The African continent represents a region which faces economic problems of the utmost severity at a time when the global economy itself is ravaged by inflation, unemployment and the effects of a world recession. Africa contains 21 of the world's 45 least-developed nations. Its total Gross National Product accounts for only 2·7 per cent. of the world's Product and Africa has the lowest average per capita income in the world. Many African countries lack basic medical and health care facilities while food shortages and severe unemployment affect a very high proportion of African peoples. Internal African development strategies of the past have been subjected to critical investigation in an attempt to assess the sources of the continent's development problems. Despite its vast natural resources and the praiseworthy efforts of many African governments, the continent as a whole (excluding South Africa) is unable to show any significant economic expansion or growth.

The 1980 Lagos Plan of Action represents the most recent initiative undertaken by the Organisation of African Unity (O.A.U.) in conjunction with the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (E.C.A.) to develop a successful regional strategy for African development. It aims at economic growth in each individual African state in different sectors including food and agriculture, industry and in environmental and energy matters. It adopts specific as well as general targets with time limits, for each aspect of economic planning.

German scholars contributed an impressive amount to many different disciplines in their studies of German East Africa and other German colonies, particularly between about 1890 and 1910. Much research was undertaken and a considerable amount was published. Then, after the First World War, when Germany lost her colonies, some valuable work was abandoned. One important project which suffered was the collection of data on customary law in the former German colonies. The sets of answers to a questionnaire were the main source used in compiling a large two volume study, Das Eingeborenenrecht (1929 and 1930), which is available in research libraries outside Germany. However, the original printed sets of answers are a more valuable source of ethnographic and legal data than the book; but they are little known and appear to have been generally unavailable outside Germany and Tanganyika. Rhodes House Library, Oxford, now has a copy of the original German questionnaire and a microfilm of the sets of answers for German East Africa. The purpose of this article is to explain how the original German research project developed, to present an English translation of the final version of the questionnaire (see Appendix A, below), a check list of the most important facts about each of the sets of answers collected in German East Africa (see Appendix B, below), and a brief assessment of the value of this data.

This research is interesting when it is seen from any of the following points of view;

The purpose of this article is to trace the development of some aspects of the law of Kenya, commencing with the colonial period (Part I) and then considering the reforms in the post-independence era (Part II). Part III deals with the setting up of the Law Reform Commission in 1982 and considers some of the subjects which it might deal with.