Towards a contextualisation of policing in colonial Kenya

Richard Waller

Journal of Eastern African Studies, 2010, vol. 4, issue 3, 525-541

Abstract: This paper looks at the social and legal context of policing in colonial Kenya before 1950, drawing on a range of archival sources in Britain and Kenya. It considers the methods of policing, its objectives, the difficulties it encountered and the social and political terrain on which it operated, a conflicted terrain shaped by geography, race and the existence of other sources of authority and control. Kenya can be divided into a number of zones of policing, from areas that were fairly closely policed, in which there was an increasing expectation that crime would be detected and punished, to areas where the police could do little more than attempt to keep the peace between local communities, all of which had strong traditions of self-help and no confidence in or wish for external intervention. Until 1920, the Kenya Police had a very uneven reputation, but, during the inter-war years, the force grew in numbers and effectiveness.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17531055.2010.517421 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjeaxx:v:4:y:2010:i:3:p:525-541

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjea20

DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2010.517421

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Eastern African Studies is currently edited by Jim Robert Brennan

More articles in Journal of Eastern African Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().