2006 Vangermeersch Award Winner

S. Sian
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY

PATTERNS OF PREJUDICE: SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND RACIAL DEMARCATION IN PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANCY IN KENYA

Abstract: Racial demarcation and social exclusion were common features in the organization of racially diverse colonial societies. British settlement in colonial Kenya and the import of immigrant workers resulted in the creation of a hierarchical society in which the Europeans enjoyed privileges to the exclusion of the immigrant Asians and the indigenous Africans. This study sets out to show how changes in the organization of this society and commonly held prejudices within it were reflected and even amplified in the organization of the accountancy profession. Drawing from archival and oral history data, the study traces the patterns of participation in accountancy of all three races. The paper covers the period from the turn of the 20th century, which marked the arrival of the first British accountants, to 1970, the advent of Kenyan professional accountancy examinations. The growth of commercial activity in the colony and new legislation to regulate it in the early 20th century resulted in a demand for providers of accountancy services and a preponderance of British accountants. The entry of Asian participants in the formal profession in Kenya, through membership of British accountancy bodies, is recorded after World War II. However, it was the achievement of political independence in 1963 and the ensuing societal transformations that signaled African participation. Such changing patterns of participation reflect the increasingly permeable boundaries to be found in wider Kenyan society after independence despite the continuing manifestation of racial prejudice.

Acknowledgments: I am grateful to Professor Stephen Walker, Professor Clare Roberts, and the two anonymous reviewers of this journal for their helpful comments in the development of this paper. The financial support provided by the ICAEW’s charitable trusts for this research is gratefully acknowledged, and gratitude is also due to the interviewees who so generously shared their stories.

INTRODUCTION

The accountancy literature suggests that “the concept of difference is an important part of the discourse of profession-alisation” [Kirkham and Loft, 1993, p. 508]. Exclusionary practices have been employed to differentiate the skilled from the unskilled and in other episodes to operationalize exclusion or marginalization, informally at least, on the basis of class, gender, or race. In many of these cases, such exclusionary practices originate from long-standing societal precepts. For instance, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as accountants began to transform from an occupational group into a profession, the position of women, at least in the middle and upper classes, in British society was such that they were not expected to be in paid employment, let alone participate in the activities of professional associations. Such social exclusion is the result of a com-bination of factors which include not only outright prejudice but also other factors such as a denial of access to the standards of education required for membership of elitist organizations.
In more recent years, accounting research has addressed issues at the interface of accounting, accountability, and the plight of indigenous peoples [Chew and Greer, 1997; Davie, 2000; Gibson, 2000; Greer and Patel, 2000; Neu, 2000]. In many of these studies, there is recognition of the deleterious consequences of colonialism for these groups, such as the social exclusion of urbanized indigenous peoples as their communities face “cultural breakdown, racism and serious human rights violations” [Gall-hofer and Chew, 2000, p. 260].

This study draws together these threads in the accounting literature – professions, exclusion, and the consequences of colonialism. It examines patterns of race-based exclusion, and conversely, participation of indigenous Africans and immigrant Asians from the accountancy profession in Kenya, an ex-British colony. It considers the application of social exclusion theory to this distinct case and presents new empirical evidence relating to the membership of professional accountancy associations in this country. Drawing on data collated from the membership records of accountancy bodies, archival records, and interviews with accountants working in the period under consideration,

1Interviews were conducted in Nairobi between 1999 and 2004. All inter-viewees were guaranteed anonymity and, therefore, names have been replaced by letters accompanied by a short description of the position and racial descent of the interviewee. For a comprehensive discussion of methods used to gather data and selection of interviewees, see Sian [2006a, p. 299]. Archival data was the study sets out to map shifting patterns of participation in the profession against a changing political, economic, and social backdrop. In doing so, it attempts to answer calls to “link ac-counting to the sufferings of indigenous peoples” [Gallhofer and Chew, 2000, p. 262].

Beginning with the colonial period, when race-based social exclusion was prevalent, the evidence presented will show how “scientific racism,” common at the turn of the last century, and its subsequent incarnations, shaped the prejudicial2 attitudes of the dominant white society towards non-whites throughout much of the 20th century. Colonial Kenya was a pluralistic society in which race lines constituted the deepest cleavage and divided the population into three main groups – European, Asian, and African.3 Here, British expatriates dominated the elite professions as societal structure and racist attitudes combined to keep accountancy “white.” It was not until after political independence was achieved in 1963, that the new government introduced anti-exclusionary social policies and new training initiatives aimed at creating opportunities for indigenous Africans. The data presented capture the consequences of the implementation of these policies in terms of corresponding changes in the participation rates of non-whites in the profession. The empirical evidence extends to 1970, when it first became possible for Africans to study for Kenyan professional accountancy examinations, and illustrates how political and social change in Kenya directly impacted upon patterns of participation in the profession.

STUDIES IN EXCLUSION AND MARGINALIZATION IN ACCOUNTANCY

A growing number of studies in the recent accounting literature have highlighted the marginalization and exclusion of cer-
sourced both in London and Nairobi (CO refers to documents held in the Colonial Office collection at the National Archive, London, and KNA refers to documents held at the Kenyan National Archive, Nairobi).

Prejudice “is commonly regarded as a feeling of dislike against a specific group” [Levinson, quoted in Outlaw, 2001, p. 73].
3Although the three racial groups are characterized on the basis of skin color, in fact all three were anything but homogeneous. The expatriate European group consisted mainly of European, South African, and British elements, the latter itself subject to the class divisions that existed in early 20th century Britain. The Asian group consisted of Arabs and Indians (who belonged to one of the predominant religious groups: Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs). Similarly, in the case of the indigenous Africans, internal divisions based on tribal allegiance existed. The two largest African tribal groups were the Luo and the Kikuyu.

tain sectors of society in different environments. Common bases for such exclusion include class, gender, and race, although colonized peoples and oppressed groups within dominant cultures can also fall within such categorization [Hammond, 2003]. Despite such variations, commonalities can be found, and prejudicial attitudes and exclusionary practices adopted by the dominant group against the excluded are replicated in the present study.

Many examples of exclusion from professional accountancy on the basis of class derive from late 19th and early 20th century Britain (Scotland, in particular) at a time when the country was distinctly a class-based society [Macdonald, 1984; Walker, 1986; Kedslie, 1990; Lee, 2000]. Exclusion from the profession and marginalization on the basis of gender4 has also been a common theme within the sociology and accounting literature. There is much evidence in the literature that accountancy was, and some argue remains, a male-dominated profession [Silverstone and Williams, 1979; Hopwood, 1987; Lehman, 1992; McKeen and Richardson, 1998; Emery et al., 2002]. Historically, it has been a profession that has been subject to vertical segregation [Coutts and Roberts, 1995] wherein the participation of women was restricted to the lower echelons of the occupational hierarchy, such as clerks or bookkeepers [Kirkham and Loft, 1993; Cooke, 1997; McKeen and Richardson, 1998; Cooper and Taylor, 2000] and other “routine accounting work without much power and responsibility” [Emery et al., 2002, p. 31]. In Britain, the passage of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Bill in 1919 was intended to rectify the discrimination faced by women, although in practice it had a limited impact [Cooke, 1997; Shackleton, 1999].

4Although most studies on women and accountancy have concentrated on the experiences of white, middle-class women, more recent studies set out to examine marginalization within the profession at the intersection of gender and race [Knapp and Kwon, 1991; Mynatt et al., 1997; Kyriacou, 2000; McNicholas et al., 2004].

5Despite permitting the entry of women to the Institute of Chartered Ac-countants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and the Society of Incorporated Ac-countants and Auditors (SIAA), the period from 1920 to 1940 continued to be one in which women who had achieved the required educational qualifications faced marginalization, barriers, discrimination, and outright hostility. For instance, while their ability and skills were not questioned, clients often objected to women auditors representing accounting firms [Lehman, 1992]. The Accountant even went as far as to suggest that aspiring women accountants should establish their own association or society. In America, the American Woman’s Society of Certified Public Accountants was formed in 1933 to advance the cause of women accountants.

The literature on race-based exclusion is more recent and is the principal focus of this study. Annisette [2003] identifies three 20th century trends that portend “the potential salience of race” in studies of the professions. The first is “massive immigration” which has altered the demographic balance in some developed countries (Britain, America, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada), and several authors have recently exposed the experiences of migrant ethnic minorities within the accounting profession in these countries [Mynatt et al., 1997; Kyriacou, 2000; Kim, 2004]. The second is granting full citizenship rights to previously excluded racial groups; e.g., the Maori in New Zealand [McNicholas et al., 2004], blacks in South Africa [Hammond et al., 2007], and African Americans [Hammond and Streeter, 1994; Hammond, 1997, 2002]. The experiences of these groups are particularly pertinent to the present study.

The third site for this phenomenon has been the 20th cen-tury transfer of professional accountancy to racially diverse ex-colonies [Annisette, 2003; Bakre, 2004; Sian, 2006a]. For instance, Annisette’s work on Trinidad and Tobago focuses attention on the role played by race in the professional project in this ex-British colony, describing the complex racial stratification of society. Accountancy, in this country, was a profession closely associated with “whiteness” and “Britishness.” The author documents the European domination of the profession to the exclusion of other races.

