This thesis analyses the role of political factors in conflict arising from climate change through a single case study of the farmer-herder conflict in Laikipia, Kenya. A better understanding of...Show moreThis thesis analyses the role of political factors in conflict arising from climate change through a single case study of the farmer-herder conflict in Laikipia, Kenya. A better understanding of climate change and conflict is necessary, as there is no clear consensus among scholars. This thesis uses political ecology that states that political factors, such as politicised ethnicity, access to land tenure, and perception of identity have a direct influence on conflict. It criticises the environmental scarcity theory, which states that resource scarcity due to climate change directly influences conflict. Mixed methods are used to analyse the role of political factors. The process tracing method is used to test whether power relations in politics influence conflict and the qualitative content analysis method is used to support process tracing by providing inside into the political factors presented in three major Kenyan newspapers. The results show that perception of identity, access to land tenure, and politicised ethnicity all contribute to a negative impact on the ability of pastoralists to access and influence the distribution of resources. This causes the competition for resources to become violent. The findings also show there is indirect link between climate change and conflict. These findings are in line with political ecology theory. Therefore, this thesis contributes to the theory and discussion in the literature about climate change and conflict.Show less
This research explores the potential impact of EU election observation missions on the quality of elections, through the diffusion of democratic standards. The analysis is based on a single-case...Show moreThis research explores the potential impact of EU election observation missions on the quality of elections, through the diffusion of democratic standards. The analysis is based on a single-case study of the Kenyan elections building on diverse data including reports and interviews, applied in the process tracing method. Building on socialization theory and norm diffusion, I hypothesize that election observation has an impact on election quality, through the diffusion of democratic values. The Kenyan legal framework meets international obligations requiring elections to be “accountable and transparent”. But the tumultuous history of election violence highlighted fundamental issues and systematic problems that must be addressed. The findings show that there is a relevant added value to the presence of EU EOM, within different phases of the election cycle. The implementation of the EU EOM recommendations plays a key role in understanding the contribution of election observation to improve election quality. EU EOMs are found to be effective in deterring fraud and corruption, as election observation contributes to pressuring government officials to respect the electoral law. In the Kenyan case, the implementation of recommendations contributed to the mitigation of election-related violence, and the promotion of the stakeholders' confidence in the electoral process.Show less
In this study, nurses’ well-being is explored in the context of the local efforts working towards nurses’ wellness. The often silenced voices of Kenyan nurses are transformed into a theatre script...Show moreIn this study, nurses’ well-being is explored in the context of the local efforts working towards nurses’ wellness. The often silenced voices of Kenyan nurses are transformed into a theatre script to portray the findings. An ethnographic research gap on the topic focuses on the qualitative study of well-being through psychological, socio-economic, and political lenses. The research is grounded in theory from Giddens (1984), Sen (1993), and De Bruijn and Both (2018), and navigates the agency-structure debate along with the model of duress to reflect on and understand the nurses’ position in a constraining environment. The research focused on two level 5 facilities, which are county referral hospitals, in two different counties of Kenya. The following research methods are conducted: a survey on socio-economic well-being with 65 respondents; interviews focusing on factors affecting nurses' well-being conducted through 4 focus group discussions with 39 nurses of different seniority levels and facilities, and informal interviews with approximately 25 nurses; and lastly, participant observation focusing on nurses agency and structures in places of gathering. Altogether, the results conclude that the healthcare structures pertain as constraints on the nurses’ agency and well-being despite the local efforts against this that may seem to have a positive impact. This is not to say that such local efforts should not continue, but rather to add a widespread focus on changing the outdated health structures that are limiting the majority of Kenya’s health workforce.Show less
The main scope of this thesis is the use of the State of Emergency as a tool in colonial counterinsurgency. The State of Emergency allows us to draw connections between three colonies in three...Show moreThe main scope of this thesis is the use of the State of Emergency as a tool in colonial counterinsurgency. The State of Emergency allows us to draw connections between three colonies in three different continents, Malaya, Kenya and Cyprus. The comparison, assists in adding the Cyprus Emergency within the colonial framework and analyse it as a colonial case. The state of emergency is seen as a tool in counterinsurgency. Finally, the thesis is also connected to scholaraship on Human Rights.Show less
