sympathetic to the agricultural objectives of the Kenyan peo ples.3 Rather, agriculture began to be structured to support European objectives.
When the Foreign Office assumed administrative control over Kenya in 1895, little was done in the way of developing an agricultural policy for the country. As a result the dominance of European objectives in agriculture was allowed to develop in
1J. Paxton, (Ed.), The Statesman's Year Book, '1989 1990, 126th ed. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989), 772; M. P. K. Sorrenson,Land Reform in the Kikuyu Country (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), 3 72.
a policy vacuum. Subsequent to 1905, when the Colonial Office assumed administrative responsibility forKenya, an active agricultural policy was developed. This policy was based on the needs and objectives of immigrants the white settler far mers.4 In this system, the Kenyan peoples were regarded only as a necessary labor force.5 A part of this early agricultural policy provided for a significant and planned increase in the number of white settlers to be brought to Kenya.6
The early groups of white settlers attempted to establish the foundations of modern agriculture in Kenya, with the intro duction of exotic crops and livestock.7 Many of these early efforts failed, because the effects of Kenya's land, climate, and parasites on these crops and livestock were not considered. Disease was a particularly vexing problem for the early white settlers.8
In the period prior to 1920, the official agricultural policy for Kenya sought to develop wheat and wool exports as the basis for the country's economy.9 Although coffee pro duction was flourishing on two plantations, its development was
6L. W. Cone, and J. F. Lipscomb, The History of Kenyan Agriculture (Nairobi: University Press of Afr
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