A Guide to the Secretariat Circulars: KENYA NATIONAL ARCHIVES MICROFILM

The Secretariat Circulars of the East Africa Protectorate and Kenya Colony and Protectorate are contained in five reels of film. Included are most circulars and circular letters issued by the British administration from 1916 through 1962. As presented in this index, these documents total 4,164 titles. They were photographed by the Kenya National Archives through a joint microfilm project with Syracuse University under successive grants from the National Science Foundation. This index was compiled during 1982-83 under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Secretariat Circulars were features of colonial rule in Kenya from as early as the year 1900 and represent an additional continuity in yearly issue up to 1916. While none appear in the reels or the index, many of them can be found scattered throughout the various provincial files. Generally, the circulars and the accompanying circular letters were issued as explanations, reminders, clarifications, and interpretations of laws, rules, regulations, and policy within the colony. Others were circulated to notify officials of amendments and other changes involving those laws, rules, regulations, and policy.