In all of the cases represented here, the bases for exclusion manifested in the profession mirrored the much wider exclusion and marginalization of certain groups within society. In some of these cases, attempts to increase participation through legislation were successful in permitting entry to previously excluded groups, although attempts to change widely held prejudicial attitudes were less so. Although the literature has shown that exclusion can be operationalized on the basis of class, gender, or race, it is the latter that serves as the focus of this paper. The concepts of race and social exclusion are investigated further in the next section, in particular their application in colonial society, as a precursor to the study of the accounting profession in Kenya.
6Hammond [1997] notes that while the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racial discrimination and encouraged the big accounting firms to recruit African Americans, they continued to suffer under-representation and marginalization within the profession.

RACE-BASED SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND ITS APPLICATION IN COLONIAL SOCIETY

Understanding Race and Social Exclusion: Historically, ration-alizations of race have been dominated by the observation of physical variations and attempts to explain human difference and behavior in terms of biological or inherited characteristics.7 Many such theories emerged within a European context and coincided with the rise of European colonization, capitalism, and dominance [Rex, 1982; Bonilla-Silva, 1996; Forster et al., 2000; James, 2001]. In its simplest form, race may be regarded as an organizing and explanatory concept [Outlaw, 2001] founded on the human penchant for classification on the basis of observable phenotypical traits, such as skin pigmentation. However, biologically based notions of race were challenged by advances in anthropology and genetics and have subsequently been repudiated as being subjective and based on misconceptions about groups that share genetic homogeneity [Blackburn, 2000; Outlaw, 2001].
More recent sociological analyses of race have treated the concept as an epiphenomena of other social factors such as ethnicity and class8 [Van den Berghe, 1970; Forster et al., 2000; Williams, 2000] and view race as a product of political conquest or a “social construct,” an organizing principle of society and social relationships [Omi and Winant, 1994; Bonilla-Silva, 1996; James, 2001]. Thus, Williams [2000, p. 215] defines race “not as a natural or biological attribute but as a socially and historically constructed concept by which members of society endow human skin colour variations, which have no intrinsic meaning, with meanings that reinforce a hierarchy of privilege and power in society.

7The political dangers of such biological reductionism have been much in evidence throughout the last century, as in the case of Nazi Germany and apartheid in South Africa. In some cases, such theories were justifications for certain actions and behavior; e.g., theoretical justifications for slavery only arose after it was already happening.

8Ethnic identity may be seen as being derived from “being born into a particular community, where an individual learns its religion and cultural values, customs and language” – a primordial bond [Geertz quoted in Forster et al., 2000, p. 21]. A discussion of the subtle differences between race and ethnicity can be found in Annisette [2003] and Forster et al. [2000, p. 20]. Class may be defined as “a system of stratification in which unequal allocation of resources and opportunity for social advancement is supported by cultural myths that naturalise inequality” [Williams, 2000, p. 215]. Although race and class are viewed as distinct concepts [Omi and Winant, 1994; Bonilla-Silva, 1996; Williams, 2000], there exist interpenetrations and thus possibilities for conflation of the two.

The concept of social exclusion, a more recent development9 in the wider sociology literature, involves non-participation, which can arise through discrimination on the basis of class, gender, age, race, ill-health, geographical location, or cultural identification [Hills et al., 2002]. Although a contested term, the simplest variant of social exclusion presents society as dichotomized into those who are a part of “mainstream society” and those who are not [Ratcliffe, 1999]. Viewed as a state of detachment [Walker, 1995, p. 103], social exclusion is a multi-dimensional concept that involves polarization, a lack of integration, and multi-faceted discrimination.10 A more dynamic approach extends the concept beyond economic and social inequality and, in the sociology literature, incorporates issues of the denial or non-realization of political rights and citizenship [Gore, 1995; Walker, 1997].
Participation is widely regarded as a central tenet of social exclusion, although participation rates of a particular group may vary with time, illustrating the dynamic nature of social exclusion [Burchardt et al., 2002]. It may be argued that individuals or groups are socially excluded if they are resident in a society but, for reasons beyond their control, cannot participate in the normal activities of citizens in that society even if they actually wish to do so [Hills et al., 2002].

The concept of social exclusion is “inherently dynamic” in that it occurs at a time in history and is about the development of social structures through which individuals and collectives

9Contemporary use of the term “social exclusion” arose originally in France in the 1970s and referred to extremely marginalized groups, “les exclus” (e.g., refugees, lone parents, the unemployed, the disabled), who fell beyond the scope of the welfare net and had restricted citizenship rights [Hills et al., 2002].
10Here, socially excluded groups are referred to as the “underclass,” a term credited to the sociologist Charles Murray (author of “The Emerging British Underclass” [1990], Institute of Economic Affairs, London). The ghettoization of African Americans and socio-spatial segregation observed in some American cities results in the “detachment” of these groups who do not share the same culture or values [Lee and Murie, 1999]. However, equating social exclusion with poverty has been discredited as here the poor are effectively blamed for their behavior as a result of perceived personality traits and moral values. In many cases as economic inequality between social groups disappears, so too does social exclusion, unless there are distinctive practices or a way of life that maintains social barriers; i.e., voluntary social exclusion [Hills et al., 2002]. An extension of this interpretation of social exclusion is the idea of voluntary exclusion, the defense of a unique culture and a refusal to integrate. In their study of Aboriginal Australians, Greer and Patel [2000, p. 315] note that “a majority of indigenous peoples either refuse assimilation into ‘whitefella’ ways or simply cannot adapt demands associated with ‘whitefella’ notions of work.

are excluded [Byrne, 1999]. An extension of this might suggest that “exclusion is the outcome of the system” where opportunities for certain social groups are constrained by civil and economic institutions. Here, responsibility for social exclusion rests firmly with the elite [Hills et al., 2002] and the focus is on structural pressures. This is particularly relevant in societies where a systemic racism is inherent either within the apparatus of the state and the structures of society or institutional racism [Siva-nandan, 1976]. Although much of the social exclusion literature is focused upon internal exclusion11 within post-industrial societies, when treated as an analytical concept, there are parallels to be drawn with the internal exclusion prevalent in the racially diverse societies of colonial East Africa.

The Origins of Race-Based Social Exclusion in Colonial Societies: In his theorization, Osterhammel [1997, p. 15] suggests that the notion of colonialism13 embodies three key elements. First, it is not just a relationship of domination and subjugation, but rather a relationship in which “an entire society is robbed of its historical line of development, externally manipulated and transformed according to the needs of the colonial rulers.” Second, there are issues of cultural dissimilarity and enforced separation, resulting in the existence of race-based hierarchies. Third, the form of the relationship is open to interpretation; thus, a common legitimization of early colonial rule was the “moral” argument or its justification as a civilizing mission. In the history of European colonization, the latter has also been termed “bearing the white man’s burden”; i.e. it is the moral duty of the “superior” race to protect the native populations from the tyranny of forced slavery and provide spiritual guid-

11External exclusion refers to “keeping other people out of a particular nation or block (Fortress Europe)” [Byrne, 1999, p. 11].
12Although indigenous African Kenyans suffered social exclusion in the colo-nial period, in the immediate post-colonial period, the focus was very much on “national integration and commercial (capitalist) penetration.” In more recent years, there have also been references in the literature to African states as “an underclass of States in the global economic and political system” and to the continent as a “globally excluded underworld” [Gore, 1995, p. 104].

13Colonialism has been defined as “a relationship of domination between an indigenous (or forcibly imported) majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The colonized are ruled by laws made and implemented by the colonial rulers in the pursuit of interests often defined in a distant metropolis. Rejecting cultural compromises with the colonized population, the colonizers are convinced of their own superiority and of their ordained mandate to rule” [Osterhammel, 1997, p. 16].

ance [Hodgkin, 1972; Osterhammel, 1997].

The concept of difference and the idea that non-Europeans were alien and irredeemably different was a key cornerstone of colonialist thinking [Rex, 1982].14 The “evidence” for such difference was sourced from a variety of disciplines: theology, as most of the colonized non-Europeans were initially at least not Christians; technologically, the Europeans considered themselves to be more advanced; environmentally, those resident in tropical regions were considered to have a climate that “weakened their bodily constitutions”; and biologically, non-European were considered to be mentally and physically inferior [Oster-hammel, 1997]. These differences were generally accepted by Europeans and Americans of nearly all political persuasion up until at least World War I.

From a Eurocentric view, the attitude of superiority over non-white peoples made it difficult to contemplate close re-lationships with them, to comprehend their “alien culture” or to accept them into the “mainstream.” Even after the abolition of slavery, racist thought persisted in less blatant but “scientifically legitimated forms” [Osterhammel, 1997, p. 86]. Although the “Age of Imperialism” was in decline by 1914 and the critique of biological reductionism and scientific racism was well established by the 1930s, in racially diverse colonies such events barely registered and colonial attitudes to race continued to flourish even after independence, albeit in different forms.

