During the course of plague investigations carried out in Kenya Colony in 1921 by the late Dr. R. Van Someren, and in Uganda during 1922 by the same collector in conjunction with Dr. C. A. Baker, some hundreds of Mallophaga and Anoplura were collected, mainly from small rodents. This material was sent to the Imperial Bureau of Entomology in two instalments, and the present paper deals only with a new species and variety represented in the first collection forwarded by Mr. T. J. Anderson, Government Entomologist, Nairobi. The rest of the collection will be dealt with later. The opportunity has been taken to add also the description of a very remarkable louse which infests an Indian tree shrew.