British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain is aware…
1903 CE
Chamberlain notes during his trip that, "If Dr Herzl were at all inclined to transfer his efforts to East Africa there would be no difficulty in finding land suitable for Jewish settlers."
Herzl is introduced to Chamberlain by Israel Zangwill in the spring of 1903, a few weeks after the outbreak of the Kishinev pogroms.
Chamberlain offers thirteen thousand square kilometers (five thousand square miles) at Uasin Gishu (also spelled "Gwas Ngishu"), an isolated area atop the Mau Escarpment in modern Kenya (not Uganda, though the offer is referred to as the Uganda Scheme).
The land is thought suitable because of its temperate hill station-like climate and its relative isolation, being surrounded by the Mau Forest.
The offer is a response to pogroms against the Jews in Russia, and it is hoped the area could be a refuge from persecution for the Jewish people.
Chamberlain had seen the land as he was passing by on the Uganda Railway, although the land was not in fact in Uganda but in the East Africa Protectorate (modern Kenya).
This territory had only recently been transferred from the Uganda Protectorate to the East Africa Protectorate in 1902, as part of the Uganda Railway development plan.
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