The encounter between Muslims and the colonial state in eastern Africa remains an under-researched field of study. This article discusses British interactions with Muslims in colonial Kenya, giving particular attention to the institutionalization of the Muslim courts of the Kadhi, Liwali and Mudir. Control and regulation of all aspects of law became a crucial mechanism in the expansion of British influence, as is to be seen in the struggles over these Muslim courts. The Kadhi, Liwali and Mudir courts were established to implement Muslim laws, but colonial rulers also saw them as instruments of imperial authority and a key element in the bureaucracy of the colonial state. It will be shown that the courts strengthened the state’s authority over Muslim communities, allowing colonial officials to influence legal change through initiating social changes, modernising legal structures, and suggesting new legal procedures in the context of Muslim institutions facing the challenges of a modernizing African state. (Journal Abstract).
