So Owuor

Weapons of mass destruction: Land, ethnicity and the 2007 elections in Kenya

Abstract A number of political commentators, the media and observers have portrayed the 2007 election violence in Kenya as an ethnic conflict between two of the largest tribal opposing factions: the Kikuyu and the Luo. However, the situation in a multi-ethnic country like Kenya could prove to be much more complicated than one may think. According to Mueller (2008, 186) the violence was a result of weak institutions, mostly overridden by a highly personalised and centralised presidency that does not exercise the autonomy or checks and balances normally associated with democracies and political parties that are not programmatic, driven by ethnic clientism, and have a winner-take-all view of political and its associated economic by-products. Africa Policy Institute (2008) described it as a crisis of democratic transformation typically experienced by countries facing a closely contested election or election dispute. During an interview at the Wilson Centre on 10 January 2008, Maina Kiai said that ‘this is not an ethnic conflict; this is a political conflict with ethnic overtones’ caused by the lack of transparency in the elections. Githinji and Holmquist (2008, 344) argue that the crisis is best understood not simply as ethnic rivalry for power but rather as a product of rising expectations due to the increase in democratic space in the last five years combined with the frustration of exclusion on the economic and political front. Finally, others are of the opinion that the violence was a spontaneous reaction targeted against Kenyas stolen election. If the historical perspective outlined below is anything to go by, there is more to the violence than solely the perceived ethnic conflict. Kenyas crisis, including the 2007 election violence, has deep historical roots.

Migrants, urban poverty and the changing nature of urban-rural linkages in Kenya

In the literature on rural–urban linkages in sub-Saharan Africa the focus has so far been predominantly on the urban dwellers contributing to the livelihood of the rural ones, usually through remittances from family members living in the city. Although acknowledged in the last two decades, the reverse flow, i.e. the extent to which town dwellers realise part of their livelihood from rural sources, remains poorly understood. Based on recent research in Nakuru town, Kenya, this paper demonstrates that urban–rural linkages are not only important for the rural households, but are becoming an important element of the livelihood (or survival) strategies of poor urban households. 1Lecturer, Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, University of Nairobi.

From self-help group to water company: the Wandiege Community Water Supply Project (Kisumu, Kenya)

Water services in urban Africa are generally in a bad state and low-income neighbourhoods are not usually connected to the municipal water supply and infrastructure. The Kenyan government attempted to address these problems with its Water Act of 2002 and by creating water and sewerage companies. This chapter recounts how this idea was adopted and transformed by people in the Wandiege neighbourhood of Kisumu town who improved their local water and sanitation situation by setting up their own water supply system in an innovative way. It finally describes how this innovation was transformed in one low-income neighbourhood in Kisumu in two major steps: (i) by creating a local water supply system that was developed, constructed and managed by the community itself; and (ii) by transforming this project into an officially registered water and sewerage company at neighbourhood level. Keywords: Kenyan government; Kisumu town; sewerage company; Wandiege neighbourhood; Water Act of 2002; water company; water-sector reforms

Pre-colonial and Early Colonial Urbanization in the East Coast of Africa: The African-Asian Connection

East Africa, comprising the Republic of Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania and Republic of Uganda, covers a diverse region of the central portion of Eastern Africa. These three national states have varied and different historical, economic, political and socio-cultural development which must be taken into account in presenting the urbanization process in the respective countries (Hutton, 1972; Kanyaeihamba and McAuslan, 1978; Obadho, 1984, pp. 134–54; 1986, pp. 171–93; 1989, pp. 292–315 and 1993, pp. 77–108). East Africa is not only one of the poorest regions of the world but also the least urbanized relative to the continent as a whole, the average of developing countries and the world at large. Until recently, urbanization was not considered to be a problem in most African countries because it was associated with modernization and industrialization. Both governments and international donor agencies fostered rural development and agriculturally-based strategies without paying attention to the rapid rates of urbanization. In the 1990s, urbanization has been added to the long list of potentially devastating development problems which must be addressed. The fundamental problem is that the urban population is growing very fast while the economic growth and development transformations necessary to support it and enhance the quality of urban life are not occurring as rapidly.