The famine in central Kenya in 1899 is regarded as a devastating catastrophe in Kenyan history. It spread rapidly from 1898 in the central region of the country around Mount Kenya after several consecutive years of low rainfall. The prevalence of locusts, cattle diseases that decimated the livestock population and the growing demand for food from travelling caravans of British, Swahili and Arab traders also contributed to the food shortage. The famine was accompanied by a smallpox epidemic that resulted in the depopulation of entire regions.
The number of victims is unknown, but estimates by the few European observers ranged between 50 and 90 per cent of the population. All people living in these regions were affected, albeit to varying degrees.
The famine occurred concurrently with the establishment of British colonial rule, which led the inhabitants of central Kenya to not perceive it as a consequence of natural causes. Instead, they regarded it as a manifestation of a universal crisis that disrupted the balance between God and society, and which also manifested itself in colonial rule.
Central Kenya at the end of the 19th century
By the end of the 19th century, Central Kenya was already a densely populated region due to its fertile soils and the rainy climate, especially in the highlands. In addition to the area around Lake Victoria, this region was the most populous in British East Africa, with an estimated population of approximately one million individuals. The high-lying area between Mount Kenya and the Ngong Hills was predominantly populated by Kikuyu, Embu, Meru, Mbeere and Ogiek communities. To the east, the lower-lying region merged into the semi-arid steppe and was primarily inhabited by Kamba groups. To the south of the Ngong and west of the Nyandarua Mountains, Kikuyu, Ogiek and Maasai inhabited the area. The inhabitants of the fertile highlands primarily relied on agriculture as a source of livelihood, whereas those inhabiting the arid steppes mainly engaged in cattle farming.
In contrast with the cartographic representation of these groups on maps produced during the 20th century, the evidence suggests that they did not inhabit territories that were clearly delineated. In contrast, they were culturally and socially closely intertwined. Except for the Nilotic language Maa, their languages were Bantu languages and therefore closely related. However, aside from language, the members of the same language group exhibited minimal shared characteristics. They were not unified by a common political authority and only sporadically by common rituals. It would be inaccurate to describe the ethnic identity as we know it today as a pronounced phenomenon. For instance, membership of the Maasai community could be renounced through relocation or a change of livelihood, such as from cattle breeding to agriculture.
People lived in small communities, organised in clans, family or village groups. Such groups could also be made up of people from different linguistic backgrounds. They were often organised around a patron, an influential head of family who knew how to bind people to him or her by offering them protection within the community. These communities typically identified themselves by their geographical location, the founder of their community, who was mostly identified as a common, sometimes mythical, ancestor, or their way of life, which often involved farming, hunting, or cattle breeding. Hostilities between different units of the same language group occurred with the same frequency as between members of different ethnic groups.
Despite the linguistic boundaries, these small communities maintained active communication and trade. They often intermarried and influenced each other's way of life, especially in areas where they lived together as neighbours. This contact was essential for the survival of the local population. The fertile highlands acted as the breadbasket of the entire region. In the event of food shortages in individual areas due to drought, people would undertake trading trips to the highlands. These trips would involve the exchange of livestock, including goats, sheep and cattle, as well as arrow poisons and tobacco. Tools and weapons, metals, salt and medicinal herbs, honey and even labour would also be traded for foodstuffs such as millet and yams, beans, maize and bananas. In times of need, entire families would immigrate to the highlands, where they would live and work on the land of a wealthy farmer, thus ensuring their survival during the hardship.
Furthermore, individual regions in the south of this area maintained a vibrant exchange with the large caravans travelling inland from the East African coast to purchase ivory. In central Kenya, several trading hubs emerged, where intermediaries procured food from the local population and resold it to the large caravans as provisions for their onward journey.
Lack of rain, cattle plague and locust infestations
In the majority of East African regions, the 1880s and 1890s were characterised by irregular and scarce rainfall patterns. The drought in central Kenya was ultimately caused by a strong occurrence of the climatic phenomenon La Niña in 1898. This event, in conjunction with a particularly strong occurrence of El Niño in 1896 and another El Niño in 1899, also resulted in drought and food insecurity in other regions of Africa. In addition to the aforementioned climatic factors, the central Kenyan region was also affected by some other adverse conditions. In the 1890s, swarms of locusts devastated the already poor harvests in both barren and fertile areas due to the lack of rain.
Furthermore, an epizootic of cattle plague had already devastated a significant portion of the cattle population in 1891. This animal disease, which originated in Asia, was introduced to Ethiopia by Italian troops with Indian cattle in 1887. It subsequently spread from there to East Africa and finally to Southern Africa, where there was no immunity to it. The loss of livestock among cattle owners in Kenya was estimated to be as high as 90%. The loss of cattle had a profound impact on the region. The consumption of their meat was infrequent. Cattle were regarded as a valuable object of prestige and were frequently used as a form of bride-wealth and as a means of purchasing food from fertile regions. In pastoral societies, the loss of cattle had a significant impact on the diet of children and young adults. They were largely fed on a milk and blood mixture with herbs, with the blood drawn from the carotid artery of the cow.
