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Witu Protectorate (Kenya)

Pre-independence Kenya

by António Martins, 28 Nov 1999
first hoisted on 31 July 1893

Witu Protectorate flag

See also:

Witu Protectorate flag

The Witu protectorate had been part of German East Africa (Tanganyika) but was annexed in 1890. It is the hinterland area inland from the coast. The coast of Kenya with Mombasa etc... was nominally a possession of the Sultan of Zanzibar, and so was officially a British Protectorate. However Kenya Colony and Protectorate were administered as a single unit with a single flag-badge. This sort of arrangement was quite common in British African territories, although it was more usual for the Colony to be on the coast and the Protectorate inland. My references to the books on Africa should have been to Byron Farwell's "Scramble for Africa", an excellent overview of the colonialization, and "The Great War in Africa". The Jubaland location was correct, and it was given to Italy as part of the rewards for jointing the Allies in WWI. It was never administered as a separate colony, only as part of British East Africa and then Italian East Africa.
John Fetzer, 20 Feb 1996

The Witu forest lies within the protectorate of British East Africa. Its flag is a red field upon which is centered a union jack, about half as long and half as wide as the field itself.
Josh Fruhlinger, 20 Feb 1996

Witu was a protectorate established c.1890 on the coast of East Africa. It was part of the mainland territories of the Sultan of Zanzibar that came under British control as a result of the Anglo-German Heligoland Treaty. It was probably the territory that became known as the Protectorate of Kenya when the East Africa Protectorate became Kenya Colony in 1920. The flag may not have come into use until c.1905. A letter of that year in PRO file ADM 116/1063B reported that the Consul General at Zanzibar had adopted a red arab flag with a small Union Jack in the centre for the Protectorate of Witu.
As drawn, the flag was 37:57 with a central UJ of 15:27.
David Prothero, 8 May 1999

According to a Philatelic Atlas I have, Witu includes the off-shore islands of Patta, Manda and Lamu. The atlas depicts the territory as bordering Zanzibar (coastal possessions) to the south. The territory at the north of Kenya, that was ceded to Italy, and called Oltre Giuba in Italian (across the Jiuba river = Transjubaland) is farther north. A contemporary atlas shows the three islands, and the city of Lamu, as well as a small town Witu, on the north coast of Kenya.
Herman De Wael, 2 Dec 1999

There are coloured prints of the jack and ensign of "German government vessels engaged in East African trade", in the 1892 amendments to the Admiralty Flag Book.
The jack is the merchant flag with a plain blue anchor in the centre of the white band, and the ensign a Reichskriegsflagge with a plain blue anchor in the lower hoist.
[National Archives (PRO) ADM 116/353]
"The German civil ensign - a horizontal tricolor black white red - flew over Witu and was carried by askaris."
A ph