ABSTRACT
Kenya’s current political boundaries have existed in their present form for less than 100 years. Before 1895, Kenya was an amalgamation of individual, ethnically constituted “nations”; they were composed of peoples drawn together by language, history, cultural traditions and experiences and, for the most part, shared well-delineated spaces, perhaps other than the pastoral communities, but whose boundaries and expansive territories were well defined. True, there were occasional raids by neighboring communities, raids that took materiel – cattle, grain and women – perhaps all the vestiges of stuff victorious armies have aspired to, throughout the history of war. After the 1885 Berlin Conference, Kenya, as a colony, was claimed by the British, who formally declared it a colony in 1920. Kenya gained independence in 1963. British direct and indirect rule had lasted approximately 68 years.
