Editing History of Kenya (section)

====Rural trends====
British officials sought to modernise Kikuyu farming in the Murang'a District 1920–1945. Relying on concepts of trusteeship and scientific management, they imposed a number of changes in crop production and agrarian techniques, claiming to promote conservation and "betterment" of farming in the colonial tribal reserves. While criticised as backward by British officials and white settlers, African farming proved resilient and Kikuyu farmers engaged in widespread resistance to the colonial state's agrarian reforms.<ref>{{Cite journal|vauthors=Mackenzie AF|date=2000|title=Contested Ground: Colonial Narratives and the Kenyan Environment, 1920–1945|journal=[[Journal of Southern African Studies|J. South. Afr. Stud.]]|volume=26|issue=4|pages=697–718|doi=10.1080/713683602| jstor=2637567| s2cid=145084039}}</ref>

Modernisation was accelerated by the Second World War. Among the [[Luo people|Luo]] the larger agricultural production unit was the patriarch's extended family, mainly divided into a special assignment team led by the patriarch, and the teams of his wives, who, together with their children, worked their own lots on a regular basis. This stage of development was no longer strictly traditional, but still largely self-sufficient with little contact with the broader market. Pressures of overpopulation and the prospects of cash crops, already in evidence by 1945, made this subsistence economic system increasingly obsolete and accelerated a movement to commercial agriculture and emigration to cities. The Limitation of Action Act in 1968 sought to modernise traditional land ownership and use; the act has produced unintended consequences, with new conflicts raised over land ownership and social status.<ref>{{Cite journal|vauthors=Odenyo AO| date=1973| title=Conquest, Clientage, and Land Law among the Luo of Kenya|journal=[[Law & Society Review|Law Soc. Rev.]] |volume=7|issue=4|pages=767–778|doi=10.2307/3052969|jstor=3052969}}</ref>

As Kenya modernized after the war, the role of the British religious missions changed their roles, despite the efforts of the leadership of the [[Church Missionary Society]] to maintain the traditional religious focus. However the social and educational needs were increasingly obvious, and the threat of the Mau Mau uprisings pushed the missions to emphasize medical, humanitarian and especially educational programs. Fundraising efforts in Britain increasingly stressed the non-religious components. Furthermore, the imminent transfer of control to the local population became a high priority.<ref>John Stuart, "Overseas Mission, Voluntary Service and Aid to Africa: Max Warren, the Church Missionary Society and Kenya, 1945–63." ''Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History'' 36.3 (2008): 527–543.</ref><ref>David Anderson, ''Histories of the Hanged: Britain's Dirty War in Kenya and the End of the Empire'' (2005) pp. 35–41.</ref>