Six,—I shall be very grateful if you will allow me
the opportunity to reply—belatedly, I fear—to certain letters which arose from my article, Four Races in Kenya. The letters from Mr. Gordon Smith and Mr. R. C. Wigg are sadly typical of so much criticism of Kenya. I have lived in Kenya for 25 years, and, with all due respect, I think I am better qualified than Mr. Wigg to assess the opinions of the settlers of Kenya, and I have no doubt that the great majority would endorse the views that I expressed in my article. As, a matter of simple fact the case of the African who was beaten, so grievously that death ensued, by an Indian contractor at Rumuruti aroused the intense indignation of the settlers, expressed both in the Press and at several meetings. The Indian in question was tried and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment for manslaughter.
Mr. Gordon Smith has puffed at the embers of the old controversy which arose from the Masai Agreements of 1904 and 1911, and his puffing is marred by inaccurate statements and distorted conclusions. On the whole, I think it wiser to accept the judgement of Sir Philip Mitchell, who has had 35 years' experience as an African administrator, than the judgement of Mr. Gordon Smith, whose knowledge of the question at issue is clearly superficial. I agree that " ignoring facts is a bad way to face the future"-' it is equally stupid to base an historical argument on mis-statements. Nevertheless, I do not propose—nor would you permit me—to clutter up your columns with " a jejune argument about the past."
Consider rather the present position of the Masai and Masailand. The Director of Statistics informs me that the population of the Kenya Masai is approximately 50,000. The Director of Veterinary Services informs me that it is estimated that these 50,000 Masai own some 650,000 head of cattle. The area of the Masai Reserve in Kenya is 14,944 square miles. The Report of the Kenya Land Commission of 1933—a report that Mr. Gordon Smith would be well advised to read—stated that "although there are certain and and waterless tracts in the Masai country, as is bound to be the case in so large an area, and parts are fly-infested, the greater part of the Reserve includes some of the finest agricultural and pastoral land in Kenya, and the Masai are probably the most wealthy tribe in Africa, both in the matter of land and the stock they are able to carry on it." In Tanganyika there are another 55,000 Masai owning huge herds and flocks and wandering over another 13,000 square miles of land. Therefore, some 105,000 Masai have the sole use of 28,000 square miles of land.
Unfortunately, the Masai are one of the most backward and difficult tribes in East Africa. They can see no way of living better than their own, and their main concern is to accumulate as many cattle as they can breed or rieve, irrespective of the quality of the cattle or the weal of the land. Masailand is virtually undeveloped, and it plays a very small part in feeding the rapidly increasing population of East Africa. Sooner or later the force of circumstances will impel a change of the present situation which is a typical example of the harm which can arise from the permanent entail of land. Nevertheless, the present situation is based on an agreement which has the validity of a treaty, and which the Masai will certainly not agree to modify until they acquire a much fuller and more realistic understanding of the position.
The truth of the matter is that the Masai who, before the advent of British rule, were the enemies of all other tribes whom they had pillaged without mercy for generations, and who are now an economically inactive tribe, have been treated, in the matter of land, with a generosity that is detrimental to the true weal of the land and the people of East Africa. Indeed, Masailand is a major obstacle to the solution of an agrarian problem, all the more pressing since the recent census revealed that the African population of Kenya is over 5 million. The previous estimate, as quoted in my article, was just over 4 million.—Yours,
&c., M. F. HILL Ngongogeri, Njoro, Kenya Colony.
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