East Africa Protectorate (also known as
British East Africa) was an area in the
African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day
Kenya (approximately ) from the Indian Ocean inland to
Uganda and the
Great Rift Valley. Although part of the dominions of the
Sultan of Zanzibar, it was controlled by Britain in the late 19th century; it grew out of British commercial interests in the area in the 1880s and remained a
protectorate until 1920 when it became the
colony of Kenya, save for a coastal strip that became the
Kenya protectorate.