The previous chapter looked at how the European settler demand for labour was to a large extent satisfied through squatterdom rather than wage labour. The evolution of this squatter community was shown to be only marginally related to the labour problem, with the Kikuyu influx to the Settled Areas being mainly in search of sufficient land for grazing and cultivation. As time passed, it became increasingly obvious that the settlers were tolerating squatter cultivation and grazing only as a convenient arrangement while tropical agriculture was in its pioneering stage. But unlike settler agriculture, squatter production was not dependent on capital and therefore thrived while settler agriculture foundered.

In the inter-war period, however, the settlers emerged as a much stronger community determined to consolidate their hold on squatter labour and the productive machinery in the White Highlands. The period marked the beginning of a protracted and overt conflict between settlers and squatters. The settlers believed that, if their economy was to develop, then the government and the squatters must rally behind them. Their priority was to ensure that they had at their disposal a cheap, adequate and controllable supply of labour and this called for the introduction of various labour regulations. In this chapter an attempt will be made to examine how, with the help of the colonial government, the settlers tried to ‘regulate’ squatter labour and how the squatters reacted.

Inherent in the settler programme was the determination to curtail the extensive squatter cultivation and grazing to the immediate needs of squatter households. As well as limiting squatter usage of land in the White Highlands, this would release the squatter for his labour obligations. The measures applied threatened both the economic and the social viability of the squatter community.