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British East Africa was an area of East Africa controlled by the British in the late 19th century, which became a protectorate covering roughly the area of present-day Kenya. It grew out of British commercial interests in the area in the 1880s and lasted until 1920, when it became the colony of Kenya.

European missionaries began settling in the area from Mombasa to Mount Kilimanjaro in the 1840s, nominally under the protection of the Sultan of Zanzibar. In 1886 the British government encouraged William Mackinnon, who already had an agreement with the Sultan and whose shipping company traded extensively in East Africa, to establish British influence in the region. He formed a British East Africa Association which led to the Imperial British East Africa Company being chartered in 1888. It administered about 150 miles of coastline stretching from from the river Tana via Mombasa to German East Africa which were leased from the Sultan. The British "sphere of influence", agreed at the Berlin conference of 1885, extended up the coast and inland across the future Kenya, and after 1890 included Uganda as well.

However, the company began to fail, and on July 1, 1895 the British government proclaimed a protectorate, and in 1902 made the Uganda territory part of the protectorate also. The capital was shifted from Mombasa to Nairobi in 1905, and on July 23, 1920 the protectorate became the Kenya Colony.

Contents 1 Stamps and postal history of British East Africa 2 Sources 3 See also 4 Further reading

The early missionaries sent letters by runner to forwarding agents at Zanzibar. Post offices opened at Mombasa and Lamu in 1890, and after some initial surcharges of British postage stamps with values of 1/2, 1, and 4 annas, the Company issued stamps using a symbolic sun and crown design and inscribed "IMPERIAL BRITISH EAST AFRICA COMPANY", all valued in annas and rupees.

Shortages between 1891 and 1895 resulted in a variety of surcharges on these, and the protectorate in 1895 was marked by overprints reading "BRITISH / EAST / AFRICA" and overprints of "British / East / Africa" on stamps of India. The protectorate joined the Universal Postal Union at this time.

In 1896 a series depicting Queen Victoria was issued, inscribed "BRITISH EAST AFRICA", although these ran short in 1897 and stamps of Zanzibar were overprinted as the stamps of India had been previously. A number of post offices opened along the Uganda Railway, which was started in 1896 at Mombasa and reached Kisumu on Lake Victoria in 1902.

In 1901 the postal administration was merged with that of Uganda, and in 1904 stamps issued for the combined East Africa and Uganda Protectorates came into use.

• Sir William Mackinnon
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

• Sir Charles Eliot
• Colonial Heads of Kenya
• East Africa Protectorate

• John S. Galbraith, Mackinnon and East Africa 1878-1895 (Cambridge 1972)
• Map of British East Africa in 1901
• A map of part of Eastern Africa, prepared by authority of the Imperial British East Africa Company, 1889
• 1911 Encyclopedia