As in most of Africa, the legacy of colonialism has ensured the
predominance of agriculture in the Kenyan
economy at the expense of industry. According to Norman Miller and
Roger Yeager, authors of
Kenya: The Quest for Prosperity,
the colonial-settler-dominated economic system carried with it an
explicit discouragement of indigenous
capitalism
. Policies directed towards these ends had the effect of guaranteeing
African labor for colonial farmers while simultaneously preventing
Kenyans from accumulating capital wealth. Perhaps even more importantly,
Kenyan independence leaders accepted the unequal patterns of land tenure
and private land ownership that developed in the colonial period, with
the caveat that large estates were taken over by emerging African elites
(so-called "Africanization"). As Miller and Yeager assert,
this committed Kenya to a potentially dangerous course of unbalanced
economic growth, as the politically powerful landowners maintained a
system of agro-export domination that engendered deep class inequality
and stymied (frustrated) industrial development. Today, the industrial
sector remains relatively small, though many manufacturing sub-sectors
have experienced considerable growth in recent years. The service
sector, for its part, forms a vital part of the economy, with financial
services and tourism predominating.
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