This theorization of race-based social exclusion and its ap-plication to the colonial context inform the remainder of this study. The next section looks at the specific context for this study and highlights the dynamic, multi-dimensional nature of social exclusion. It shows how British policy in East Africa resulted in the creation of a society characterized by racial demarcation [Rex, 1982] where the white settler community, the indigenous African community, and the immigrant Asian community were subject to spatial and social distancing.15 Such social exclusion was reinforced by a colonial state that sought to perpetuate racial, economic, political, and cultural pluralism by promulgating laws that forbade non-whites from buying land in certain areas,
14By the 1920s, biological determinism had fallen from grace among scholars. Instead, the period witnessed the rise of “orientalism” based on character generalizations where natives were said to be “lazy, shiftless, cruel…incapable of abstract thought, etc.” [Osterhammel, 1997, p. 109].

applying for certain jobs, and even entering certain buildings.16 Social stratification in Kenya, like other plural societies which were the product of colonialism, gave rise to a hierarchy in which European hegemony was founded upon an amalgam of racial prejudice and paternalism.

CONSTRUCTION OF A RACIALLY SEGREGATED SOCIETY: THE SOCIALLY EXCLUED GROUPS

Although British involvement in Kenya can be traced to 1823, sovereignty over territories in East Africa was not declared until 1894, following the international conference held in Berlin in that year formalizing the partition of Africa [Oliver and Fage, 1995; Marshall, 1996].” Legislation passed by the British Parliament authorized the issue of “Orders in Council” to establish structures to administer the newly acquired territories18 and initiate a deliberate imperialist policy of European settlement to “found a white colony” [Hazlewood, 1979]. The settlers exercised absolute political and economic power at the pinnacle of a clearly denned social hierarchy. The colonial “system was socially racist” [Ogot and Ochieng, 1995], driven by the theories that were popular at the time19 and commonly held racist views

16″In some territories, Africans and Europeans used the same shops, but in others there were different entrances and Europeans would be served first. This was part of a wider form of etiquette that operated when colonial masters did interact with their subjects” [Forster et al., 2000, p. 24].

17Negotiations, led by Lord Salisbury, with the Germans to establish clearly the area of British influence resulted in the Heligoland Treaty of 1890. In the same year, the British Parliament passed the Foreign Jurisdictions Act, declaring sovereignty over Eastern and Central Africa. Two states were created in the area, the Protectorate of Uganda in 1894 and the British East Africa Protectorate in 1895,which later became the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya in 1920 [Odhi-ambo and Wanyande, 1989]. In 1905, the administration of the Protectorate was transferred from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office and a Commander-in-Chief and Executive and Legislative Councils had been established by 1906 [RCS, Colonial Report 1962, held at Cambridge University Library, U.K.].
18About one hundred European settlers had settled in and around Nairobi by 1903 [CO544/52].

19Referring to an extract from the British Medical Journal (September 1936) on the examination of brain specimens from East African natives, by Gordon and Vint in Nairobi, the following quote gives some indication of the influences on the colonial attitude to the African Kenyans: “They came to the conclusion that the brain structure showed some differences from Europeans and also made remarks that the size of the brain being less than in Europeans, showed together with differences in structure, the essential inferiority of the African” (CO822/72/7: East African Native – Brain Structure and Capacity; memorandum by V. Flood, dated 1936, held at the National Archive, U.K.).

that pervaded official documentation.

In addition to British settlement, there were also immigrant Asians, mainly Indians, and Arabs in the colony [Ghai and Ghai, 1965; Leys, 1975; Ogot and Ochieng, 1995], mainly the remaining descendents of Indians who had been brought to the colony as laborers for the construction of the Uganda railway and other skilled immigrants [Van den Berghe, 1970].21 Ghai and Ghai [1965] argue that the Asians tended to acquiesce in the racist hierarchical system for the most part for a number of reasons. First, they were a conservative group and preferred to be left undisturbed to pursue their traditional ways. Second, denning acceptable occupations and activity on a racial basis meant that Asians were to some extent protected from African competition. Finally, although Asians might not accede to public office, they were able to generate wealth and personal fortune through commerce and in private professional practice.
The lower echelons of the social hierarchy comprised the indigenous Africans. Social exclusion and inequality in colonial Kenya meant that they had far fewer opportunities to achieve the standards of living and education afforded to the ruling Europeans and the more affluent immigrant Asians [Leys, 1975]. Although the majority of African Kenyans were either subsistence farmers or employed as laborers on the European estates, from the 1920s, small numbers of African Kenyans

20The language used by ruling officials, commonplace at the time, provides some indication of the colonialist view of indigenous peoples and, therefore, their treatment of them: “Suggest that settlement in Kenya in the future is based on industries which are independent of the native labour supply wheat-growing, dairying and mixed farming. They are industries natural to true white colonisation and if they are properly encouraged will exorcise forever the dangers which arise when a superior race finds itself, from an economic standpoint, completely in the hands of a backward and childish race, because it is dependent on the labour of that race for the success of all its ventures” [CO822/4/19: imperial policy in East Africa, memorandum from Sir Edward Grigg, governor of Kenya Colony, 1927].

21The role of the Asians in the economic development of Kenya has historically been important, and it is argued that without their participation it is unlikely that Kenya would have developed economically in the way that it did. As traders, they extended the monetary economy into rural areas, introducing the African subsistence farmers to consumer goods and, until the 1960s, acted as primary outlets for the produce of indigenous Africans. Although no formal data are available, it is estimated that by the early 1960s, Asians were also making a significant contribution in professions such as medicine, law, engineering, pharmacy, accountancy, and business management in general. They also made a large contribution to skilled manual personnel such as mechanics, electricians, carpenters, salesmen, and supervisors [Ghai and Ghai, 1965].

were attracted to the towns to “enjoy modern amenities and acquire money” [Ogot and Ochieng, 1995, p. xvi]. It is this group that eventually emerged as the African “petty-bourgeois” class [Swainson, 1980]. Education for Africans had been limited to the “bush schools” run by missionaries, but by 1924, the British Administration passed the Education Ordinance which set out to encourage an agriculture-based education for rural Africans and, later, trade and technical schools.22 The majority of Africans found employment as domestic servants, nurses, skilled workers, interpreters, and eventually, as education levels rose, as teachers and clerical workers (some Africans were selected for higher education from the 1940s). Even when educational standards were attained, it was often the case that other operative barriers prevented the progression of Africans,23 and although some were able to train for professions, such as teaching, they were still not on a par with white colleagues.

During the colonial period, Kenya was a country that op-erated a system of racial partition which was reinforced by economic, social, and political segregation [Ghai and Ghai, 1965; Rothchild, 1969; Mutungi, 1974]. Such social exclusion and racial discrimination was facilitated in a number of ways through state-sponsored legislation, including the imposition of a race-based salary structure and restrictions on the access to employment for non-whites in both the public and private

22Other sources of education and training for Africans included low-level training in government departments (such as the railways and harbors) and the Native Industrial Training Depot. The latter produced the following trainees in its first ten years 1927-1937: carpenters, 654; masons/bricklayers, 487; smiths, 80; painters/sign writers, 43; tailors, 22. A direct result of this Ordinance was the establishment of the Jeanes School (Nairobi) in 1925, which ran skills-based courses in agriculture, masonry, and tailoring among others [Odhiambo and Wanyande, 1989, p. 64].

23For instance, until 1961, the British administration operated a policy of preventing Africans from undertaking a legal education, citing the argument that Africans only wished to study law “as a preparation for careers in politics” [Odenyo, 1981, p. 183].

24Oginga Odinga was a key leader of the nationalist movement in the 1940s and 1950s, he was also vice president of KANU (the Kenya Africa National Union) between 1963-1966. In his autobiography, Odinga [1967, p. 50] comments on the requirement for hiring him, as an African teacher, always to inform “the White supervising teacher, who had the final say in the arrangements.” He goes on to quote a conversation with a senior colleague, employed between 1946 and 1947, to illustrate the commonly held racist perspective of many expatriates at the time, “look here Oginga, you are very intelligent, but you must understand that your brain is no better than the brain of my six year old son because you Africans have not developed anything” [Odinga, 1967, p. 58].

sectors; spatial segregation of the three racial communities and the quality and extent of services provided in terms of housing, schooling, and healthcare; the institution of race-based political representation; restrictions on land ownership and the development of African reserves; and, more informally, through race-based social distancing [Ghai and Ghai, 1965]. Such policies were implemented in order to preserve the position of privilege at the peak of the “colonial economic, political and social pyramid” [Ogot and Ochieng, 1995, p. xv] enjoyed by the colonizing Europeans.

In this polarized colonial society, indigenous Africans were detached from the mainstream, and race-based social exclusion was promulgated through state apparatuses and societal structures. There were few opportunities for the African underclass to participate in education and commerce or to amass capital. While it was acceptable for Africans to hold menial positions, opportunities for more highly paid professional work were on the whole, “monopolised by expatriates and guarded jealously by the metropolitan professional associations” [Johnson, 1973, p. 288]. The remainder of the paper focuses on such professional work and, in particular, the prejudicial attitudes of the expatriates that perpetuated the exclusion of non-whites from accountancy. The next section examines how the growth of commerce in the colony precipitated the arrival of British accountants.

