Kenyan independence was preceded by constitutional reforms that created a new system of governance that sought greater involvement of Africans. These reforms were made all the more pressing due to the anti-colonial Mau Mau revolutionaries that sought a violent overthrow of the British administration during the 1950s.

After a series of conferences held between Kenyan representatives and the Secretary of State for the Colonies between 1960 and 1963, Kenya gained its indepedence on 12 December 1963.

See below, a British Pathé report on the second Lancaster House conference on the constitution of an independent Kenya held in 1962: