Kenya
SIR,—As one who came to Kenya more than fifty years ago I feel that I must refute the extraordinary statement made by Stephen Martin that under certain ordinances the natives of Kenya were placed in reserves which consisted of the least fertile lands, and that the most fertile lands were reserved for Europeans. Exactly the opposite was the case.
Every tribe, with the single exception of the Masai, a nomadic pastoral people, received the lands which they originally occupied before the arrival of any European settlers, and it is quite obvious that at a time when they were free to choose they did not select the least fertile areas. I have no hesitation whatever in saying that these reserves consisted of what were at that time the most fertile areas in the country. It is admitted that they have now deteriorated owing to burning of forests, overstocking, the introduction of high- yielding varieties of maize, the natural increase of population and general bad husbandry.
The highlands of Kenya occupied by European settlers, which now produce such crops as wheat, barley, oats. etc., would have been useless to the indigenous natives. as crops such as millet, yams and sweet potatoes on which they relied for their food-supply would not
have thrived there.—Yours faithfully, RETIRED. Kenya.
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