CREATION OF A MARKET FOR ACCOUNTANCY SERVICES

Several large British merchant houses operated in East Africa in the early 20th century. Companies such as Smith Mackenzie, Mitchell Cotts, and the British East Africa Company facilitated the exchange of goods between the metropolis and the colony. The latter provided a captive market for goods manufactured in Britain.25 Prior to 1939, estate capital was prevalent in Kenya, and the white settler farmers and estate owners were the dominant political force by the early 1920s despite constituting less than 1% of the population [Swainson, 1980, p. 6]. The settler farmers wielded power politically through participation in
25Mitchell Cotts, a British firm with a base in South Africa, shipped exported and imported supplies from Mombassa. By the late 1920s, it was the sole supplier of coal to the colony and had a large share of the wheat and coffee trade, which had just taken off in the years preceding World War I. The British East Africa Company, incorporated in 1906, had been closely involved with the Cotton Growing Association and facilitated the export of cotton to Britain. It later became involved in agricultural operations and distribution of various imported goods throughout the colony [Swainson, 1980].

the Legislative Council and local councils [Ogot and Ochieng, 1995] and economically as capital was concentrated in the hands of the settlers and estate owners.

Companies legislation became necessary in early 20th century Kenya as a result of increased activity by commercial enterprises in the colony. Many of the early regulations relating to accountancy in Kenya were drawn from similar acts already in operation in other colonies. The Companies Bill, 1918, consolidated the requirements of previous applicable legislation relating to companies operating in the colony.27 Enacted as an ordinance in 1921, the legislation set out to regulate companies operating in the colony through requirements for accounts and audit. It required that every company incorporated outside the colony that had a place of business in Kenya and every company established within the colony prepare and file an annual balance sheet with the public authorities.28
At the time, since “the position as to the recognition of auditors in Kenya [was] rather anomalous” [CO533/378/3],29 the

26This concentration of capital was reinforced in a number of different ways. First, the operations of British banks in the colony facilitated trading activities and provided capital for many settler ventures. Second, the establishment of marketing organizations, such as the Kenya Farmers’ Association, ensured that settlers maintained their monopoly over distribution within Kenya. Third, the imposition of tariffs in the colony protected the settler agricultural monopoly. Finally, settler involvement in new company formations not only accumulated capital but also facilitated even greater exercise of influence over the colony. For instance, Lord Delamere, a prominent early settler, owned large shareholdings in three important early companies – Unga, Ltd., a grain mill; Nyama, Ltd., a cattle ranch; and The Times of East Africa which gave voice to the settlers on political issues [Swainson, 1980].

27These provisions had drawn mainly from the Indian Act of 1882 and the Indian Act of 1913, which itself was founded upon the Imperial Companies (Consolidations) Act, 1908. The provisions of the Companies Act 1913 (relating to private companies), the Companies (Foreign Interests) Act 1917, and the Companies (Particulars to Directors) Act 1917 were all included within the 1918 BiU. [KNA/AE/20/2, file dated 1919].

28This requirement was objectionable to British firms that had outposts in the colony as illustrated by this comment made by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce in correspondence: “the East Africa business of practically all the firms concerned only represent a portion of the trading interests of such firms, and therefore they consider that it would be unreasonable for the authorities to insist upon the production of a balance sheet showing as it would full details of the firms total trading interests” [KNA/AE/20/6, dated 31/7/22]. Amendments to the act were suggested in the form of an “auditors extract” showing the firm’s East African finances.

29CO533/378/3: Letter and documentation to the Colonial Office from the Ke-nya Office concerning the status of auditors in Kenya, dated 21 May 1928, held at the National Archives, U.K.

ordinance provided guidance on the status of auditors. It stated that “no person was to be appointed as an auditor unless he held the Governor’s Certificate or was a member of a society recognised by the Governor.” As such, the Governor was empowered to make “rules,” as advised by the ICAEW, for the granting of certificates and for the recognition of accounting societies [Extract from the Companies Ordinance, 1921]:

144. (1) No person shall be appointed as an auditor of any company other than a private company unless he holds a certificate from the Governor entitling him to act as an auditor of companies. Provided that the Governor in Council may, by notification in the ‘Gazette’declare that the members of any institution or association specified in such notification shall be entitled to be appointed and to act as auditors of companies throughout the colony.

144. (2) The governor in Council shall, by notification in the ‘Gazette’ make rules providing for the grant of certificates entitling the holders thereof to act as audi-tors of companies.

Thus, the earliest recognized accountants in the colony were British expatriates with British qualifications. The Chartered and the Incorporated Accountants were recognized as being suitable to conduct audits, although the correspondence reveals the perceived status of some of the other accounting bodies: “the Glasgow Corporation of Accountants are said to be ‘definitely third rate’ … various societies were recognized including the London Association (who according to Mr. Caine have a rather dubious reputation) but not including the Glasgow Corporation” [CO533/378/3, dated 1928].

However, the qualifications of auditors were not at this time defined in legislation, and the view was held that “the appointment of an auditor for a company is a matter for the shareholders” [CO533/378/3]. This presented problems for qualified accountants competing for business with unqualified accountants as noted in the correspondence: “the practice has proved detrimental to professional men who are bound by the etiquette of the home and other societies to which they belong … are authorized to practice under Rules in the absence of a governing body” whereas those not bound by such etiquette “have recourse to extensive methods of advertising themselves in ways which professional men cannot properly adopt” [CO533/378/3]. At the time, it was concluded that it “is not the general practice for colonies to lay down special qualifications” for persons conducting the audits of companies” [CO533/378/3]. It was left to the local administration to exercise discretion in the award of certificates. No such “rules” existed for the regulation of providers of accountancy services at this time.

A new Companies Ordinance was issued in Kenya in 1933, based on the Tanganyika Ordinance, 1931, itself based on the U.K. 1929 Act. This ordinance was passed as the result of the increasing commercial activity in the colony, as the correspond-ence shows [CO533/431/3: Colonial file, note dated January 27, 1933, held at the National Archive, U.K.]:

Confidential: I am seriously concerned at the rumours of company-promoting activities in Kenya in connec-tion with gold-mining. It is clearly important that ad-equate powers should exist to deal with e.g. fraudulent prospectuses. Would it not be possible to enact as a matter of urgency legislation based closely on the Companies Ordinance 1931 of Tanganyika.

The passage of the ordinance brought Kenyan companies leg-islation closely into line with British law at the time. The ordi-nance required that, “Every company shall at each annual gen-eral meeting appoint an auditor or auditors to hold office until the next annual general meeting” [Section 132 (1)], although no specific guidance was given as to the qualifications of such auditors. A combination of the needs of the colonial administration, the growth in commerce, and related legislation created a demand for auditors and accountants, which was satisfied by the arrival of British accountants.

PATTERNS OF PREJUDICE IN PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANCY IN COLONIAL KENYA

The Arrival of British Accountants in the Colonial Period: In common with other ex-colonies, the majority of early accountants working in colonial Kenya were expatriates with British qualifications and membership in one of the British accounting bodies [Johnson and Caygill, 1971; Johnson, 1973]. They provided accounting services to individuals, farmers, companies, and the colonial administration. However, the following correspondence, dated June 8, 1928, indicates that in the early days, there were inadequate numbers of suitably qualified accountants to undertake the necessary work and that the class divisions operative in Britain at the time were also servicing colonial society in Kenya [CO533/378/18: correspondence from H.D. Fisher to W.H. Smith in the Colonial Office, dated June 8, 1928, held at the National Archive, U.K.].

We are in the position here of having to defend the practice of promoting to ‘senior posts’ in the local audit department in Kenya members of the Colonial Audit Department of less than eight years service. The correspondence is confidential, and behind it all, I suppose, is the question whether a training in commercial accountancy is a necessary qualification for senior posts in our audit offices. Of course our auditors have to be trained in Government or appropriation audit and the principles which they have to apply are not drawn from the text books of commercial accountancy, but from the proved regulations which we inherit from the Exchequer and Audit Departments. If we can secure public school men or men who have passed known examinations in subjects required for a public school education we have a guarantee (isolated exceptions there might be) as to their fitness for supervising work in the audit office in Kenya in much less than eight years.

Walker [1986, pp. 59-60] presents evidence that helps to provide an alternative explanation for the “export” of British accountants to the colonies, noting that the increasing number of Scottish CAs between 1904 and 1908 resulted in an “oversupply” of accountants and their emigration to England or the Colonies if they were unable to find work in Edinburgh or Glasgow. Thus, these individuals “were forced out by overcrowding rather than pulled in by the attractions of alternative locations.” In particular, emigration was advocated for those who had few connections, had not passed examinations, or had little or no capital and were therefore seen as the “inferior alternative.”30 Presumably, the high incomes offered and the “high social status in the strict social hierarchy of empire nations” were also obvious attractions. Thus, there is the possibility that some of these Scottish accountants migrated to colonial Kenya.

There is also evidence that work was in abundant supply for accountants in colonial Kenya. For instance, there were suggestions in early 1950 that the Association of Accountants in East

30Walker suggests that many emigrant CAs were effectively excluded from the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh’s (SAE) affairs, for instance, by not being updated on professional developments and not being allowed to take on SAE-registered apprentices, although this attitude later changed as the SAE became more motivated by “its own colonization pretensions.”

