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ABSTRACT
Taxation represents a claim to statehood and plays a vital role in processes of mutual recognition between subjects and the state. Debates on the benefits of taxing the informal economy have stressed the mutual benefits of entering into such formalized contracts of recognition. However, based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork in Eastleigh, Nairobi, I will show how fixed categories of formality and legitimacy are inadequate for capturing the empirical realities of trade and taxation in Eastleigh and beyond. Rather we need to recognize how practices of trade, taxation and governance are continuously contested and move along continuums of (in)formalization and (il)legitimization. I argue that insights into these processes lead to a broader perspective on contracts of recognition, allowing us to (a) recognize practical contracts constituted within state institutions without adhering to formalized laws and regulations and (b) question the perception of fixed links between formality and legitimacy that implicitly underlie much of the dominant development discourse on taxing the informal economy.
Acknowledgements
Research for this article has been funded by the Danish Consultative Research Committee for Development Research (FFU) under the GOVSEA project. I am grateful to Lisa Richey, Neil Carrier, Tobias Hagmann, Eric Hahonou and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on earlier versions of the article. Any remaining faults and flaws are my own.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Carrier, Little Mogadishu, 240.
2 Moore, “Between Coercion and Contract,” 35.
3 Lund, “Rule and Rupture.”
4 Bierschenk and Olivier de Sardan, States at Work; de Herdt and Olivier de Sardan, Real Governance and Practical Norms.
5 Lund, “Rule and Rupture,” 1209.
6 Carrier, Little Mogadishu.
7 Author’s notes, 10 December 2016.
8 Lindley, “Protracted Displacement and Remittances”; Abdulsamed, Somali Investment in Kenya; Lochery, “Rendering Difference Visible”; Carrier and Lochery, “Missing States: Somali Trade”; Little, “‘A Sort of Free Business’”; Carrier, Little Mogadishu.
9 Lindley, “Protracted Displacement and Remittances”; Lochery, “Rendering Difference Visible”; Carrier and Lochery, “Missing States: Somali Trade.”
10 A term used to denote Somalis from Somalia, as opposed to Somalis from Kenya or Ethiopia (See Carrier, Little Mogadishu).
11 Hart, “Informal Income Opportunities.”
12 ILO, Employment, Incomes and Equality; Hansen and Vaa, Reconsidering Informality.
13 Castells and Portes, “World Underneath.”
14 AlSayyad, “Urban Informality.”
15 Joshi, Prichard, and Heady, “Taxing the Informal Economy,” 1327.
16 Abraham and van Schendel, Illicit Flows and Criminal Things.
17 Meagher, Identity Economics.
18 Roitman, Fiscal Disobedience.
19 Joshi , Prichard, and Heady, “Taxing the Informal Economy.”
20 Bierschenk and Olivier de Sardan, States at Work; de Herdt and Olivier de Sardan, Real Governance and Practical Norms; Lund, “Rule and Rupture.”
21 cf. Meagher, “Introduction: Special Issue.”
22 Ibid.,411.
23 Ibid.
24 Boege et.al., “On Hybrid Political Orders.”
25 MacGinty, “Hybrid Peace”; Moe, “Hybrid and ‘Everyday’ Political Ordering”; Albrecht, “The Interplay of Interventions.”
26 Renders and Terlinden, “Negotiating Statehood”; Ahmad, “The Security Bazar”; Hoffmann, Vlassenroot, and Marchais, “Taxation, Stateness and Armed Groups.”
27 Titeca and de Herdt, “Real Governance”; Schäferhoff, “External Actors.”
28 Hagmann and Péclard, “Negotiating Statehood”; Hoehne, “Limits of Hybrid Political Orders.”
29 van den Boogaard, Prichard, and Jibao, “Informal Taxation in Sierra Leone,” 266; Prud’homme, “Informal Local Taxation.”
30 Ibid., 267.
31 Ibid., 268.
32 Varming, “Urban Subjects.”
33 Abraham and van Schendel, Illicit Flows and Criminal Things.
34 Heyman, “The Study of Illegality and Legality.”
35 Joshi, Prichard, and Heady, “Taxing the Informal Economy”; Meagher, “Taxing Times.”
36 Joshi, Prichard, and Heady, “Taxing the Informal Economy.”
37 Ibid.
38 de Soto, The Mystery of Capital; Lindell, “Between Exit and Voice.”
