https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9663-4838
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ABSTRACT
Over the past four decades, the small town of Naivasha in Kenya has attracted tens of thousands of labour migrants. These migrants are looking for employment on one of the many flower farms located on the shores of Lake Naivasha. This article examines how the migrants, who mostly do not settle in Naivasha permanently, carve out space for themselves in the residential areas where they rent housing. These settlements were not planned for by the government or the flower industry, and are commonly interpreted as hopeless ‘slums’ that are the outcome of sheer neglect. In contrast, this article analyses the settlements as ‘transient spaces’: spaces that are particularly volatile, and that are shaped by the highly mobile practices of their residents. In dialogue with literature on East African urban and informal space, this article thus draws attention to the – partly translocal – agency of settlement residents in shaping their living environment. The article is based on fieldwork conducted between 2014 and 2016, which included a survey among settlement residents, archival research, and biographical interviews with migrant workers.
Acknowledgements
I thank Clemens Greiner for fruitful discussions and for his encouragement to write this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Geolocation information
0°46′48.4″S, 36°25′49.1″E.
ORCID
Gerda Kuiper http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9663-4838
Notes
1 Whitaker and Kolavalli, “Floriculture in Kenya,” 341–2.
2 Naivasha is the name of both the lake and the adjacent town. I use ‘Naivasha’ to refer to the area immediately surrounding the lake, including Naivasha Town.
3 Happ, Auswirkungen der Fairtrade-Zertifizierung.
4 See the Daily Nation of August 18, 2007 for an example of a critical newspaper article. See for an example of an NGO-report: Anker and Anker, Living Wage, 15.
5 Interview of the author and her colleagues Andreas Gemählich and Vera Tolo with a foreign farm manager, March 10, 2014.
6 See for instance the following quote: ‘The development of cheap informal settlements such as Karagita slums and Kihoto area have helped to fuel antisocial activities such as brewing of illicit liquor, prostitution and drug abuse’. Kenya National Archive, Provincial Deposit Nakuru (KNA Nakuru), 15/1/Vol. 1, Annual Report of the Naivasha Divisional Probation Office, 1999.
7 Author interview on June 9, 2016.
8 This concept was developed by Bork-Hüffer et al., “Transient Urban Spaces.”
9 White, The Comforts of Home; Willis, Mombasa; Fair, Pastimes and Politics; Burton, African Underclass; Callaci, Street Archives; and Smart, “Developing the Racial City.”
10 Cooper, Struggle for the City; Simone, For the City; Pithouse, “Politics of the Poor”; Myers, African Cities; and Callaci, Street Archives.
11 McGarrigle and Ascensão, “Emplaced Mobilities.”
12 Brickel and Datta, “Introduction: Translocal Geographies,” 4.
13 Brickel and Datta, “Introduction: Translocal Geographies”; Greiner and Sakdapolrak, “Translocality”; and McGarrigle and Ascensão, “Emplaced Mobilities.”
14 Datta, “Translocal Geographies,” 74; Etzold, “(Trans) Local Productions,” 181.
15 Naumann and Greiner, “The Translocal Villagers.”
16 Landau, “Becoming ‘Cosmo’,” 60.
17 Willis, Mombasa; Glassman, War of Words; and Smart, “Developing the Racial City.”
18 See for another case study on a labour-receiving, non-urbanized area and the decisive role of migrant workers’ agency in shaping space there: Jønsson and Bryceson, “Beyond the Artisanal Mining Site.”
19 Bork-Hüffer et al., “Transient Urban Spaces,” 129.
20 See for more details on the methodology: Kuiper, Agro-industrial Labour, 8–16.
21 White, The Comforts of Home, 28; Willis, Mombasa, 2; Fair, Pastimes and Politics, 56; Burton, African Underclass, 13; and Callaci, Street Archives, 210.
22 Burton, African Underclass; Madhavan and Landau, “Bridges to Nowhere.”
23 Kenya National Archive (KNA), DC/Nais/1/1/1/52, Annual Report Naivasha District, 1958, 16; KNA, DC/Nais/1/1/1/63, Annual Report of the Naivasha Labour Officer, 1959; Kanogo, Squatters; author interview with A. Sora, former chief of a Naivasha location, January 22, 2015; and author interview with S. Higgins, land- and farm-owner, February 10, 2015.
