Well aside from the occasional traders travelling and residing in the Red Sea to East Africa route from the Indian Subcontinent the actual appearance of Indian communities within East Africa began to appear during the British Colonial period in the 19th century.

These inhabitants were primarily from Gujarat who saw an opportunity for small scale businesses on the railroad serving both the builders, who were primarily either Indian labourers or African labourers, and the people who were using the railroads to get to one place from another. As business opportunities began to grow, more and more immigration from British India to British East Africa began to grow and places like Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania soon had a minority Indian presence there.

Prior to the colonial period, there were references to Indian traders living in these areas but this was not a large settlement as most of the traders within this region were either primarily from Yemen or from Oman.

Sources:

• The Colonial Empires from the Eighteenth Century by D.K. Fieldhouse
• The British Empire by Jane Samson
• The British Empire: Sunrise to Sunset 2nd Edition by Philippa Levine