39 Interview, KRA, Nairobi, 9 April 2015.
40 Lund, “Rule and Rupture”; Varming, “Experiential Limits of the State”; Varming, “Ideological Taxation.”
41 NTV, “National Land Commission Revokes Title Deed.” 26 October 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEOnA-qFI2s; NTV, “Construction Taking Place Despite Stop Order.” 26 May 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k0lnZRyjqM.
42 Interview, Eastleigh Hawkers’ Association, Nairobi, 22 December 2016; The Star, “County Urged to Pay Traders and Build Market in Eastleigh.” 8 September 2016, https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/08/09/county-urged-to-pay-traders-and-build-market-in-eastleigh_c1400166.
43 NTV, “National Land Commission Revokes Title Deed.” 26 October 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEOnA-qFI2s; NTV, “Construction Taking Place Despite Stop Order.” 26 May 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k0lnZRyjqM.
44 NTV, “National Land Commission Revokes Title Deed.” 26 October 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEOnA-qFI2s.
45 NTV, “Construction Taking Place Despite Stop Order.” 26 May 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k0lnZRyjqM.
46 Interview, Eastleigh Hawkers’ Association, Nairobi, 22 December 2016.
47 Petition no. 14 of 2016; See also Varming, “Urban Subjects,” for a detailed discussion of these petitions and their significance for the Somali community in Eastleigh.
48 Roitman, “Productivity in the Margins,” 205.
49 Interview, female Somali hawkers, Nairobi, 5 May 2015.
50 Interview, female non-Somali hawker, Nairobi, 5 May 2015.
51 Ibid.
52 As mentioned above, the processes of (in)formalization in Eastleigh are complex and continuous. You will find examples of traders operating within malls or in other privately owned business premises without licenses. However, viewed in general terms, registration serves as a distinguishing characteristic between the two groups of traders discussed here.
53 Interview, investment company, Nairobi, 13 May 2015.
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid.
56 Interview, NCC, Nairobi, 21 May 2015.
57 Olivier de Sardan, “Researching the Practical Norms.”
58 Interview, NCC, Nairobi, 21 May 2015.
59 Titeca and de Herdt, “Real Governance.”
60 Petition no. 14 of 2016.
61 Ibid.
62 Interview, small shop, Nairobi, 30 March 2015.
63 Meagher, “Taxing Times,” 5.
64 van den Boogaard, Prichard, and Jibao, “Informal Taxation in Sierra Leone,” 268.
65 Interview, mall management, Nairobi, 22 December 2016.
66 Ibid.
67 Petition No. 14 of 2016.
68 Interview, mall management, Nairobi, 22 December 2016.
69 Ibid.; Interview, shop manager 1, Nairobi, 26 December 2016.
70 Boege et al., “On Hybrid Political Orders”; Hoffmann, Vlassenroot, and Marchais, “Taxation, Stateness and Armed Groups”; Varming, “Ideological Taxation.”
71 Interview, ex-hawker, Nairobi, 26 December 2016.
72 Author’s notes, Nairobi, 21 December 2016.
73 Kinyanjui, “Women Informal Garment Traders.”
74 Interview, female hawker 1, Nairobi, 21 December 2016.
75 Interview, female hawker 3, Nairobi, 21 December 2016.
76 Interview, female hawker 1, Nairobi, 21 December 2016.
77 The Star, “[VIDEO] Mall owners, hawkers clash in Eastleigh.” 4 March 2017, https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017-03-04-video-mall-owners-hawkers-clash-in-eastleigh/.
78 The Star, “Hawkers barred from operating outside Eastleigh malls.” 6 March 2017, https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017-03-06-hawkers-barred-from-operating-outside-eastleigh-malls/.
79 PesaCheck, “Are there options for hawkers in Nairobi?”
80 Lindell, “Between Exit and Voice”; Meagher, “Introduction: Special Issue.”