The concept of Sustainable Development is increasingly used in development policies. Still, it remains questionable whether sustainable development is feasible in reality. Since a few years, China...Show moreThe concept of Sustainable Development is increasingly used in development policies. Still, it remains questionable whether sustainable development is feasible in reality. Since a few years, China aims to be leading in sustainable development. Their Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) could secure that leading role at a global scale. Nonetheless, many scholars argue that this project is far from sustainable. Others refute this criticism and state that the BRI has the most potential for sustainable development. This thesis aims to investigate this debate by answering the following question: To what extent is ecologically sustainable development implemented within the Chinese BRI Railroad projects in Sub-Saharan African Countries? A qualitative data analysis (small-N) will answer this question. The conditions of sustainable development will be compared to practice by studying three railroad projects. This thesis will view sustainable development through an ecological lens with a focus on Strong Sustainability. This thesis analyses how the projects relate to the criteria of Strong Sustainability: protecting and promoting biodiversity, sustainable water management and carbon emission reductions. The results show that the SGR projects do attribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. Still, they could have done more to make the project genuinely sustainable; a lot of environmental concerns remain unaddressed within the projects. Therefore, these projects cannot be labelled as ecologically sustainable under the criteria of Strong Sustainability.Show less
Women’s rights have been a concern for women worldwide for a long time. Activism and international politics in the 1960s and 1970s led to the establishment of the United Nations Decade for Women,...Show moreWomen’s rights have been a concern for women worldwide for a long time. Activism and international politics in the 1960s and 1970s led to the establishment of the United Nations Decade for Women, which took place from 1975 to 1985. The Decade brought together different perspectives on women’s rights. Western women, women from the socialist bloc and women from developing countries all had different hopes and aspirations for the three conferences that were held. This thesis analyses the interaction between the three different groups and reflects on the contributions the Decade made to women’s rights movements and to the United Nations. Although north-south and east-west divisions were clearly present, the conference delegations managed to bridge some differences and integrate their views on women’s rights and influence the UN.Show less
Studies on China’s involvement in Africa have proliferated in the past 20 years, reflecting China’s increasing political and economic interests in the continent. China is keen to portray itself as...Show moreStudies on China’s involvement in Africa have proliferated in the past 20 years, reflecting China’s increasing political and economic interests in the continent. China is keen to portray itself as a new partner in Africa, unfettered by colonial ties. This thesis focuses on Kenya’s biggest infrastructure project since independence in 1963, a railway linking the port city of Mombasa with the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. It looks at official Chinese pronouncements on the rationale for Chinese involvement in the context of China’s “win-win” rhetoric; explains Kenya’s drive to improve its infrastructure and the potential benefits not only for Kenya but for the East African region; and investigates the extent to which the China-Kenya deal on the new railway is, or could turn out to be, a “win” for Kenya.Show less
Many scholars today are occupied with China’s engagements with Africa, as China is slowly changing the rules of development. One of the largest nations it is interacting with today is Kenya, and...Show moreMany scholars today are occupied with China’s engagements with Africa, as China is slowly changing the rules of development. One of the largest nations it is interacting with today is Kenya, and this thesis will apply three theories in international relations to the case of economic development under Chinese investments in Kenya: the theories of Wallerstein, Alden and Nurkse which elaborate on global, regional, and national engagement with developing economies respectively. The main objective of this thesis is to identify and illustrate the effects of China’s financial support and investments in Kenya’s economy. China’s rhetoric of mutually beneficial cooperation reflects, at least theoretically, its benevolence and underlying focus on development. China’s underlying economic and diplomatic motivations will be discussed, followed by expounding on the presence of Chinese businesses in Kenya, the Chinese One Belt, One Road initiative, and Kenya’s Vision 2030. The Kenyan government should be careful to keep the economic growth in its own hands by not relying too much on Chinese credit loans and investments, but focus at generating its own capital.Show less