Africa (AAEA)31 arrange for the provision of an employment service. In response to the suggestion, its minutes record that “the demand for unemployed accountants is so great that there is no necessity for such a service” [AAEA Minutes, 27/1/50, p. 1]

Race-Based Analysis of Participation Rates in Accountancy in Colonial Kenya: The requirements of the Companies Ordinances, 1921 and 1933, and the passage of the Accountants (Designations) Ordinance, 195032 [Cap. 524] resulted in British accountants with British qualifications primarily providing accountancy services in the colony. Evidence is presented (Figure 1) analyzing the race-based participation rates in the profession in Kenya dating from 1914, the first recorded arrival of British accountants, to 1963, the date of independence. The data have been collated from the members’ registers and directories of the British professional accountancy bodies cited in colonial legislation in Kenya. The total number of expatriate accountants with British qualifications reached a peak of 298 prior to 1963. Given their second-class status in the social hierarchy, some Asians were able to attain the standards of education required to gain access to professional accountancy as reflected in their much earlier participation, compared with indigenous Africans, in the profession from the early 1950s.

Figure 1 shows that members of the ICAEW formed the largest contingent of British accountants in colonial Kenya. Although Earnest Beasely Gill was the first known English CA to establish a practice in Kenya, arriving in Nairobi in 1907, the first documented expatriate ICAEW members are not listed there until 1914.33 By the early 1920s, the expatriate ICAEW

31The AAEA was a professional body formed by the mainly expatriate British accountants in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. It sponsored legislation such as the Accountants Designations Act, 1950, and closed off the market for the provision of accountancy services to non-members and, initially at least, non-whites (Sian, 2006b).

32The Accountants Designations Ordinance, 1950, set out to define appropriate designations and restrict their use to those individuals belonging to the stated professional bodies. These were: the SAE; the Institute of Accountants and Actuaries in Glasgow (IAAG); the Society of Accountants in Aberdeen (SAA); the
ICAEW; the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland; the SIAA; the As-sociation of Certified and Corporate Accountants (ACCA); the Societies of Char-tered Accountants in South Africa; and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in India (ICAI).

33These members were O.S. Crawford, F.S. Dunn, E.B Gill, P.H. Johnson, and P. Wheelcock. They formed the first two accounting practices in Nairobi (Cole, Dickin, Hills & Dunn and Gill, Wheelcock & Johnson).

members had also formed firms in other towns; thus, ICAEW firms appeared in Mombassa and Nakuru in 1923, in Eldoret in 1928, and in Kisumu and Kitale in 1940.
Throughout the colonial period, the numbers of expatriate ICAEW members grew steadily in Kenya. The ICAEW required trainees to pass its examinations and to serve as articled clerks for five years (three years for graduates) with a member of the Institute and required articles to be undertaken by trainee accountants with accounting firms in Britain. Bodies such as the SIAA did not have the same stringent rules, and their trainees were required to serve either as articled clerks with an incor-porated accountant or have completed six years (three years if graduates) of approved professional service as accountancy clerks in the office of a public accountant [RCS, Careers in Kenya, 1957]. There is evidence that indicates that the SIAA established an examination center in Nairobi as early as 1930 so that expatriate trainees could take examinations locally [Johnson and Caygill, 1971] as part of their strategy of expansion through a “British Empire policy” [Parker, 1989].

Although indigenous Africans remained excluded, the very first Asian ICAEW member was listed in 1957 as T.N. Patel of the firm Patel, Mehta & Co., listed in both Nairobi and Mombas-sa that year. By 1960, the number of Asian ICAEW members had increased to five.34 In other countries where racial divides have prevented non-whites from entering and progressing within the profession, such as the case of African Americans [Hammond, 2002], the excluded have often resorted to opening their own practices, serving the needs of own-race clients. Similarly, Asians were not always successful in gaining employment with expatriate firms and many established their own practices, initially providing accounting services mainly to Asian businesses.

In addition to race-based exclusion, colonial society was also subject to gender-based exclusion, possibly a reflection of conditions within the profession in Britain at the time. Although the evidence presented indicates that accountancy services in Kenya were provided mainly by expatriate British males, the ICAEW directories show that the first female ICAEW member, albeit not in practice, is Miss P.M. McCombie, listed in Nairobi in 1955. The first female member in practice is listed in 1967 as Mrs. D. White with the firm Field & White in Nairobi.

The large ICAEW firms appeared in Kenya for the first time after World War II. Thus, Cooper Brothers, Leslie, Seex and Co. established offices in both Nairobi and Mombassa in 1949; De-loitte, Plender, Gill & Johnson and Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. both opened offices in Nairobi in 1950; and Whinney, Murray, Ernst & Ernst appeared in Nairobi in 1963. The growth in the number of firms establishing offices in Kenya is indicative of the growing needs for staff, although in most cases such needs were satisfied by recruiting more accountants from Britain.

34The first Asian Kenyan ICAEW members in Nairobi were S.S. Chatrath (with the firm Chatrath [Shyam S.] & Co.); A.R. Kassim (with the firm Kassim [Ameer R.] & Co.); Mehta, I.K. (sole practitioner); T.N. Patel (with the firm Patel [Mehta] & Co.); and I.B. Patel (not in practice) [1960 ICAEW Register].

“The most important source of demand for professional services in Britain’s empire from the last decades of the nineteenth century was the colonial administration” [Johnson, 1973, p. 287]. Many of the accountants employed by the colonial administration were Institute of Municipal Treasurers and Accountants (IMTA) members whose presence in Kenya can be dated back to 1947.35 British IMTA members were employed in various positions at the national level as local government inspectors or financial officers in the Revenue Service or the Treasury. They were also employed at the county council level in the county treasurers department, at various levels, or as financial officers. In city or town government, IMTA members held positions at various levels with local treasury departments.36 Although Africans remained totally excluded from membership in the IMTA during the colonial period, the first three Asian IMTA members in Kenya are listed in 1962. Thus, one Asian IMTA member was employed as the assistant town treasurer in Mombassa, another was employed in the Nairobi City Treasurer’s Department, and the third was employed in the Ministry of Local Government and Lands.

Some British professional bodies, such as the ACCA, actively sought expansion in order to exert greater influence at home by exporting their qualifications to countries such as Kenya [Johnson and Caygill, 1971; Johnson, 1973; Briston and Kedslie, 1997, p. 177]. The first five ACCA members listed in Kenya appeared in the year 1939-1940, all expatriates. The ACCA did not have the same stringent training contract requirements as the ICAEW, but both the training and the ACCA examinations could be taken in Kenya, facilitating education via correspondence courses. This meant that entry to the ACCA was easier for the non-expatriate Kenyans and happened much earlier than it did for the ICAEW. The first Asian ACCA member, Manohar Lall, is listed in the 1949 year book, as a sole practitioner. As Figure 1 shows, the participation of Asians significantly increased in the colonial period between 1947 and 1963, a period of general increase in the total numbers of professionally qualified accountants to serve the growing demands of commerce in the post-war economy.

The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants (ICWA) had the smallest representation in colonial Kenya. The first expa-triate ICWA member was listed in the 1931 directory.37 In the post-World War II period, many ICWA members were listed in South Africa, where members were expatriate British and white South Africans, and in India, where many Indians had become members. Despite the large numbers of Indian ICWA members listed in India pre-1963, no Asian members were listed in Kenya. It may be speculated that this was because companies large enough to warrant the employment of a cost accountant were mostly British, more likely to sponsor British trainees than Asians.

The ICAS directories record two members in Kenya in 1925 and 1926,38 but no others until 1951. A possible explanation is that when three Scottish organizations (the SAE, the IAAG, and the SAA) merged in 1951 to form ICAS, previous records were misplaced. Given Walker’s [1986] theory on “oversupply,” one might have expected to see more ICAS members in Kenya colony in the early part of the century. Therefore, it is unexpected that no members are listed in Kenya between 1927 and 1951, the year in which 28 ICAS members are registered in Kenya.39 The ICAS categorically confirms that although it has directories dating back to 1896, with the exception of the war years, no records can be found indicating the presence of ICAS members in Kenya between 1927 and 1951. Although the ICAS has no Asians listed as members, it is able to lay claim to the first African to qualify as a CA in the central and east African region. The late John Mwangi was admitted to membership on September 18, 1959, having served a five-year apprenticeship with Reid and Mair in Glasgow.

In addition to the British professional bodies, some mem-bers of the Indian profession were also practicing in Kenya. The

37I.W. Prestoe was the first ICWA member in Kenya and was employed as the works accountant at the Magadi Soda Company, Ltd., which was a subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Industries, ICI. The first female ICWA member in Kenya, listed in the 1953 year book, was Iris Monica Devoil, employed by East African Railways and Harbours and originally admitted to membership in 1945.

38In the 1925-1926 directory, Grant Hay is registered in Eldoret, working for A.C. Hoey, and Douglas Keith is registered in Mombassa, working for Gill and Johnson.

directories of the ICAI show that, in 1956, eight members were listed in Kenya, four in Uganda, and two in Tanganyika [ICAI Year Book, 1956]. After this date, however, overseas members were no longer listed in the Indian register.

