Are you planting trees or are you planting people? Squatter resistance and international development in the making of a Kenyan postcolonial political order (c. 1963-78)

Journal of African History

Volumn 56, Issue 1, 2015, Pages 99-118

  Moskowitz, Kara ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

Author keywords

development; Kenya; politics; postcolonial

Indexed keywords

DEVELOPMENT PROJECT; ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; INFORMAL SETTLEMENT; PLANNING HISTORY; POST-COLONIALISM; RURAL DEVELOPMENT; RURAL HISTORY; SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS;

KENYA;

EID: 84922123472     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: 14695138     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853714000668     Document Type: Article

References (97)

1. Kenya National Archives, Nairobi (KNA) BN/85/i4,'The cabinet, Kenya pulp and paper mill, proposed Turbo pulpwood afforestation scheme', 1964.
2. KNA BA/2/38, letter from J. H. O. Omino, permanent secretary to the minister, 'Your folio (107) refers', 24 Aug. 1973.
3. Similar to other parts of Africa, Kenya was, and is, a profoundly rural place. In 1960, 92.6 per cent of the Kenyan population lived in rural areas. The World Bank, 'World development indicators 2012', (http:// databank.worldbank.org).
4. KNA AE/22/142, W. Wamalwa, permanent secretary, Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, 'Pulp and paper project', 9 June 1966.
5. KNA BN/8 5/16, letter from J. K. arap Koitie to the permanent secretary, Ministry of Natural Resources, 14 Mar. 1969.
6. F. Cooper, Africa Since 1940: The Past of the Present (Cambridge, 2002), 157.
7. In the emerging literature on independence and development, scholars have tended to focus more on national development programs. See, for example, A. Bowman, 'Mass production or production by the masses? tractors, cooperatives, and the politics of rural development in post-independence Zambia', The Journal of African History, 52:2 (2,011), 201-21
8. P. Lal, 'Militants, mothers, and the national family: ujamaa, gender, and rural development in postcolonial Tanzania', The Journal of African History, 51:1 (2010), 1-20
9. G. Macola, '"It means as if we are excluded from the good freedom": thwarted expectations of independence in the Luapula Province of Zambia, 1964-6', The Journal of African History, 47:1 (2006), 43-56.
10. D. Branch, Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963-2012 (New Haven, CT, 2011)
11. E. Schmidt, Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946-58 (Athens, OH, 2007).
12. J. Giblin, A History of the Excluded: Making Family a Refuge from State in Twentieth Century Tanzania (Oxford, 2005).
13. For a study of how Kenyan widows became increasingly marginalized during Kenyan decolonization, see K. Mutongi, Worries of the Heart: Widows, Family, and Community in Kenya (Chicago, 2007).
14. Lal, 'Militants, mothers', 1.
15. For some examples of the rich literature on rural resistance in African history, see W. Beinart, Hidden Struggles in Rural South Africa: Politics and Popular Movements in the Transkei and Eastern Cape, 1890-1930 (Berkeley, CA, 1987)
16. F. Mackenzie, Land, Ecology and Resistance in Kenya, 1880-1952 (Edinburgh, 1998)
17. J. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, CT, 1985).
18. J. F. Bayart, The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly (London, 1993)
19. S. Berry, No Condition Is Permanent: The Social Dynamics of Agrarian Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (Madison, WI, 1993).
20. For a more complex approach to state spatializations, see J. Ferguson and A. Gupta, 'Spatializing states: toward an ethnography of neoliberal governmentality', American Ethnologist, 29:4 (2002), 981-1002.
