Independence
By the early 1960's, Britain’s political willingness to maintain Kenya as a colony was in decline and in 1962 the Lancaster House agreement set a date for Kenya’s independence. Realising minority rule like the Rhodesian and South African apartheid régimes were not possible after the Mau-Mau uprising, the majority of 60,000 white settlers looked for a way out. Along with Kenyan Asians, Europeans were given the choice of retaining their British passports and suffering a diminution in rights, or acquiring new Kenyan passports. Few chose to acquire citizenship, and many Europeans left the country. The World Bank led a willing-buyer-willing-seller scheme, known as the 'million acre' scheme that was largely financed by secret British subsidies. The scheme saw the redistribution of swathes of European owned land to the newly prosperous Kikuyu elite.
The remaining small minority of Europeans have mostly taken Kenyan citizenship. There were an estimated 35,000 white Kenyan citizens in Kenya as of 2009. There are also British expatriates who may be of any race; according to the BBC, they numbered at about 32,000 in 2006.
Read more about this topic: White People In Kenya
Famous quotes containing the word independence:
“In England the judges should have independence to protect the people against the crown. Here the judges should not be independent of the people, but be appointed for not more than seven years. The people would always re-elect the good judges.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.”
—Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689–1755)
“I saw the man my friend ... wants pardoned, Thomas Flinton. He is a bright, good-looking fellow.... Of his innocence all are confident. The governor strikes me as a man seeking popularity, who lacks the independence and manhood to do right at the risk of losing popularity. Afraid of what will be said. He is prejudiced against the Irish and Democrats.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)