24 In 1945, 22,136 of the 22,682 registered squatters in Naivasha District were classified by the colonial government as Kikuyu (Kanogo, Squatters, 127). Kanogo (ibid., 9–11) discusses the multiple reasons behind the Kikuyu squatters’ aspiration for permanent settlement.
25 Kanogo, Squatters.
26 Ibid., 28.
27 Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, Kenya Population Census.
28 KNA Nakuru, GU/9/1/96, District Officer Naivasha to the District Commissioner Nakuru, “Organisation of the District,” January 29, 1971.
29 Kanogo, Squatters; Kanyinga, “White Highlands.”
30 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Kenya Population Census 1979 and Kenya Population Census 2009. The censuses show that Kenya as a whole experienced a large population increase in this period. Nevertheless, whereas the national population was 2.5 times larger in 2009 as compared to 1979, the population in Naivasha had quadrupled.
31 KNA Nakuru, 15/1/Vol. 1, Annual Report of the Naivasha Divisional Office for Agriculture and Livestock Development, 1983, 7; Whitaker and Kolavalli, “Floriculture in Kenya,” 343–4; S. Higgins.
32 Etzold, “(Trans) Local Productions,” 181.
33 See for a description of the eight settlements: Kuiper, Agro-industrial labour, 187–97.
34 S. Higgins; A. Sora.
35 Simone, For the City, 163.
36 Ibid., 168.
37 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Kenya Population Census 2009.
38 A later list of plot owners only contained Kikuyu family names. KNA (Nakuru), GU/3/36/174, “List of Plot Owners Karagita per 24 June 1995.”
39 KNA Nakuru, GU/1/8/10, S.K. Mbugua, Divisional Water Officer Naivasha, to District Water Engineer Nakuru, “Survey of New Water Project: Karagita, Munyu and Kinamba,” April 3, 1991; KNA Nakuru, GU/3/36/127, J.M. Nzukuh, Directors of Surveys, to the Secretary Central Authority, Nairobi, “The Land Planning Act (Cap. 303),” November 12, 1993; author interview with P. Mburu, member of Karagita (EA) Ltd., October 25, 2014; and S. Higgins.
40 KNA Nakuru, GU/1/9/100, Minutes of the Naivasha Divisional Leaders’ meeting held on October 19, 1998.
41 Grace Wangui Mburu & another v Peter Mburu Nguri & 4 others (2015) eKLR.
42 Author interview with the assistant chief of a Naivasha sub-location, June 9, 2016.
43 Cf. Datta, “Translocal Geographies,” 77.
44 Author interview on June 24, 2016. In Swahili (mixed with English): When it’s cold, it’s too cold and when it’s hot, it’s too hot. I’d prefer nyumbani sana. Halafu mchanga pia, ukiangalia mchanga ya nyumbani unaweza panda vitu mingi na zinafanya vizuri. Mchanga ya huku, kuna vitu vingine labda hazifanya vizuri. You need to use a lot of fertilizers. Although vitu zinakua tu, ndiyo, but siyo kama nyumbani. Like things kama cassava.
45 See specifically on the Luo: Cohen and Atieno Odhiambo, Siaya; Oucho, Urban Migrants.
46 Jønsson and Bryceson, “Beyond the Artisanal Mining Site”; Naumann and Greiner, “The Translocal Villagers.”
47 The bankrupcy and the consequences for the farm’s workers have been elaborately discussed in the Daily Nation, for example in an article of February 15, 2014.
48 Anker and Anker, Living Wage.
49 Simone, For the City, 141; Steinbrink, Land und Stadt.
50 Agricultural Employers’ Association and Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers’ Union, Collective Bargaining Agreement.
51 Assistant chief; author interview with a flower farm manager on June 23, 2016.
52 Author interview on June 12, 2016.
53 As indicated in classified ads in the Daily Nation of May 12, 1997, and of July 22, 2004. The basic annual wage in unionized flower farms was 20,592 Kenyan Shilling in 1997, and had only increased to 33,600 Kenyan Shilling in 2004, as reported by Anker and Anker, Living Wage, 59. Land prices thus increased much more rapidly than flower farm workers’ wages did.