21. A. Ashforth, Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa (Chicago, 2005)
22. C. Crais, The Politics of Evil: Magic, State Power, and the Political Imagination in South Africa (Cambridge, 2002)
23. P. Geschiere, The Modernity of Witchcraft: Politics and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa (Charlottesville, VA, 1997)
24. J. H. Smith, Bewitching Development: Witchcraft and the Reinvention of Development in Neoliberal Kenya (Chicago, 2008)
25. H. West, Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique (Chicago, 2005).
26. A. Mbembe, On the Postcolony (Berkeley, CA, 2001).
27. Ibid. 104. I echo the critique made of Mbembe in A. Ivaska, Cultured States: Youth, Gender, and Modern Style in 1960s Dar es Salaam (Durham, NC, 2011), 21.
28. Kelly Askew's work is informative here for its examination of 'how some of the least privileged citizens of one emergent African nation hijacked and reconfigured the process of nationalism'. K. M. Askew, Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania (Chicago, 2002), 12.
29. For more on the Kalenjin, see G. Lynch, I Say To You: Ethnic Politics and the Kalenjin in Kenya (Chicago, 2011).
30. D. Ellis, 'The Nandi protest of 1923 in the context of African resistance to colonial rule in Kenya', The Journal of African History, 17:4 (1976), 558.
31. R. Maxon, 'The years of revolutionary advance, 1920-1929', in W. R. Ochieng' (ed.), A Modern History of Kenya, 1895-1980: In Honour ofB.A. Ogot (Nairobi, 1989), 75.
32. J. Lonsdale, 'The conquest state', in Ochieng (ed.), A Modern History of Kenya, n.
33. By independence, the ethnic composition of African squatters in Uasin Gishu had become more diverse than other regions. The ethnic division of Africans seeking work in Uasin Gishu district in 1960 was: Kalenjin 31.8 per cent, Kikuyu 38.7 per cent, Luo 13.0 per cent, and Luhya 16.5 per cent. R. O. Kisiara, 'Labor contracts in a polyethnic agricultural resettlement in Western Kenya' (unpublished PhD thesis, Washington University, 1998), 13.
34. KNA AE/22/142, 'Pulp and paper company of East Africa, limited: working committee meeting', 20 Dec. 1965.
35. KNA BN/85/14, letter from J. S. Spears, conservator of forests, to the director of settlement, 29 July 1965.
36. KNA BN/85/14, letter from Angaine, minister for Lands and Settlement, to S. O. Ayodo, minister for Natural Resources and Wildlife, 19 Aug. 1965.
37. KNA BN/85/15, 'Turbo project afforestation scheme: notes on a meeting', 11 Feb. 1966.
38. KNA BN/85/15, letter from provincial commissioner Western Province, 'Squatters: Turbo afforestation scheme', 30 Aug. 1966.
39. KNA BN/85/15, letter from P. Shiyukah, permanent secretary, to A. F. Achieng, Esq., permanent secretary, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, 26 Jan. 1966.
40. KNA BN/8 5/16, letter from Z. B. Shimechero, special commissioner - squatters, to the minister of Lands and Settlement, 'Re: Turbo - Kudler's Farm', 29 July 1969.
41. The program relied heavily on the World Bank funding. From 1970 to 1975, for example, the World Bank loan funded 65 per cent of the project cost. KNA BA/6/26, letter from T.A.M. Gardner, project manager, World Bank forestry project, Eldoret, to the chief statistician, agriculture section, 2 Apr. 1971.
42. KNA BA/6/2 6, letter from permanent secretary, Ministry of Natural Resources, 'Turbo afforestation scheme and Broderick Falls paper project', 14 May 1970.
43. KNA BA/6/26, letter from T. A. M. Gardner, project manager, World Bank forestry project, Eldoret, to the chief statistician, agriculture section, 2 Apr. 1971.
44. KNA BN/85/16, letter from J. H. O. Omino, permanent secretary, Ministry of Natural Resources to Mr. N. S. Kungo, permanent secretary, Ministry of Lands and Settlement, 31 May 1975.
