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British East Africa

Josh Fruhlinger, 1996-FEB-13

Description of the flag
East African Commission
Witu protectorate

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Description of the flag

The flag of British East Africa is the national banner of the Empire, bearing upon the intersection of the crosses a red lion, rampant, or aggressively walking forward on his hind legs...encircled by a wreath. No explanation why British East Africa doesn't follow the badge-ensign model.

Josh Fruhlinger, 1996-FEB-13

British East Africa, which later became the Kenya Colony - the interior of Kenya - was originally colonised by a Chartered Company, the British East Africa Company. I suspect the flag you have there is the Company's, which would be anachronistic as the territory was transferred to the Crown in 1906 (according to my Notebook of Commonwealth History). Certainly by independence the colonial flag was the standard Blue Ensign with a badge of the red lion rampant on a white disc.

Roy Stilling, 1996-FEB-14

East African Commission

Zeljko Heimer, 1996-JUL-05

The East African Commission used a green over blue flag with several tin lines in between: white, black, green, yellow, green, red, white. That made the flag look like a green-white-blue tricolour with several thin stripes in the white. The ratios of the stripes would be approximately 7:1:1:1:1:1:1:1:7 green, white, black, green, yellow, green, red, white, blue. Three red five-pointed stars are in upper hoist corner, arranged one under two.
Zeljko Heimer, 1996-JUL-05

Witu Protectorate

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.

Jofn Fetzer, 1996-FEB-20

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, 1996-FEB-20