This is a study of political leadership and organization during the first thirty years of organized African politics in Kenya, from the formation of the Kikuyu Association after World War I to the first few months of the ‘Mau Mau’ Emergency. Its theme is the attempt of Africans to find an effective political voice, and it centres on the Kikuyu, the tribe upon which the British intrusion had the greatest physical and emotional effect and which was therefore the most active politically.