Thread by @wmnjoya

I've committed myself to reading more on the economic history of Kenya.

Interesting facts I discovered.

The kipande system was a badge of slavery used to track labor supply and tax people for merely existing. Once someone was registered on the kipande system, they could not be deregistered. If they deserted anemployer, they could be returned by force.

Kipande entrenched low wages.

Because kipande also meant the ability to tax everyone and by demanding taxes, forcing people to work in bad employment for slave wages. And if they escaped from the employer, you returned them to the employer.

If it sounds familiar, that is what #hudumanamba is all about.

#hudumanamba ties with #bbireport very nicely. Muigai and the Anglo Saxons not only centralize government, but they by-pass county governments and make everybody pay taxes.

Right now, living in counties shields one from big brother in Nairobi.

With #hudumanamba, not any more.

Mombasa used to be the major town for strong unions because dock workers had the power to paralyze business.

Also, colonialists had more respect for Islam's cultural distinction, more than madharau for African cultures.

Salaries in Mombasa were some of the best.

The colonial economy declared war against pastoralism from the very begining. It killed pre-colonial intra-African trade, especially the Kamba caravan trade and the Somali livestock trading, and used European settlers to stiffle pastoralism.

The European settlerism was not economically viable. It required forcing Africans to work, and it still wasn't enough. Then they encouraged African production, but only enough to support settlers, not to overtake them.

And then African workers were also striking for higher pay.

With the Mau Mau emergency, British government decided it was more economically viable to de-colonize. They spent the next 10 years dismantling colonial settlerism and replacing them with the emerging African middle class.

That's all the Kenyan ruling class is. A replacement.