45. The British colonial state and the World Bank first endorsed these ideas. The World Bank, in fact, refused to fund land resettlement programs for smallholdings owned by 'non-progressive farmers', because they were deemed 'liabilities'. P. D. Abrams, Kenya's Land Resettlement Story: How 66,000 African Families Were Settled on 1325 Large Scale European Owned Farms (Nairobi, 1979).
46. KNA BN/97/3, 'Minutes of a meeting of officials on squatters', 23 Apr. 1966.
47. KNA BN/81/41, letter from the Office of the President to the permanent secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, permanent secretary, Ministry of Lands and Settlement, and all provincial commissioners, 2 Mar. 1967.
48. KNA BN/81/158, 'Memorandum by the minister for Economic Planning and Development on government's unemployment policies', 1970.
49. KNA TR/3/58, 'Rural development: programme in representative areas', 29 Nov. 1968.
50. KNA BN/85/14, 'Memorandum to H. M. government on the Turbo afforestation scheme in relation to the expanded settlement scheme (draft)', 27 Oct. 1965.
51. KNA BN/85/15, From the Treasury, 'Memorandum to H. M. government on the Turbo afforestation scheme (second revision)', June 1966.
52. KNA BN/8 5/16, letter from P. K. Boit, provincial commissioner Western Province, to the permanent secretary, Office of the President, 'Land for squatters or the landless people', 18 Mar. 1970.
53. Interview with Daniel Kebeney Bitok, Leseru, 26 Nov. 2012.
54. Numerous informants defined citizenship as owning land, and almost all informants connected development to farming. Jairo Murunga Libapu recalled, '[development was cattle, milk. Being a good farmer. I used to produce 200 bags of maize.' Interview with Jairo Murunga Libapu, Lumakanda, 3 Nov. 2012.
55. D. Anderson, 'Yours in struggle for majimbo: nationalism and the party politics of decolonization in Kenya, 1955-64', Journal of Contemporary History, 40:3 (2005), 547. Anderson traces the regional, or majimboist, aims of minority ethnic groups to party politics during independence negotiations, and a fear of Kikuyu domination.
56. 'The main motivation for the construction and politicization of a Kalenjin alliance was (and continues to be) a nexus of fear of loss and potential for gain.' Lynch, I Say, 6-7.
57. Interview with Kiptoo arap Maina, Leseru, 23 Nov. 2012.
58. KNA KA/6/19, letter from Senator GN Kalya, Kapsabet (Nandi) to President Kenyatta, 21 May 1966.
59. Interview with Simon Limo, Leseru, 27 Nov. 2012.
60. Interview with Christopher Lelelilan, Leseru, 26 Nov. 2012.
61. KNA KA/6/19, letter from citizens of Naivasha to the KANU district chairman, 1967. Naivasha is located in Kenya's eastern Rift Valley.
62. KNA BN/85/15, V. E. M. Burke, deputy director of settlement, 'Turbo forest station scheme', 25 Mar. 1966.
63. For some of the historical and anthropological literature on local contestations of colonial and postcolonial development, particularly environmental and agricultural projects, see D. M. Anderson, Eroding the Commons: The Politics of Ecology in Baringo, Kenya 1890-1963 (Athens, OH, 2002)
64. T. M. Li, The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics (Durham, NC, 2007)
65. P. E. Peters, Dividing the Commons: Politics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana (Charlottesville, VA, 1994)
66. R. A. Schroeder, Shady Practices: Agroforestry and Gender Politics in the Gambia (Berkeley, CA, 1999).
67. KNA BN/85/15, letter from P. Shiyukah, 'Re: your conf. 143/132', 1 Apr. 1966.
68. KNA BN/8 5/15, memorandum from J. H. Angaine, 'Turbo afforestation scheme area B: settlement of squatters', 25 Oct. 1966.
69. KNA BA/6/29, 'Turbo afforestation advisory committee minutes of the 9th meeting', 2 Mar. 1973.
70. KNA DX/21/10/8, 'Joint meeting of Nandi, Kakamega and Uasin Gishu district commissioners held at Osurungai', 15 Sept. 1966.