TOWARDS POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE: DECONSTRUCTION OF A SEGREGATED SOCIETY AND INCREASING PARTICIPATION

Participation of Non-Whites in Accountancy: There is evidence that increasing numbers of accountants were employed in the colony after World War II to meet the demands of an expand-ing economy.40 By the 1950s, some of these were new Asian immigrants who had already been educated in India while others were Asian Kenyans who, as a result of their higher social standing and wealth, were able to access education more readily than their African counterparts. At this time, the social divisions in colonial society were becoming a little less pronounced, and there were more opportunities for education for indigenous peoples. There is also evidence that some firms were beginning to employ Africans too, although not at the professional level [L: senior member in practice, member of first ICPAK Council – expatriate]:

Well, prior to Independence we were almost totally staff-side, European and Goan. And a large influx of Goans here in the capital. And a smattering of Asians I suppose, but we were just beginning to employ one or two Africans within the office.
[M: senior member in practice – expatriate]:

I know we had, when I first joined in pre-1951, we had one African who was sort of, he wasn’t really on the professional staff, but he was a filing clerk and a general factotum and he could be used for all sorts of things, like ruling red lines on Balance Sheets and stuff like that, you know. But that was it – he was the only one that I can remember.

40Kenya experienced a postwar boom in both agricultural and industrial pro-duction as GNP rose from £53 million in 1947 to £103 million in 1951. By 1954, GNP attributed to manufacturing had superseded that attributed to European agriculture in the colony. The economy was further boosted by an increase in official grants to the colony and the inflow of new private capital, much of which was directed towards industries that yielded larger and quicker returns than agriculture [adapted from Swainson, 1980, p. 110].

In part, this change was the result of new training initia-tives in both the public and private sectors. In the private sector, the AAEA ran bookkeeping courses for those Africans who had achieved suitable educational standards [Sian, 2006b; B: early chairman of ICPAK – African]:

There was the Association of Accountants in East Africa that used to actually run some training and examination schemes to prepare junior and middle-level assistants, mainly Africans, to become good bookkeepers. You got a certificate but it had no professional standing, but the Association could issue other certificates that would show you had gone through some kind of accounting and bookkeeping training. But it did not go beyond that.

“In most of the third world towards the end of the colonial period, access of the local population to professions on equal terms with their colonial rulers was an important issue” [Sil-cock, 1977, p. 21]. In Kenya, having seen the status accorded to the expatriate qualified accountants and their earning capacity, suitably educated Africans also aspired to becoming qualified accountants [J: ACCA-trained senior member of profession in practice, past chairman – African].:
I chose to become an accountant because of my (expatriate) deputy headmaster at school. Since, his son only had o’levels I thought that I too could go on to study accountancy. At that time this was not a career considered to be suitable for a black African. If I am honest I’d say that one of the things that attracted me to accountancy was the fact that all accountants I knew of were wealthy and well off.

Although only one professionally qualified African ac-countant is listed in the membership records of the British professional accountancy bodies prior to independence, there is evidence that by the early 1960s, some Africans were attempting to study for accountancy examinations either on their own or through correspondence courses. Those who were able paid for their own accounting education on realizing the potential economic benefits, often taking other jobs to help to pay for courses and books [J: ACCA-trained senior member of profession in practice, past chairman – African]:

There were no specific barriers in Kenya to stop you going beyond level one ACCA, but there were just not the opportunities. Where would you study? There were no books. Where would you go to learn? There were no revision classes. You had to do it all on your own. There was no formal training and it was by correspondence… even the University of Nairobi did not run such courses.

[J: ACCA-trained senior member of profession in practice, past chairman – African]:
In Kenya we basically had apartheid, and blacks were not supposed to aspire to careers and professions, par-ticularly things like Chartered Accountancy. They were happy for us to study for diplomas of various sorts, Chamber of Commerce Examinations, or you could study for ACCA exams up to level one and then go on to work, or treasury exams and then work after level one.

While Asians were able to enter accountancy much earlier than African Kenyans, reflecting their position in society, they too experienced discrimination and barriers. The earliest Asians to qualify as accountants (with the ACCA and the ICAEW) found it almost impossible to obtain employment with the expatriate firms, and most eventually began to establish their own practices, serving the needs of Asian businesses [K: senior member in practice, member of first ICPAK Council – Asian]:

That was the time there was still racial segregation in Kenya. For example, you could not stay in this hotel. You cannot use the restaurants, yes. Nobody would give me any employment. I tried Coopers, I tried Gill & Johnson. No way! So, I had to start on my own.

This situation is similar to other studies found in the litera-ture documenting the exclusion of women in the early days of the British accountancy profession. There is evidence that al-though women accountants received some encouragement and support from male colleagues or mentors, they were subjected to hostility, discrimination, and exclusion. In defense of such treatment, it was argued by the profession that the charter was written in the male gender and that women were unsuitable for the profession rather than simply to admit that the entry of women was not condoned [Cooke, 1997].

Beginning in the 1960s, some Africans and Asians were recruited by large companies operating in Kenya and permitted to study for accountancy qualifications. Some were sent abroad to gain experience, in some cases funded by the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund Empire Scholarship Scheme, while others began to study for the ACCA or the IMTA (now CIPFA) through correspondence courses. These qualifications were of-ten more suitable or convenient as it was generally difficult for non-whites to obtain training contracts with expatriate account-ing firms [I: senior administrator at KASNEB – African]:

Some people were sent overseas to read for CIS (Char-tered Institute of Secretaries). But by the time now, we are coming to around 1961, everything, a lot of effort was given to training young Kenyans to take the examinations of IMTA, now CIPFA. Kenya Railways also was sending quite a number of young men later on to the U.K. to read their CIMA. And more or less at the same time, there [were some bodies] encouraging young men to take ACCA examination.

Following the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference of 1960, the Service and Training Branch of the government was formed. The Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA)41 was established in July 1961, with financial support from the British and U.S. governments. The colonial government anticipated that many expatriate British civil servants would leave the country after independence, vacating administrative and executive positions in the senior ranks of the civil service and that these positions would have to be filled locally. The main function of the KIA therefore was to provide a training facility for the higher cadres of the civil service and to play a role in the training of Africans in Kenya [Sian, 2007].

In order to meet these needs, the KIA was organized into specialist departments. The Department of Public Administra-tion was established in July 1961 to run training courses for central government administrative officers, such as assistant secretaries, district magistrates, and senior administrators in the private sector. The Department of Local Government was established in May 1962 to conduct courses at advanced and ordinary levels in local government administration for officers from local authorities [B: early chairman of ICPAK – African]:

That was the period just before Kenya became inde-pendent and there was a lot of concern on the part of the government, and a lot of our own local institutions to bring in young people from universities and other places of higher learning for training, with the inten-

41The KIA was developed from the Jeanes School which had been used to train soldiers during the war and was now used to train low-level civil servants in the post-war period [Odhiambo and Wanyande, 1989].

Sian: Patterns of Prejudice 27
tion that they will take on the responsibilities that were being shouldered by the colonial, British colonial, officers. The City Council of Nairobi has always been one very large organisation in Kenya, and it was amongst the organisation that they were very keen in taking on young Africans, to put them through training programmes of one kind or another, individuals on site to be trained as municipal engineers, water engineers and accountants.

Thus, in the build-up to independence, preparations were made for the changes that would ensue. Not only were efforts made by the colonial government to train Africans for positions that would be vacated by the departing expatriates but a change of attitude, perhaps the result of self-interest, to the employment of Africans is also detected [L: senior member in practice, member of first ICPAK Council – expatriate]:

That was the political thing to do. But we (expat firms) had to look into training Africans. But I don’t think that at any time there was anybody sitting on top of us and saying “you must take on an African”. And we were then, I suppose, at that stage, looking for the right type of African. And I think most of us were looking at Africans who had some association with people who were going to be important in the post-Independence period.
[J: ACCA- trained senior member of profession in practice, past chairman – African]:

ICI had to sponsor me, because by then they were op-erating a work-permit system for the expatriates and they had to show that they were prepared to train black Africans.

Similarly in the public sector, arrangements were made to improve the position of the Africans, while safeguarding the positions of the expatriates and Asians already employed. There was a real urgency in encouraging the upward mobility of Africans in the workplace, given the inevitability of independence. As the evidence presented indicates, it was necessary to change the attitude of existing employees to accept the changing position of Africans in society and in the workplace, where many were promoted quickly in the interests of “Africanization” [CO544/100: Report on the Working of the Civil Service Commission, 1961]:

In brief, the policy has been to redress the dispropor-tionate number of Africans in the senior ranks of the Service as quickly as possible without unduly lowering standards and at the same time to maintain the morale and safeguard the prospects of local officers of other races already in the Service….The Commission is aware that there are many serving Africans whose experience and ability is not reflected by their position in the seniority lists.
[CO822/629/3 Letter from the Kenya Civil Servants Union to the Colonial Secretary, London, dated March 18, 1961]:

Non Africans will continue to be assets to the Kenyan Civil Service provided they accept that this is an African country and that the majority of policy decisions will be made by Africans. Unfortunately it is clear from the past and even the present attitude of many non-African civil servants that they will be unable to accept these basic facts and will therefore be an unstable element in the service during the post-independence period.
[CO822/629/3: Letter from the Kenya Civil Servants Union to the Colonial Secretary, London, dated March 18, 1961]:

Preference to be given to Africans in the filling of all vacant posts (including ‘promotion posts’) and candidates of other races to be considered only if no suitably qualified African is available.

