In 1923, the British government issued the Devonshire Declaration, a policy paper that declared that African interests in Kenya must be paramount over those of European settlers and Asian traders. On paper, it was a significant statement.
In practice, it changed almost nothing for Africans, who continued to face land theft, forced labour, racial segregation and political exclusion. But the declaration established an important principle: that British colonies existed for the benefit of their inhabitants, not their settlers.
It was a principle that independence movements would invoke for decades.