The Maasai, a pastoralist society in which cattle breeding was a central element, were particularly adversely affected by the consequences. Following the destruction of their economic foundation, thousands perished and entire communities disintegrated. Those who survived sought refuge primarily with the neighbouring Kikuyu. During this period, there was a notable increase in hostilities and the use of violence. The cattle plague transformed the hitherto proud and feared Maasai into beggars, and they attempted to halt the social decline by engaging in large-scale cattle and women theft from neighbouring villages to rebuild their households.
Heralds of colonial power
The initial endeavours of the British colonial power to establish a foothold in Kenya were a significant contributing factor to the subsequent disasters. From 1889, the Imperial British East Africa Company established several administrative posts along the existing trade route from the harbour town of Mombasa to Lake Victoria. German influence in the region had ended by 1890, following the handover of Witu. Their objective was to provide the company's extensive trading caravans, which could comprise up to a thousand individuals, with sustenance for their subsequent journey. To this end, substantial quantities of food were procured from the local population, on occasion by force. Furthermore, the caravan traffic facilitated the dissemination of previously unknown diseases, such as rinderpest.
Nevertheless, the initial influence of the British was relatively modest, confined to a select number of stations and a limited radius. This changed with the construction of the railway. Following the acquisition of British East Africa by Great Britain in 1895, construction of the Uganda Railway commenced in 1896 intending to establish a railway line connecting Mombasa with Uganda. As the completed line progressed, the country became increasingly accessible to Europeans, who were able to reach the inland areas. By 1899, the railway had reached Nairobi, which had been constructed in 1896 as a depot for building materials and thus also the southern Kikuyu territory in central Kenya. The number of Europeans in the country consequently increased exponentially, with settlers, administrators, missionaries, adventurers, businessmen and scientists all arriving in significant numbers.
For the Africans, railway construction had a further dimension. From the commencement of construction in 1896, it attracted a considerable number of workers to the extensive building sites. They hired themselves out as labourers to earn money to purchase European trade goods, which were highly sought-after and in great demand. These included cotton fabrics and clothing, tobacco tins, firearms and pearls. The majority of these railway workers were Indian contract labourers, but Africans from all over East Africa also worked on the railway, including many from central Kenya. The predominantly male labour force employed by the railway wasn't able to tend to agriculture, which further diminished crop yields.
Great Famine
The Great Famine, as it was subsequently designated, disseminated throughout the Kenyan population in the latter half of the 1890s. Its impact was felt across the entire region extending from Mount Kenya to Kilimanjaro. By the end of 1897, harvests in the lower-lying eastern regions were already poor, even in areas that were typically able to produce food surpluses. The year 1898 began with a further period of drought, which resulted in the spread of famine to the southern regions. A plague of locusts and a renewed outbreak of cattle plague, which resulted in the death of approximately 30% of the cattle population, further exacerbated the effects of insufficient rainfall. By the middle of 1898, the number of deaths resulting from hunger had reached a significant proportion of the population. Rainfall that year occurred at a later time and in smaller quantities than usual. Finally, the crops in the eastern highlands and the southern Kikuyu region, which had previously been irrigated, began to dry up in the fields.
Nevertheless, the food shortage in central Kenya had not yet reached its full extent by mid-1898. Traders continued to sell food supplies from the highlands to passing caravans or to middlemen in order to acquire goods that were highly sought after, such as clothing, beads, weapons, or copper and brass wire (from which ornaments were made). It was presumed that food was only scarce among the less affluent in certain areas and could be procured through trade from the central highlands in an emergency. In a report from the British missionary Harry Leakey from the Kabete mission station near Nairobi, it was stated that:
"The terrors of this were greatly intensified by the fact that about that time an enormous safari with Nubians troops marched right through the Kikuyu country. The agents of the food contractor bought up quantities of grain for what seemed to the unfortunate sellers magnificent returns of brass wire, Amerikani, and beads. But it spelt disaster for them because when at last after two futile plantings if not three, a sufficiency of rain did come to produce crops, there was hardly any grain left in the granaries to put in the soil."
Whether the trade in food was the cause of the food shortage remains a matter of contention. The anthropologist Greet Kershaw observed that areas that did not engage in trade with the large caravans were also affected by famine. The historian Charles Ambler describes the course of the famine as a shifting frontier that moved with the refugees. As soon as the famine migrants moved into an area that was not yet affected by famine, a food shortage developed there. This resulted in the creation of a further cohort of refugees, who subsequently relocated to new regions, thereby causing food scarcity in those areas as well.
The highlands between Mount Kenya and the Nyandarua Mountains, which are known for their high rainfall, were not affected by the famine. In this region, the harvests were also smaller, while some surplus food continued to be produced, which enabled refugees from famine-stricken areas to survive.