The soldiers were many, very many from KAR(where Amin served), the British Army, settler volunteers, police and tribal home guard.

So were people kept in prison like Kamiti? No. They were kept in walled concentration camps. Their homes were destroyed & burnt. From then on, movement into and out of these camps was controlled. There was a gate through which you entered the village and in many cases even the time one could leave the camp was limited to a few hours...like going to the fields, with escort & they'd hurry you up even before you could be done with your chores.

Not prison? Yes but very close. When you look at starvation, beatings,rapes & killings in the camps, it amounts to worse than prison!

Senior Chief Koinange wa Mbiyu was a wealthy man in his own right much richer than most British settlers in Kenya at the time who were kawaida middle class. I think he had over 600 acres of prime Kiambu land. The koinange ancestral was much larger than that before the British grabbed it. That's why he flew to London around 1930 to protest and we ended with Carter land commission. When his son was accused of Chief Waruhiu's murder he brought a barrister from London for the trial and mzunguz were shocked. Chief Koinange could pay American education for his son Mbiyu. America was the cheaper option for miros.

My grandfather not related to the Koinange used to afford high school education in India and Uganda and university in South Africa in 1940s. He got a tender to supply the British troops with food during WWII. So the Brits were not that bad but the local Brit settlers were petty-never liked a black man to succeed.

The Brit settlers were also corrupt. You should read the Rose Commission on corruption scandals in Nairobi when they were given grant money by the British govt to put up african housing in Ofafa and Mbotela. They cut corners with the indian contractors. They sold plots set aside for fire stations

This is very true. They zoned off the white highlands as european only settlement areas. The locals were thus pushed from their lands to villages (staff quarters on european farms) to provide labour for the european farms. The coffee zones (which were in central kenya) were particularly prized because at the time coffee was very lucrative on the world market and was called the black gold.

Outside the white highlands (i.e mainly central and parts of RV), many locals would not have felt the impacts of colonisation. Infact they may even praise the white man like @radiomast is doing because the only white men they saw in their areas were the missionaries and the DOs/DCs who were building schools and hospitals and forcing locals to go to school.

NB: Nyanza and western werent settled because the white man feared malaria. The lowlands in eastern and southern kenya were arid and not suitable for crop cultivation and some areas also had tse tse flies and thus not suitable for ranching and therefore the white man made many such areas game parks for hunting and tourism. Also narok and kajiado had been reserved for the maasai after they were moved from laikipia to enable white settlement. Northern kenya (i.e beyond isiolo town), turkana, marsabit, northeastern etc were special operation zones where no white men or outsiders were allowed in except for the colonial administrators. Those areas were termed as the northern frontier district and in some of the areas, it was where the british were fighting the italians during the 2nd world war. The area was also notorious for raids particularly from ethiopian tribes.

The white man's plan was to turn kenya into the next new zealand or australia or canada where the natives were subjugated and lived as second class citizens....or even exterminated.

Im not sure where you got your number that 12K to 20K lives lost.

But if true then the Mwafrika is even with Mkoloni

1982 Coup: 150 dead
1984 Wagalla Masscare : 5000 to 10,000 dead
1991 Land clashes: 1500 dead,
1992 Molo clashes: 5000 dead
1997 Likoni Violence: 104 dead
2008: PEV 1500 dead
2017: Post election violence 100 dead

Not to mention the hundreds more killed everytime there is a political protest and the mysterious deaths of people like Adungosi, Musando, Jacob Juma, .......

I actually agree with you that our first set of leaders were the biggest disappointment. They set Kenya on the wrong path.

Which is why I said that on balance, it might have been better if Independence was delayed until Mwafrika understood how to govern for the people.

The first set of leaders created a culture where people in power governed for themselves and their immediate famililes. Not for the people. Thats why today you see the grandchildren of Mbiyu Koinange fighting over an inheritance worth Ksh 14 Billion.

It would be much better if these billions were used for the betterment of Kenya e.g. building roads, hospitals etc. We have threads on wazua of people decrying the state of Kenyatta hospital and the poor state of roads and traffic.

It is precisely because our country ingrained a culture of looting. Everyone who assumes a leadership position goes in with the mentality that they have to loot as much as possible. Even people who are already wealthy like Kidero and Sonko.