The White Highlands is an area in the central uplands of Kenya. It was traditionally the homeland of indigenous Central Kenyan communities up to the colonial period, when it became the centre of European settlement in colonial Kenya; between 1902 and 1961, it was officially reserved for the exclusive use of Europeans by the colonial government.
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The first European explorers and administrators used the term Highlands to refer to the region no less than above sea level, which they believed was best suited climatically for Europeans to reside in. During the process of settlement, the term came to be used for the areas already settled by local African tribes. In his view, only European settlers and agriculture could develop the region and generate the necessary funds to support the colonial administration. A large proportion of the settlers hailed from South Africa including 280 Boers from the Transvaal who settled in the Uasin Gishu plateau in 1908.
By 1914, there were around a thousand European settlers in the Highlands. At the time, the African population was distributed between cultivating tribes and pastoralist people. The cultivating tribes lived mainly in the high rainfall areas of Nyanza, and in the fertile areas of the slopes of Mount Kenya, the Aberdares, the Elgeyo Escarpment, and the hills of Ukambani.
The Maasai entered into treaties with British officials to surrender large amounts of land, and their reduced manpower meant they were unable to defend against rival tribes. Although covering only five percent of Kenya's total land area, it produces most of Kenya's agricultural exports, particularly tea, coffee, sisal and pyrethrum.