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Making Justice: The Invention of the Colonial Law in Kenya

One of the best ways to understand the invented criminalization of oathing
by the colonial administration during the 1950s is to understand the law and
justice making practices in colonial Africa. The law in colonial Africa was a part of
a much larger colonial effort to transform the society to satisfy colonial interest.¹⁸
In Kenya, the law worked in conjunction with the other social, economic, cultural,
and political changes that occurred under colonialism. The law enforced the new
structures by providing a system of crime and punishment to address Africans
that failed to conform. David Anderson states that power and sustained authority
serve as the foundation of the empire discussions on policing, serving as a
“visible public symbol of colonial rule...enforcing the codes of law.”¹⁹ All of these
systems were integrated to support colonial rule, authority, and domination in
Kenya. African law during colonialism was transformed and impacted by constant
economic, social, cultural, and political changes. There were many tensions and
conflicts with British imposed legal practices compared to African practices and
beliefs.

¹⁸ See Sally Falk Moore in Law as a Process, An Anthropological Approach, (London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul, 1978), 1. Moore states for example, .law constitutes the intentionally constructed framework of
social order.. .the practice of law by lawyers is by and large an exercise in the manipulation of ‘the
system’.”

¹⁹ David M. Anderson and David Killingray, eds., Policing the Empire: Government, Authority and
Control, 1830-1940, (NewYork: ManchesterUniversityPress, 1991), 1-2.

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