East Africa Protectorate

Also known as British East Africa

former British colony in Africa

Key facts

1904: 696,400 km (268,900 sq mi)
Status: British protectorate
Capital: Mombasa (1895–1905) , Nairobi (1905–1920)
Common languages: English (official) , Swahili , Kikuyu , Kamba , Luo , Kisii , Kimeru , Nandi–Markweta , Somali also spoken
Religion: Christianity , Hinduism , Islam , traditional African religion
1895 1901: Victoria
1901 1910: Edward VII
1910 1920: George V
1895 1897: Arthur Henry Hardinge
1919 1920: Sir Edward Northey
Established: 1 July 1895
Disestablished: 23 July 1920

Article

Today part ofKenya and Somalia

East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was a British protectorate in the African Great Lakes, occupying roughly the same area as present-day Kenya, from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west part. Controlled by the United Kingdom in the late 19th century, it grew out of British commercial interests in the area in the 1880s and remained a protectorate until 1920 when it became the Colony of Kenya, save for an independent 16-kilometre-wide (10 mi) coastal strip that became the Kenya Protectorate.