British Dominance

To western eyes, the region of East Africa appeared ripe with potential and there for the taking. The topic stirred an unusual amount of passion, conscience, and debate among the British political parties and the ruling classes. In the end, an overpowering sense of Victorian pride and scientific inquiry led the British to take a lead role in the exploration of the "Dark Continent." Written accounts from explorers and missionaries already established in the Kenyan upcountry further stoked Britain's imperial instincts.

In 1887 the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEA) was founded with its headquarters in Mombasa. Officers from the IBEA immediately began to establish outposts throughout the Kenyan interior. They carried with them a flag bearing the motto "Light and Liberty," signifying the anti-slavery sentiments of the day. Between 1888 and 1890 a contingent of British officials and soldiers cut a 500-kilometre-long dirt road to a swampy, flat area called Nyrobi by the Maasai, meaning "place of the cold waters." Fort Smith was built nearby as a British fortress and upcountry outpost.

IBEA also played a critical role in the eventual development of a railway from Mombasa to Lake Victoria. Each outpost required over 2,000 manloads of supplies each year. From a logistical point of view, a railway was the only viable means of supporting Britain's growing endeavors in the interior. Sir Gerald Portal, Britain's Acting Consul in Zanzibar, reinforced this recommendation in his plea to the Foreign Office: "To effect any real improvement in property or commerece, efficiently to reap the benefits of material progress that may be made, there is but one course open… The only means of effectively doing this is by a railway." Thus began the development of an unprecedented railway system linking the Kenyan coast to Lake Victoria. The "Lunatic Express" permanently established a British presence in East Africa.

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