Political, Social, and Economic Change: Throughout the 1950s, the Mau Mau had waged a nationalist campaign for independence.42 Following talks in London in 1962, a new constitution was drawn up and elections were held in Kenya in May 1963. Jomo Kenyatta led KANU to power as political independence was declared on December 12, 1963. A key policy of the post-independence Kenyatta administration was the “Africanization” of the economy and public services; in short, the transfer of power to the indigenous Africans and the deconstruction of the racially segregated society and social exclusion that existed under the

42Unlike other Kenyan political leaders at the time, the Mau Mau leadership was prepared to use violence as a means to further their cause. A state of emergency was declared by the governor of Kenya in 1952, and the activities of the Mau Mau were critical in drawing attention to the plight of indigenous peoples and ultimately forcing the issue of independence with the ruling British in the early 1960s.

colonial regime. New legislation and training initiatives43 were implemented to equip Africans, where possible, to replace the departing expatriates in both the public and private sectors. Large land transfers and changes in housing, welfare, and education underpinned the Africanization policy.

The new government’s training initiatives and its policy of widening participation in higher education enabled more Afri-can Kenyans to achieve the standards required for participation in the elite professions, such as accountancy. For instance, the Royal Technical College, Nairobi, intended to serve the needs of all races, had started accepting students in 1955 and offered courses that would prepare students for the graduateship examinations of British professional institutions [CO533/567/13: Memorandum on the proposal to establish the Technical College in Nairobi, by F.J Harlow, assistant education advisor, 1951]:
Those students able to proceed to professional qualifications can in suitable circumstances prepare directly for the examinations held by United Kingdom professional institutions. Similarly in commercial subjects there are appropriate examinations conducted by the Royal Society of Arts, the London Chamber of Commerce and the various professional associations for secretaryship and accountancy.

The expatriate British accountants, acting through the AAEA, continued to dominate and control the provision of accounting services even after independence had been achieved. As a group, they were able to restrict access to jobs in accountancy at all levels. The requirement to serve articles represented a further barrier for Africans who had achieved the required level of education. Various forms of such exclusionary practices are commonly encountered [Murphy, 1984], and in Kenya, these were not restricted to accountancy. For instance, Ghai [1981] comments that barriers were also faced by trainee African Kenyan lawyers searching for a pupilage. In Kenya, such conditions were prevalent well into the post-independence period. Ogot and Ochieng [1995, p. 111] note that “Africans constituted an extremely small percentage of professional and managerial groups. In 1964, for example, Africans made up only 3% of the legal profession and 5% of physicians and surgeons.” The next section presents evidence highlighting the changing participation of all three races in the accountancy profession after inde-pendence.

PARTICIPATION RATES IN PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANCY POST-1963

The implementation of the post-independence government’s Africanization policy was far more effective within the public sector than it was in the private [Nzomo, 1978, p. 10]. A similar picture emerged in accountancy. Since only those holding accountancy qualifications as stipulated by the Accountants (Designations) Act, 1950 were recognized as accountants, this meant that Africans wishing to qualify were required to become a member of one of the British bodies. Therefore, analysis of the membership of the British accounting bodies in this period provides some indication of the success of Africanization and subsequently changing participation rates. The data are drawn from an analysis of the members’ directories of the British professional accountancy associations to 1970, when the first local Kenyan professional accountancy examinations were established, and it was no longer necessary to undertake the examinations of the British bodies.

Figure 2 shows that few non-whites achieved entry to the “senior” chartered organizations, although access to the “lower tier” organizations of the British profession was more easily attained. The total number of expatriate accountants in Kenya reached a plateau at about 250 in the period 1963-1970, while the number of Asians increased from 11 to 64 and, correspondingly, professionally qualified Africans increased from one to 29.

The ICAEW members remained the largest contingent of professionally qualified accountants in post-independence Kenya. In the year of independence, 1963, there were 132 ex-patriate members listed in the ICAEW register and 11 Asians. By 1969, the number of expatriate ICAEW members in Kenya had increased to 154 and the number of Asian members to 39. While the participation of non-whites was slowly increasing, racial demarcation and prejudice remained inherent within the profession. The difficulty incurred by Asians, for instance, in their attempts to secure employment with the dominant expatriate firms continued to result in many of them establishing their own practices. In Mombassa, two Asians had their own practice or were in partnership, while a further four were listed as being not in practice. In Nairobi, six Asians had their own practice or were in Asian partnerships, while 27 were listed as not being in provides details of these first African IMTA members and gives an indication of the type of jobs they performed. Most were still students in the mid-1960s as they did not begin to train as accountants until after independence.

FIGURE 3
The First African-Kenyan IMTA Members Listed in the 1966 Yearbook

Name Employer Position IMTA status*
Kangethe, N.M. East African Common Services Organisation accountant general student since 1964
Araujo, I.C.S. Ministry of Local Government financial officer student since 1965
Muga, J.C. Central Rift County Council deputy county treasurer student since 1964
Gitau D.K. Central Rift County Council assistant county treasurer student since 1964
Okuku, J.P. Kisumu Council Town Treasurer’s Department Student since 1965
Oloo A.G. Kisumu Council Town Treasurer’s Department student since 1964
Njoya J.M. Mombassa Council town treasurer (designate) student since 1964
Mbugua S.K. **(BSc Econ.) Nairobi Council City Treasurer’s Department student since 1964
Ogembo S.B. Nairobi Council City Treasurer’s Department student since 1964

* IMTA status categories were honorary fellow, fellow, associate, student ** later became the first ICPAK (Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya) chairman

The success of the government’s Africanization policy was particularly evident in the public sector. By the year 1968, the number of IMTA expatriate members listed in the year book dropped from 33 to 25 and there were 25 African Kenyans additionally.44 Of these, only one, Mr. Stanley Mbugua (later, in 1978,
44Two of these African Kenyans were employed nationally, one within the Ministry of Local Government and the other by the East African Common Services Organisation; seven were employed at the county council level as chief financial officers (two) or within the County Treasurers Department (five). The other African Kenyans were employed within the Treasury Departments at Nairobi City Council, Nakuru Municipal Council, and the Mombassa and Eldoret town councils.

the first chairman of the Institute of Certified Public Accounts in Kenya), had qualified and been awarded associate status. The ACCA also proved to be a popular qualification for Asian trainees. By independence, the number of expatriate ACCA members in Kenya had risen to 34 and the number of Asian members to 17. Some of the Asian ACCA members established their own firms while others were employed in a variety of positions in commerce and industry (see Figure 4).

FIGURE 4

Participation of Asian ACCA Members in 1963, Employment and Positions

Name Position Employer
Mombassa
Mistry, C.M. audit manager Cooper Brothers
Mitha, A.H. internal auditor Diamond Jubilee Investment Trust
Patel, C.J. – Patel, Shah & Joshi
Patel, R.M. assistant town treasurer Municipal Council of Mombassa
Nairobi
Bassan, A.S. accountant Accountant General’s Department, E.A. Common Services
Jerath, K.L. – Mobil Oil, East Africa, Ltd.
Kothari, S.D. accountant Police Dept., Kenya Government
Lobo, J.M. (B. Comm.) finance officer Ministry of Local Government
Lall, M. – Manohar Lall & Rai
Mohamedani, S.G. aAssessor East Africa Income Tax Department.
Patel, C.J. (B. Comm.) – Patel, Shah & Joshi
Patel, R.B. assistant secretary and assistant accountant Schweppes, East Africa, Ltd.
Patel, R.B. (B. Comm.) – Shah & Shah
Rai, T.S. – Manohar Lall & Rai
Saini, R.S. accountant East Africa Common Services Organisation
Sood, M.P.R (Ph.D.) senior auditor and training officer Exchequer and Audit Department, Kenya Government
Vyas, C.P. – Chiman Vyas & Co.

Asian Kenyans had access to higher levels of education and were able to undertake training for accountancy much earlier than African Kenyans, who do not appear in the ACCA registers until the end of the decade. By 1970, 44 expatriate members were listed, 31 Asian members, and only one African Kenyan (F.A. Mbuya is listed in 1970 as the chief accountant [designate] at the East African Railways Corporation). The majority of ACCA members in 1970, 76 in total, were concentrated in the main commercial centers of Nairobi (39 expatriates, 25 Asians, and one African) and Mombassa (3 expatriates and 8 Asians). Other ACCA members were geographically dispersed in more rural areas such as Eldoret, Kericho, Nakuru, Nyeri, Mariakana, and Kisumu.

