Dr. Michael Kithinji

University of Central Arkansas

Bio

Michael Mwenda Kithinji is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Central Arkansas. His research and teaching span African, African diaspora, and world history, emphasizing colonialism, decolonization, and the political economy of the postcolonial world. His book project, The Story of Tea in Kenya: The Rise, Impact, and Global Significance of the Tea Industry, examines tea’s transformation from a settler-dominated crop into a major smallholder industry connected to global markets.

Brewing Development: Industrial Modernization, Smallholder Transformation, and the Political Economy of Kenya’s Tea Industry

Abstract

This paper examines Kenya’s smallholder tea industry from the late 1950s through 1979 as an industrialization project conducted through rural households. SCDA and KTDA coordinated cultivation, transport, finance, processing, and marketing, enabling rapid expansion. Growers supplied land, labor, and capital but gained limited managerial authority. Drawing on archival records and newspapers, the paper shows how factory ownership, currency shocks, and collection bottlenecks distributed returns and risks unevenly within an integrated agro-industrial system.