Reimagining Development from the Milieu of the Social Justice Movement in Kenya
Abstract
Whereas Kenya is among the six largest economies in Africa in terms of GDP, deepening inequality portends a tenuous development trajectory for the country. An estimated two-thirds of the population in the capital city of Nairobi resides in informal settlements, where access to basic necessities is a prevailing challenge. Heavy capital investments in infrastructural development belie the brunt of dispossession borne by the urban poor and entrench exclusion. The pursuit of ‘capital-centered’ development at the expense of human-centered development is steeped in coloniality under the current neo-liberal dispensation. This context lends credence to capital being construed as unfreedom and antithetical to development.
The social justice movement in informal settlements in Kenya encapsulates the struggle towards decolonisation as an imperative for emancipatory development. This movement draws from the lived experiences of those on the fringes of society who suffer systemic deprivations of freedom. Issa Shivji’s idea of development as a terrain of social and class struggle is apt to this context. This idea is premised on Julius Nyerere’s conceptualization of “development as rebellion” against exploitative socio-economic structures. This paper aims to trace re-imaginations of development from the bedrock of the social justice movement in Kenya, which enlivens resistance against dominant economic ideologies and systems through political education and artivism. The paper will interrogate how these re-imaginations envision a future for African development that transcends current paradigms of development and can help us to better understand development in Africa.
Reimagining Development from the Milieu of the Social Justice Movement in Kenya
M2380
Whereas Kenya is among the six largest economies in Africa in terms of GDP, deepening inequality portends a tenuous development trajectory for the country. An estimated two-thirds of the population in the capital city of Nairobi resides in informal settlements, where access to basic necessities is a prevailing challenge. Heavy capital investments in infrastructural development belie the brunt of dispossession borne by the urban poor and entrench exclusion. The pursuit of ‘capital-centered’ development at the expense of human-centered development is steeped in coloniality under the current neo-liberal dispensation. This context lends credence to capital being construed as unfreedom and antithetical to development.
The social justice movement in informal settlements in Kenya encapsulates the struggle towards decolonisation as an imperative for emancipatory development. This movement draws from the lived experiences of those on the fringes of society who suffer systemic deprivations of freedom. Issa Shivji’s idea of development as a terrain of social and class struggle is apt to this context. This idea is premised on Julius Nyerere’s conceptualization of “development as rebellion” against exploitative socio-economic structures. This paper aims to trace re-imaginations of development from the bedrock of the social justice movement in Kenya, which enlivens resistance against dominant economic ideologies and systems through political education and artivism. The paper will interrogate how these re-imaginations envision a future for African development that transcends current paradigms of development and can help us to better understand development in Africa.
