Hodi, Kenya ni Yetu; printed in Nakuru was Mugambo wa Ruguru.

5 Downes, H. (Government Press Officer, Kenya) to C. Carstairs (Director of Information, Colonial Office), 28 March 1951Google Scholar, Kenya National Archives (hereafter K.N.A.), 8/32.

6 Harris, Wyn (Chief Native Commissioner) to Provincial Commissioners and District Commissioners, 5 May 1947Google Scholar, K.N.A. 2/295.

7 Hindi ya Gikuyu (Gikuyu Times), 13 April 1950Google Scholar, extract in K.N.A. 3/645; Muthamaki, 11 May 1950Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

8 The title had previously been used for a government-run Swahili paper, Habari (1922–5, 1927–31).Google Scholar

9 Director of Intelligence and Security to Chief Native Commissioner, 23, 27 Feb. 1948, K.N.A. 8/102.

10 Sunday Post, 11 Jan. 1948Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/102.

11 Downes, H. C., ‘Schemes to improve the African Press of Kenya’, 30 Jan. 1951Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/32.

12 Register of Newspapers, as cited in n. 3.

13 Kanogo, T., ‘Rift Valley Squatters and Mau Mau’, Kenya Historical Review, v, ii (1977), 246–51.Google Scholar

14 Interview, Mwaniki, H. Muoria, June 1969Google Scholar, London.

15 Hindi ya Gikuyu, 17 March 1949Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

16 Habari, 22 Aug. 1946Google Scholar; Radio Posta, 17 Oct. 1947Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/105; Sauti ya Mwafrika extract quoted by Harris, Wyn (C.N.C.), Legislative Council Debates, 8 Jan. 1948, xxviii, 702.Google Scholar

17 Hindi ya Gikuyu, 15 Sept. 1945Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645. See also Scotton, ‘Kenya's Maligned African Press’, for examples of interest in social, racial and land issues.

18 Khamisi, F. to Valley, P.C. Rift, 1 July 1945Google Scholar, K.N.A. 2/906.

19 Omuluyia, March 1947Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645; Interview, H. Muoria.

20 Ramogi, 15 Oct. 1949Google Scholar (letter); 15 Feb. 1950 (editorial), K.N.A. 3/645.

21 Sauti ya Mwafrika, 4 Aug. 1948Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/102.

22 Habari, 27 Sept. 1945Google Scholar; Sauti ya Mwafrika, 15 April 1948Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/102.

23 Sauti ya Mwafrika, 15 Dec. 1947Google Scholar, ‘An answer to Ramogi’, K.N.A. 8/102.

24 Ramogi, 15 June 1949Google Scholar, 15 March 1949, K.N.A. 3/645.

25 Hindi ya Gikuyu, 25 Aug. 1949Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

26 Habari, 10 Oct. 1946.Google Scholar

27 Mwalimu, 27 Aug. 1946Google Scholar, K.N.A. 2/906.

28 Kenya, 30 Oct. 1947Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/107.

29 Mumenyereri, 1 Oct. 1946Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/106.

30 ibid. 10 Nov. 1947.

31 Hindi ya Gikuyu, 30 June 1949Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

32 ibid. 20 Oct. 1949.

33 ibid. 10 Nov. 1949.

34 Ramogi, 11 Sept. 1951Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645. In fact Mau Mau had been proscribed in August 1950.Google Scholar

35 Spencer, J., ‘KAU and “Mau Mau”: Some connections’, Kenya Historical Review, v, ii (1977), 205–7.Google Scholar

36 Mumenyereri, 1 Feb. 1950Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645; Hindiya Gikuyu, 16 March 1950Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

37 Njata ya Kirinyaga, 6 April 1951Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

38 E.g. Mumenyereri, 19 July 1952.Google Scholar

39 Tribune, 24 Nov. 1951.Google Scholar

40 Mumenyereri, 8 Aug. 1951Google Scholar; Njata ya Kirinyaga, 6 April 1951Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

41 Hindi ya Gikuyu, 4 Aug. 1949Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

42 ibid. 3 Nov. 1949.

