Britain secretly precluded NFD secession before Kenya’s independence

Evidence

This was that evidence had been collected ‘on the premise that there can be no question of secession before Kenya gets independence’. This assumption derived, apparently, from the Commissioners’ confidential instructions. It was not included in the previous Colonial Secretary’s announcement of the decision to set up the Commission made at the Kenya conference, and it appeared to be in conflict with the undertaking given then that a decision would be taken before Kenya became independent. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 476

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: British reversal on the N.F.D. stemmed from Anglo-Ethiopian relations and Kenyan pressure; Macmillan’s 1960 pledge seemed to promise the NFD self-determination; The NFD’s eastern half was Somali while western areas were ethnically mixed (+8 more)

Related

• The N.F.D. commission was secretly instructed to rule out pre-independence secession (similarity 0.92)
• Britain placed the N.F.D. into Kenya’s regional constitution, rejecting secession (similarity 0.90)
• Macmillan’s 1960 pledge seemed to promise the NFD self-determination (similarity 0.89)
• Britain shifted to insisting Kenyan consent governed the N.F.D.’s fate (similarity 0.89)
• Pan-African opinion legitimized Britain’s refusal of N.F.D. secession (similarity 0.87)
• The NFD demanded the same self-determination Britain granted British Somaliland (similarity 0.87)
• British reversal on the N.F.D. stemmed from Anglo-Ethiopian relations and Kenyan pressure (similarity 0.87)
• The Britain-Somalia rupture could have been avoided had London heeded N.F.D. reports (similarity 0.83)
• The NFD’s eastern half was Somali while western areas were ethnically mixed (similarity 0.83)
• Kenyan parties opposed Somali secession for fear of tribal separatism and with Ethiopian backing (similarity 0.81)
• N.F.D. Somalis sought autonomy from Kenya to unite with the Somali Republic (similarity 0.81)
• N.F.D. Somalis comprised 62 percent and nearly unanimously backed secession (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Britain’s 1954 surrender of the Haud to Ethiopia triggered Somali nationalist revolt #corroborates (0.50)
• Colonial Kenya restricted northern Somali movement almost as strictly as South African apartheid #expands (0.40) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 851