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
Through analysis of 36 articles in Kenya's most-read newspaper 'the Daily Nation', it has become apparent that most articles concerning the Belt and Road Initiative in this medium were written by...Show moreThrough analysis of 36 articles in Kenya's most-read newspaper 'the Daily Nation', it has become apparent that most articles concerning the Belt and Road Initiative in this medium were written by people in the employ of the Chinese government. The articles were also extremely positive on joint cooperation between Kenya and China and made a big point of China's goodwill vis-a-vis the Kenyan populace.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
This BA thesis deals with the persistence of FGM in Kenya despite various attempts to erase the practice, looking in particular at underlying social dimensions.