Public-private Partnerships (PPPs) are today considered an integral avenue for the pursuit of Kenya’s sustainable development agenda. They are seen as a vehicle through which the government...Show morePublic-private Partnerships (PPPs) are today considered an integral avenue for the pursuit of Kenya’s sustainable development agenda. They are seen as a vehicle through which the government involves the private sector in its development agenda to assist in the provision of public goods and services. The international development community continues to promote PPPs as a model for sustainable development too. Nonetheless, our understanding of the contributions of PPPs for sustainable development is limited. The academic streams on the topic hold rival claims, which further impedes our understanding of the limits and contributions of PPPs for sustainable development. Therefore, it is essential to understand the theoretical implications of PPPs applied on a practical context. Through a case study comparison of two PPP projects in Kenya, this thesis finds that PPPs are not inherently effective or ineffective for sustainable development, but that bottom-up people-first objectives can significantly contribute to local sustainable development, to a national development agenda and the SDGs more broadly. This bottom-up approach, as opposed to the more generally used top-down approach, allows for a more effective and efficient PPP process due to political support and community engagement. Furthermore, the thesis finds that next to PPP design, the political economy of a country can significantly influence the overall effectiveness of PPPs. This means that that future PPPs should take into account the political economy context of the country and its sectors, as well as bottom-up approaches, to optimally contribute to sustainable development.Show less
This thesis seeks to assess the foreign policy during the Kenyatta and Moi administration through role theory. Specifically, National Role Conception theory proposed by Holsti(1970) and a content...Show moreThis thesis seeks to assess the foreign policy during the Kenyatta and Moi administration through role theory. Specifically, National Role Conception theory proposed by Holsti(1970) and a content analysis of speeches are utilised to explain foreign policy behaviour in three distinct decades.Show less
This thesis takes on an inter-disciplinary approach to examine the extent to which the state of Kenya used the genre of portrait photography to create a sense of nationhood after independence. I...Show moreThis thesis takes on an inter-disciplinary approach to examine the extent to which the state of Kenya used the genre of portrait photography to create a sense of nationhood after independence. I take on the theory of nation and nationalism as a framework to discuss and visually analyse the portraits of Kenya's four president and citizens portrait in the form of identity photography. By first establishing how modern-state Kenya came into being, the discussion set a premise to the motivation behind the study. The first chapter analyses the standardised official presidential state portraits, their materiality, physicality and their symbolism to communicate a change of leadership in Kenya. The second chapter investigates the 'self-fashioned' portraits of the presidents which take on different aesthetics and visual codes creating different meanings and therefore are interpreted using other references. The last chapter is a shift from 'honorific' portraiture of the presidents to the 'repressive' class of the sitters- the citizens. This chapter investigates citizen's portraits used in the colonial times to control movements of labourers and surveillance and how it is now used as a form of document of National Identification. This thesis argues that all the mentioned kinds of portraiture contributed to disseminating the idea of nationhood.Show less
The late 20th century has seen a rise of debates on the real effectiveness of international development cooperation programmes, at least in the way they were conceived and implemented starting from...Show moreThe late 20th century has seen a rise of debates on the real effectiveness of international development cooperation programmes, at least in the way they were conceived and implemented starting from the first post-WWII decades. The main outcome of these ongoing discussions has been the urgency of a “paradigm change” in development cooperation, in order to enhance its social impact and increase the resources dedicated to it. In chapter two, which is about my conceptual framework, I discuss this change more in detail. It implies shifting from a model based on unilateral actions from governments, public society organisations or private actors, in favour of multi-stakeholder collaborations between these three categories of actors, to pool together their specific resources and expertise towards the achievement of development goals. Chapter three is dedicated to presenting the emergence of this new paradigm of development cooperation, as well as the historical reasons that led to it, and how it is presently being implemented in the form of cross-sector collaborations. Of the latter, we will focus on the case of public-private partnerships and specifically on their application as instruments of blended finance, explaining the origins and the definitions of the concept and its potential advantages – as well as limits – compared to pure public or private development interventions. Chapter four will present a case study of a public-private partnership established between Dutch development agency “Aqua for All”, and Kenyan company “Hydroponics Africa”, for the realisation of a development project in the area of Nairobi and its surroundings. After introducing the project, we will evaluate the strong points and the shortcomings of Aqua for All’s approach to development cooperation in relation to the project at hand. This will be done by analysing the outcomes of interviews conducted with Hydroponics Africa’s CEO, directly involved in the elaboration and implementation of the partnership, as well as the people targeted by the project, to assess its results in terms of social impact.Show less