43 Mumenyereri, 22 April 1950Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

44 Uhuru wa Mwafrika, 12 Aug. 1952Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/32.

45 Spencer, J., ‘K.A.U. and Mau Mau’, 211.Google Scholar

46 Hindi ya Gikuyu, 14 July 1949Google Scholar; Mumenyereri, 4 Jan. 1950Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

47 Mumenyereri, 28 Aug. 1951Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645; Inoro ria Gikuyu, 14 July 1952Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/32.

48 Mumenyereri, 27 Sept. 1952.Google Scholar

49 K.N.A. DC/FHI/28.

50 Hindi ya Gikuyu, 20 Feb. 1949Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

51 Mumenyereri, 21 March 1949Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

52 Downes, , ‘Scheme to Improve the African Press’ (cited in n. 11).Google Scholar

53 Habari, 18 July 1946.Google Scholar

54 Habari, 19 Sept. 1946.Google Scholar

55 Interview, Muoria, H.; interview, Rev. Gatu, March 1969Google Scholar, Nairobi; Downes, ‘Scheme to improve the African Press’.

56 Mumenyereri, 3 Jan. 1949Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

57 ibid. 1 Feb. 1950.

58 Downes, , ‘Scheme to improve the African Press’.Google Scholar

59 Ramogi, 15 Aug. 1945.Google Scholar

60 Mumenyereri, 11 Oct. 1952.Google Scholar

61 Mumenyereri, 27 Oct. 1947Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/106.

62 Director of Intelligence and Security to Chief Native Commissioner, 11 March 1948Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/102.

63 Harris, Wyn (C.N.C.) to Member for Law and Order, 13 Dec. 1947Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/105.

64 Downes, H., ‘Scheme to Improve the African Press’.Google Scholar

65 Director of Intelligence and Security to Chief Native Commissioner, 11 March 1948Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/102.

66 These were Afrika Mpya, weekly; Mugambo wa Muembe, weekly; Rongo ya Ameru, weekly; Waigua Atia, monthly; Kenya ni Yetu, weekly; Gikuyu na Mumbi magazine, monthly; Wiyathi, bi-weekly. None of these papers lasted long for they were proscribed during the early months of the Emergency.

67 Fort Hall Annual Report, 1946, 14Google Scholar, K.N.A. DC/FHI/25.

68 Kisumu, D.C. to Nyanza, P.C., 29 Dec. 1947Google Scholar, K.N.A. 2/295.

69 Sunday Post, 11 Jan. 1948Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/102.

70 E.g. interviews with Oneko, R. Achieng, January 1968Google Scholar, Nairobi, ; Zabulon Oti, October 1968Google Scholar, Kisumu; Khamisi, F., March 1968Google Scholar, Nairobi.

71 Editor (Baraza) to C.N.C., 3 Oct. 1952Google Scholar, K.N.A. 8/49.

72 Hindi ya Gikuyu, 28 April 1949Google Scholar, K.N.A. 3/645.

73 Mumenyereri, 12 March 1950Google Scholar; 2 April 1950, K.N.A. 3/645.

74 Corfield, F., The Origins and Growth of Mau Mau, Cmnd. 1030 (1960), 191–9.Google Scholar

75 Kaggia, , Roots of Freedom (Nairobi, 1975).Google Scholar

76 Habari, 10 Oct. 1946.Google Scholar

77 Corfield, , Origins, 192.Google Scholar

78 Carter, F., ‘The Kenya Government and the Press 1906–60’, Hadith 11 (Nairobi, 1970), 247.Google Scholar

79 Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Information Services (Nairobi, 1950), 11.Google Scholar

80 Acting Information Officer to Kisii, D.C., 13 Nov. 1946Google Scholar, K.N.A. 2/561.

81 Downes, H., ‘Scheme to improve the African Press’.Google Scholar

82 Corfield, F., Origins, 195–6.Google Scholar

83 Carter, , ‘Kenya Government and the Press’, 246.Google Scholar

84 Kiambu District Annual Report, 1947, 2Google Scholar; K.N.A. PC/CP/4/4/3.

85 Member for African Affairs, Legislative Council Debates, 30 Sept. 1952, l, 219.Google Scholar