Kikuyu Central Association

This article is about the political organisation. For other uses, see Kikuyu (disambiguation).

KCA

Predecessor	East African Association
Successor	Kenya African Union
Formation	1924
Dissolved	Proscribed in 1940
Type	Political association
Location	Central Kenya
Key people	James Beauttah, Joseph Kang'ethe, Jomo Kenyatta, Henry Muoria
Publication	Muigwithania

The Kikuyu Central Association (KCA), led by James Beauttah and Joseph Kang'ethe, was a political organisation in colonial Kenya formed in 1924 to act on behalf of the Kikuyu community by presenting their concerns to the British government. One of its greatest grievances was the expropriation of the most productive land by British settlers from African farmers. Most of the members of the organisation were from the Kikuyu tribe.

The KCA was formed after the colonial government had banned the Young Kikuyu Association founded by Harry Thuku and the East African Association. In either 1925 or early 1926, Beauttah moved to Uganda but remained in contact with Kenyatta. When the KCA wrote to Beauttah and asked him to travel to London as their representative, he declined but recommended for Kenyatta, who had a good command of the English language, to go in his place. Kenyatta accepted, probably on the condition that the KCA match his existing wage. He thus became the group's secretary. Jomo Kenyatta, later the first president of Kenya, joined it to become its General Secretary in 1927.

The KCA was banned in 1940, when the Second World War reached East Africa. Some fighters of the later Mau-Mau still understood their struggle as a continuation of the KCA and even called themselves KCA.

The end of the war, however, saw the new type of African organisation that went beyond tribal boundaries with the rise of the Kenya African Union, which later became the Kenya African National Union.

The KCA wanted the return of African land, the abolition of the kipande system, the release of Harry Thuku, the provision of quality education and the end of forced labour.

The KCA published the Muiguithania ("the reconciler"), a Kikuyu-language newspaper that was also banned in 1940.

See also

• Campaign against female genital mutilation in Kenya, 1929-32
• Taita Hills Association

References

• Muigwithania 2.0 - The original KCA publication banned by the colonial government revived on the Internet in 2008

External links

• The reason behind KCA
• Another article on KCA
• [1]