The African Union (AU), whose main objective is to coordinate and intensify cooperation for development of the African region, presents itself as an energetic and ambitious driving force for change...Show moreThe African Union (AU), whose main objective is to coordinate and intensify cooperation for development of the African region, presents itself as an energetic and ambitious driving force for change in the continent’s human rights landscape. In June 2014, the AU adopted the Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statue of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights, often referred to as the Malabo Protocol. The Malabo Protocol extends the jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (ACJHR) and empowers it to try serious crimes of international concern such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Although the ACJHR is not yet an operational court, it has the potential to bring positive contributions to a continent tormented by persistent conflicts and a culture of impunity. AU member states now stand before various paths in the realization of human rights and they have been involved in an ongoing discussion on Universal Jurisdiction and its life-form, the International Criminal Court (ICC). A thorough consideration of all the grounds for the AU’s decision to give the African Court jurisdiction over international crimes will then show that the process has been motivated by other reasons than late anti-ICC sentiment alone. This study will not only examine the ICC versus Africa debate, it will also go beyond it. In this way, an African perspective will be offered that explains a larger focus on regional processes of African human rights law not only as a result of growing anti-ICC sentiment. Instead, it will be argued that there has been a legal and historical necessity for the development of an African perspective to international human rights law that is not necessarily meant to duplicate or impede on the work of the ICC.Show less
Abstract: Facing the end of the colonial state during the Mau Mau crisis in 1950s, Britain sought to reshape native Kenyans. This process was dependent on the construction of various imaginations...Show moreAbstract: Facing the end of the colonial state during the Mau Mau crisis in 1950s, Britain sought to reshape native Kenyans. This process was dependent on the construction of various imaginations of the Mau Mau. The British sought to eliminate the Mau Mau “sickness” by responding in a comprehensive manner to what they saw as the issues which precipitated its development. Politically, religiously, economically, and intellectually, the British tried to control this conclusion to the colonial period and shape the future of Kenya by “rehabilitating” those “infected” by anti-British Mau Mau sentiments and create new citizens in the British image. Missionaries, teachers, economists, agrarians, doctors, anthropologists, and government officials in Kenya would contribute various constructions of the Mau Mau upon which rehabilitation efforts were based. Whitehall tried to reform or rehabilitate Mau Mau in prison work camps and in communities, freeing them from the political and psychological constraints of Mau Mau in a variety of while also creating a new economic and political structure in the colony which would allow those who had been successfully been rehabilitated to stay loyal to the British and maintain a privileged place in this nascent state. This essay will explore the efforts of the British to create new citizens and their efforts to define the Mau Mau upon which these responses to the conflict were based. The British government recognized the threat of Mau Mau and the implication its demands for “land and freedom” could have on their control of the State, thus they placed great emphasis on trying to understand, explain, define, and then reform Mau Mau adherents. For the British, this process was contingent upon the development of a construction of Mau Mau identity, an effort manifest in the research of colonial representatives and in their plans for “rehabilitation”. While Mau Mau was, indeed, a movement amongst ethnic Kenyans, it was also the subject of various colonial constructions. The various manifestations of this ‘movement of the mind’ which Mau Mau represented was as much a product of the minds of colonial officials, subjects, and representatives as it was a construction in the minds of the Kikuyu. These conceptions developed in tandem, informing each other, and shaping the development of the state. ‘Rehabilitation’ was at once, a response to the rebellion and a construction in the minds of colonial officials and one imposed upon the Kikuyu, one which was as much a representation of the colonials’ understanding of the conflict as it was an attempt to construct in Kikuyu minds a vision of the future that was already manifest in the minds of those colonial officials trying to shape it. These different perspectives would exist in the minds of colonials who would attempt to actualize their conception of the phenomenon in their plans for reconstruction. As the conflict progressed and conceptions of the phenomenon of Mau Mau and plans to counter the rebellion developed, the various colonial and Kikuyu constructions of Mau Mau would shape each other.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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The mitumba trade of second-hand clothing in Kenya has been growing rapidly the last twenty years, making the street vendors selling from huge piles of second-hand clothing very familiar in the...Show moreThe mitumba trade of second-hand clothing in Kenya has been growing rapidly the last twenty years, making the street vendors selling from huge piles of second-hand clothing very familiar in the street view. The complexity of this network behind the import, unpacking, distribution, adjusting, selling and buying of second-hand clothes, has been examined through a three month field study in Mombasa, the biggest harbor city of Kenya. By taking this chain of relationships as departure, trust and distrust have been uncovered as mechanisms which create tensions, chooses, manipulations, commitments and expectations for second-hand clothing traders. Trying to make a living in this trade requires the strategic use of reputation, social connections and information, making the complexity and applications of trust in this value chain of key importance for the study of the second-hand clothing market.Show less