54 Kanyinga, “White Highlands.”
55 Cohen and Atieno Odhiambo, Siaya.
56 The description of the events in 2008 is based on articles in the Daily Nation of February 2, 2018 and the Taifa Leo of February 6 and October 19, 2008. See for an interpretation of these events: Anderson and Lochery, “Violence and Exodus.” See for an interpretation of the more peaceful 2013 and 2017 elections: Cheeseman, Lynch and Willis, “Democracy and Its Discontents”; and Cheeseman et al. “Kenya’s 2017 Elections.”
57 Glassman, War of Words, 21.
58 Lang and Sakdapolrak, “Violent Place-Making.”
59 Similar processes are described in Landau, “Becoming ‘Cosmo’,” 66.
60 Ibid., 67.
61 See for a more elaborate discussion on the contrast between Naivasha as a place of work and migrant workers’ rural ‘homes’: Kuiper, Agro-industrial Labour, 240–4.
62 Author interview on June 8, 2016. In Swahili: Watu wameanza kupeleka vitu nyumbani. Unabaki tu peke yako.
63 Although both men and women come to Naivasha to work on the farms, the strategies and investments discussed here are partly gendered. It lies outside the scope of this article to discuss this aspect comprehensively.
64 Cf. Jønsson and Bryceson, “Beyond the Artisanal Mining Site,” 6.
65 Steinbrink, Land und Stadt; Brickel and Datta, “Introduction: Translocal Geographies.”
66 Author interview on October 10, 2014.
67 Happ, Auswirkungen der Fairtrade-Zertifizierung, 66.
68 Lang and Sakdapolrak, “Violent Place-Making.”
69 Anker and Anker, Living Wage, 20.
70 Owuor, Rural Livelihood Sources, 8.
71 Author interviews on October 10, 2014 and June 1, 2015.
72 Author interview on June 24, 2016.
73 Author interview with a housing agent on June 8, 2016.
74 Ibid.
75 P. Mburu.
76 Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity, 79.
77 See for the example of colonial Dar es Salaam: Burton, African Underclass.
78 See for a description of such chang’aa bars in Naivasha Town: Mutisya and Willis, “Budget Drinking.”
79 Mutisya and Willis, “Budget Drinking,” 63.
80 Cf. Madhavan and Landau, “Bridges to Nowhere.”
81 Author interview on June 22, 2016.
82 Cf. Greiner, “Patterns of Translocality,” 146.
83 In Swahili: Ha, hatuwezi kosa. Hauwezi kukaa bila hizo vitu.
84 See on similar practices in nearby Nakuru: Owuor, Rural Livelihood Sources, 17.
85 Author interview on May 7, 2015. In Swahili: Yes, hiyo ni lazima kwa mama. Hiyo ni lazima. Because sasa atasurvive namna gani? Lazima nimwangalie vizuri.
86 Of the 94 survey respondents who were employed by a flower farm, 27.7% reported to own a plot of land, against only 8.5% of the 82 respondents with another main occupation (Chi-square: 10.513, p = 0.010).
87 Cf. Jønsson and Bryceson, “Beyond the Artisanal Mining Site.”
88 Author interview on June 14, 2016.
89 Cohen and Atieno Odhiambo, Siaya; Cohen and Atieno Odhiambo, Burying SM; and Oucho, Urban Migrants.
90 Section 22 of the CBA 2011–2013.
91 See for the elaborate court case on the question where to bury SM Otieno - a Luo member of the Kenyan elite, married to a Kikuyu woman - in the late 1980s: Cohen and Atieno Odhiambo, Burying SM.
92 See for a more elaborate discussion on organizations in the settlements: Kuiper, Agro-industrial Labour, 210–22.
93 Cf. White, The Comforts of Home; Pithouse, “A Politics of the Poor”; Callaci, Street Archives.
94 Cf. White, The Comforts of Home, 1–2; Burton, African Underclass, 11.
95 Brickel and Datta, “Introduction: Translocal Geographies,” 4.
96 Cf. Etzold, “(Trans) Local Productions.”
97 Cf. Calacci, Street Archives, 2.
98 Bork-Hüffer et al., “Transient Urban Spaces.”
99 Simone, For the City; Bork-Hüffer et al. “Transient Urban Spaces.”