| Administrative History | Allocations 1955-57, 1962-93, Programme spending in 1993/94, 1994/95
In 1920 the former East Africa Protectorate became the Colony of Kenya. The coastal territories of the Sultan of Zanzibar became the Kenya Protectorate. In 1963 both became independent as Kenya and in 1964 the country became a republic.
In 1931, Jomo Kenyatta (Johnstone Kenyatta, as he was then known) was one of the few black delegates to the Conference on African Children in Geneva. In 1933, Save the Children's (SCF) Child Protection Committee made representations to the Colonial Office, expressing concern at the effect that an increase in gold mining in the colony would have on the lives of families and children in the affected areas. In 1954, at the request of the Colonial Office, the General Secretary paid a visit to Kenya and in September of that year a branch was formed in Nairobi. Plans were set up to create a 'place of safety' for street children, many of whom were homeless as a result of the Mau Mau campaign. In 1955 the ujama (youth) park was set up, intended to be based on the model of Serendah boys' home in Malaya. It is unclear exactly what work was done at this time, since in 1961 the Fund was still talking of the setting up of a reception centre for homeless boys. This was based on work in Uganda, attempting to reunite children with their families, or if this failed placing them with foster parents. In May 1962 the Rescue Centre was set up at Kariokor in Nairobi, where homeless boys were fed and given a bed for the night. In September 1963, the place of safety was established, where those boys expressing a wish for help were taken in and their circumstances investigated. Funding was also provided for the Starehe Boys School, the only free secondary school in the country. Boys from the place of safety for whom adequate homes could not be found were placed with the Starehe Centre, which had been founded in 1959 by Geoffrey Griffin, a former British army officer. When a Child Welfare Society was founded in Kenya it absorbed the SCF branch and took over the Starehe Centre. These projects continued to receive funding from SCF. In May 1970 some flood relief money was sent to Kenya. In the 1990s, the Fund began to support a community-based rehabilitation project at Kibwezi. |