Kikuyu Central Association


The Kikuyu Central Association (KCA), led by James Beauttah and Joseph Kang'ethe, was a political organisation in colonial Kenya formed in 1924/5 to act on behalf of the Kĩkũyũ community by presenting their concerns to the British government. One of its greatest grievances was the expropriation of the most productive land by British settlers from African farmers. Most members of the organisation were from the Kĩkũyũ tribe.

KCA was formed after the colonial government banned the earlier Young Kikuyu Association founded by Harry Thuku and the East African Association. Jomo Kenyatta, later the first president of Kenya, joined it to become its General Secretary in 1927.

The Kikuyu Central Association was banned in 1940 when World War II reached East Africa. Some fighters of the later Mau-Mau still understood their struggle as continuation of KCA and even called themselves KCA.

The end of World War II, however, saw the new type of African organisation that went beyond tribal boundaries with the rise of the Kenya African Union that later was to become KANU.

KCA published the Muiguithania ("the reconciler"), a Kikuyu language newspaper. It was banned alongside KCA in 1940.

Famous quotes containing the words central and/or association:

    Friends serve central functions for children that parents do not, and they play a critical role in shaping children’s social skills and their sense of identity. . . . The difference between a child with close friendships and a child who wants to make friends but is unable to can be the difference between a child who is happy and a child who is distressed in one large area of life.
    Zick Rubin (20th century)

    They that have grown old in a single state are generally found to be morose, fretful and captious; tenacious of their own practices and maxims; soon offended by contradiction or negligence; and impatient of any association but with those that will watch their nod, and submit themselves to unlimited authority.
    Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)