71. KNA DX/21/10/9, letter from H. K. Ikenya, divisional forest officer, Turbo, to the superintendent of police, 'Operational orders: Coopers Farm and Manzini Farm', 15 Feb. 1972.
72. KNA DX/21/10/9, letter from J. M. Tiampati, district commissioner Kakamega, to the provincial commissioner, Western, 'Squatters -E. A. Tanning Co.', 9 Feb. 1977. The 1977 evictees were mostly former employees of East African Tanning and Extract Company, which sold its land to the government for afforestation in that year. The exact number of displaced employees was unknown, with estimates ranging between 152 and 600.
73. Interview with Wilson Cheruyot Boit, Sugoi, 10 Jan. 2013.
74. Interview with Priscilla Murei, Sugoi, 14 Jan. 2013.
75. Interview with Christina Cherotich, Tapsagoi, 12 Jan. 2013.
76. KNA BN/85/16, letter from C. B. Looman, forestal lands estate to the estates manager, Turbo, 'Re: Trespassers on forestal lands', 12 Jan. 1971.
77. Interview with Chepsiror arap Leleli, Tapsagoi, 12 Jan. 2013.
78. Interview with Michael Keter, Sugoi, 14 Jan. 2013.
79. Kenyans often gave their president credit for the million-acre scheme, a program to transfer land from European settlers to Africans from 1962 to 1971. By the end of 1971, about 35,000 families had been settled at a cost of 30 million pounds, mostly financed through grants and loans from the United Kingdom and the World Bank. H. W. O. Okoth-Ogendo, Tenants of the Crown: Evolution of Agrarian Law and Institutions in Kenya (Nairobi, 1991), 158.
80. Interview with David Tororei, Sosiani, 3 Dec. 2012. This was a common conception, in spite of the complex relationship between both Mau Mau and independence, and between Kenyatta and Mau Mau.
81. Interview with Jamin Maneno Kihinga, Lumakanda, 8 Nov. 2012.
82. Interview with Ruth Jepng'eno Kipkurui, Tapsagoi, 12 Jan. 2013.
83. KNA KA/6/20, letter from Kericho township residents to Jomo Kenyatta, 13 Dec. 1972.
84. Interview with Pauline Tum, Leseru, 22 Nov. 2012.
85. Interview with Frederick Kemboi arap Tum Kiptulus, Leseru, 22 Nov. 2012.
86. KNA AE/22/142, letter from K.S.N. Matiba, 'The pulp and paper project', 19 May 1966.
87. KNA BN/8 5/16, letter from J. K. arap Koitie, permanent secretary, Ministry of Lands and Settlement to J. N. Michuki Esq., permanent secretary, the Treasury, 'New settlement in the Turbo area', 5 Jan. 1970.
88. KNA BN/85/16, letter from Angaine to Kenyatta, 22 Apr. 1969.
89. KNA BN/85/16, letter from Angaine to Kenyatta, 22 Apr. 1969.
90. F. Cooper, Decolonization and African Society: The Labor Question in French and British Africa (Cambridge, 1996). Cooper illustrates the varied possibilities of independence, but emphasizes less the implications for so many of these possibilities remaining unfulfilled.
91. This analysis departs from the literature on postcolonial patron-client relationships that has often drawn greater attention to the upper echelons of society, and has tended to focus on the precolonial and colonial foundations of patronage and the post-1970s period. See B. Berman, 'Ethnicity, patronage and the African state: the politics of uncivil nationalism', African Affairs, 97 (1998), 305-41
92. R. Joseph, Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria (Cambridge, 1987)
93. Lynch, I Say; and C. Young, The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State (Madison, WI, 1985).
94. Angelique Haugerud's The Culture of Politics in Modern Kenya (Cambridge, 1995) is an exception to these trends.
95. Interview with Alfred Machayo, Chekalini, 1 Nov. 2012.
96. Interview with Jemosbei Kirwa Kili, Tapsagoi, 12 Jan. 2013.
97. KNA ACW/1/425, letter from J. H. O. Omino, permanent secretary Ministry of Natural Resources, to Mr. L. O. Kibinge, permanent secretary Ministry of Finance and Planning, 'African socialism and its application to planning in Kenya, some thoughts', 4 Apr. 1978.