The ICWA had far fewer members than either of the other British bodies in Kenya, and at the time of independence, only 27 members were listed (24 in Nairobi, one each in Ma-gadi, Mombassa, and Nakuru). By 1967, the first Asian, Ramesh Shah, was listed as the assistant chief accountant at the Kenya Meat Commission. In the same year, the first African is also listed as the commissioner of income tax at the East African Tax Department. By the year 1970, when KASNEB examinations first became available, there were four Asians and two African members listed in the ICWA year books, along with 20 expatriates. Figure 5 shows the positions held by the Africans and Asians and provides an indication of their seniority and the

FIGURE 5 Asian and African ICWA Members in 1970

Name Position Employer Year admitted
Dhillon, T.S. senior accountant Ministry of Agriculture, Mariakani 1969
Desai, R.M. chief accountant Kenya Co-operative Creameries, Ltd., Nairobi 1970
Desai, V.K. assets controller – East Africa and Zambia Singer Sewing Machines Co., Nairobi 1970
Mitoko, M.H. works accountant Union Carbide 1970
Mubiru-Nebayosi, S.K. chief accountant East Africa Railways & Harbours, Nairobi 1968
Shah, R.S. accountant Kenya National Trading Corporation, Nairobi 1966

relatively short period between qualifying and, in line with the government’s policy to replace expatriates with locals as quickly as possible, achieving that position. The data show that few ICWA members migrated to Kenya and that the body was also slow to admit Asians and African Kenyans. The implementation of the government’s Africanization policy was slow in the commercial firms that were most likely to employ ICWA members.

The number of ICAS members remained fairly static in the early post-independence period and then began to decline in the late ’60s. No Asian members were admitted to the ICAS in the period. However, John Mwangi remained an active member of the profession in Kenya. Having qualified with the ICAS in 1959, he established a practice in Nakuru. His firm merged with Barber, Bellhouse & Co., an expatriate firm established there in 1930, to form Barber, Bellhouse, Mwangi & Co. in 1965, later to become part of Ernst & Young. Interviewees who knew him have suggested that he offered training contracts to the many Africans he mentored.

Although the data provided here focus on the Asians and Africans who were successful in their attempts to join the accountancy profession, it should be emphasized that these individuals were indeed exceptional. The evidence presented supports the suggestion that “despite the new liberal rhetoric of colonial self-determination and racial equality, white dreams of power persisted” [Bush, 1999, p. 18]. In accountancy, prejudice, hostility, and discrimination within the profession continued to impede the entry and progress of non-whites.

CONCLUSION

Recent studies have focused on the exclusion from the ac-countancy profession on the basis of class, gender, and race. This paper extends the latter thread of this body of literature by providing empirical data on the historical participation of the three main races in the Kenyan accountancy profession, mapping these shifting patterns against wider political and social changes.

Osterhammel [1997, p. 4] suggests that “colonial reality was multi-faceted … and was shaped by particular local features overseas, by the intentions and opportunities of the individual colonial powers.” Although the broader intentions of the colonial power may have been different in countries like Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica [Annisette, 2003; Bakre, 2004] as compared with Kenya,45 social exclusion and ethnocultural and racial demarcation were denning features of these racially diverse colonies. Osterhammel’s theorization of colonialism provides an insight to the rationale underlying the prevalent attitudes towards the non-white population in such outposts where issues of race penetrated social, economic, and political relations. In all of these instances, such race-based societal stratification was reflected and even amplified in professional organizations.

In Kenya, going beyond prejudice and “laissez-faire dis-crimination,” institutional racism enshrined within legislation provided the context for discriminatory practices in employ-ment, housing, welfare, and education.46 Here, the early demand for suitably qualified accountants was satisfied by the arrival of British expatriate accountants. As in other racially diverse colonies, the hierarchical structure of colonial society rendered redundant the need for the expatriate accountants to employ formal strategies to exclude non-whites, in particular the less educated Africans. Indeed, if Osterhammel’s theorization is to be applied here, then it may be speculated that the earliest colonizers believed that, given the “inferiority of the native brain,” there was little benefit attached to the education of indigenous peoples, and certainly not to the levels required for membership in professional associations. The data gathered here indicate that such attitudes toward Kenyan-African education remained so, albeit in more subtle forms later, throughout much of the first half of the 20th century. One might conclude, therefore, that this represents a more implicit or indirect mode of social exclusion as Africans could not meet the educational or social requirements of the professional associations. However, it remains the case that the colonial state did specifically legislate for differential levels of education for the three races.

Although the post-independence dismantling of hierarchical social structures had a significant impact upon the civil and legal rights of Africans with respect to housing, education, welfare, employment, and citizenship, the evidence presented here and elsewhere [Sian, 2006a, 2007] indicates that imminent change within the profession was not forthcoming. Those Africans who

45The former are usually classified as non-settler colonies, with mainly an itinerant white population, whereas Kenya was essentially a settler colony. The black population in the former comprised the descendents of slaves whereas it was an indigenous population in Kenya.

46Osterhammel [1997, p. 87] suggests that in some instances “ethnosocial distancing was an outgrowth of societal interaction and not always based on dis-criminatory law” – a case perhaps of voluntary social exclusion.

had attained levels of education suitable for entry to professional associations remained a social underclass throughout much of the early post-independence period partly because of deeply embedded racist ideologies promulgated in the colonial period. Thus, in accountancy, although participation rates for both Africans and Asians in the profession rose slowly in the period 1963-1970, they continued to be subjected to a panoply of exogenous forces principally associated with racial discrimination.

This study supports Annisette’s [2003, p. 669] assertion that “specific accounting work-sites [such as public practice or government accounting] can become racialised.” Despite the passage of anti-discriminatory legislation, Africans, in particu-lar, found it difficult to find employment with the expatriate accounting firms. Therefore, in Kenya, the public sector was a key entry point for African accountants after independence. By comparing their progress within the IMTA with other private sector bodies, the evidence presented here supports the suggestion that the implementation of the Kenyatta government’s Africanization policy was far more effective in the public sector [Sian, 2007].

Asians were higher up in the social “pecking order” than Africans, and their eventual entry to the profession in the 1950s preceded that of the Africans. Indeed, some Asians were migrant members of the Indian Institute, competing for business with expatriates in colonial East Africa. The Indians, too, were marginalized on the basis of race, although it is possible to speculate that their marginalization was also beneficial for the expatriate accountants in terms of reducing competition in the market for accounting services.

The case of the non-white accountants in Kenya closely parallels the experiences of excluded groups in other societies in a number of ways. First, while not considered suitable for performing tasks associated with professional competence, those at the lower levels of the social hierarchy (women and non-whites) were considered suitable for performing more mechanical work [Kirkham and Loft, 1993; Hammond and Streeter, 1994; Annis-ette, 2003]. Thus, in the colonial period, if Africans had attained suitable levels of education, some were permitted to train for the bookkeeping examinations of the AAEA or, as one expatriate commented, they could be used for “ruling red lines on Balance Sheets.” Second, a common justification for the continuing exclusion of non-whites from the expatriate firms in Kenya was that such representatives of white firms would not be well received by clients. This resonates with the experiences of women in the British profession at the turn of the century [Lehman, 1992; Shackleton, 1999] and pioneering African-American CPAs [Hammond and Streeter, 1994]. Third, as in other cases to be found in the accounting literature, there is evidence indicating that non-whites who did find employment in the private sector tended to provide support for others [Hammond, 2002].47 In Kenya, John Mwangi, the first African Kenyan CA, provided encouragement and mentoring for other Africans. Many pioneering Asian accountants established their own practices, initially providing accounting services mainly to Asian businesses.

Although this study traces patterns of participation in the Kenyan profession, it does focus only on the membership of British accounting associations in Kenya. The records indicate that there were also Asian accountants in Kenya who had qualified with the ICAI whose directories show 14 members listed in East Africa in 1956. However, after this date, Indian overseas members are no longer listed. Thus, an obvious limitation of this study is the lack of data on members of the Indian Institute participating in the profession in Kenya. A further limitation of the data presented here may be that they focus only on professionally qualified accountants offering services in the colony. There is both archival and oral evidence that various others (partially qualified individuals, those qualified by experience, company secretaries, those with lower-level diplomas, and those belonging to associations not recognized by legislation) were also offering accountancy and bookkeeping services. It may further be speculated that some of these individuals may have been of Indian or (later) African extraction. Thus, non-whites may well have par-ticipated in the accountancy profession, albeit at lower echelons, much earlier than indicated by the data presented here.

Although the sociological perspective of race conceives of phenotypical differences, the literature suggests that issues of race and class may be conflated within colonial contexts such as this. As a British colony, class-based divisions in Kenya existed and were based upon those operating in British society at the
47In America, many of the pioneering African-American accountants were encouraged or mentored by J.Blayton, an accounting professor at Morehouse University, Atlanta. Those who were successful in qualifying often resorted to establishing their own practices, serving the needs of own-race clients [Hammond, 2002].
48Parallels can be drawn with the study conducted by McNicholas at al. [2004] which found that Maori accountants in New Zealand were often sent to Maori clients. Although no evidence has been presented here, one might speculate that this may well have been the case when the first African Kenyans eventually began to train in the profession.

time. Indeed, the social exclusion literature refers constantly to the plight of the “underclass.” The position of indigenous Africans in colonial Kenya certainly identifies with the term. For instance, when Africans were eventually recruited to train as professional accountants prior to independence, it was initially those with “connections” who were sought by the expatriate firms; that is, those from the “higher” classes.

In Kenya, as in other racially diverse colonies, it was “race rather than some other principle of organisation that had been the operative agent in the social functioning of accountancy” [Annisette, 2003, p. 668]. Here, race-based, social exclusion was state-sanctioned via legislation and provided the context for a variety of discriminatory practices both in wider society and in the accountancy profession. Accountancy effectively remained the preserve of British expatriates until after independence when the participation rates of non-whites gradually increased as a result of government-induced social engineering.

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