The Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, commonly known as British Kenya or British East Africa, was a colony part of the British Empire located in East Africa from 1920 until 1963. It was established when the former East Africa Protectorate was transformed into a British Crown colony in 1920. Technically, the "Colony of Kenya" referred to the interior lands, while a 16-kilometre (9.9Â mi) coastal strip, nominally on lease from the Sultan of Zanzibar, was the "Protectorate of Kenya", but the two were controlled as a single administrative unit. The colony came to an end in 1963 when a native Kenyan majority government was elected for the first time and eventually declared independence.
However, Kenya is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Colony" due to the fact that William Mackinnon, the founder of the Imperial British East Africa Company that was governing Kenya, was a native of Scotland.