The changing value of land in Northern Kenya: the case of Lake Turkana Wind Power

Abstract

Lake Turkana Wind Power, situated on the eastern shores of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya, is currently the largest wind-power project in Africa and the biggest private investment in Kenyan history. While this project enjoys strong support from the Kenyan government, at the local level it has unfolded amid considerable controversy and has been accompanied by accusations of land-grabbing, corporate negligence and infringement of indigenous and customary land rights. This article examines the local effects of the Lake Turkana Wind Power’s construction. It explores how the value of land has been transformed by the wind farm and the effects this has had on local social relationships, territoriality and connections to place. The large-scale, rapid privatization of land and infrastructure development has produced a variety of apparently contradictory effects; local people simultaneously seek to access ‘benefits’ from the project and experience new forms of exclusion. This is particularly clear in disputes over the distribution of employment and corporate social investment. A notable consequence has been increasingly exclusive claims to land and interpretations of local history, as new values ascribed to the land have generated new feelings of entitlement and raised expectations of ‘development’. These contestations reveal that the value of land is about more than the material resource itself. It rests on what other privileges can be accessed through claims to place and belonging.

L’énergie éolienne du Lac Turkana, située sur les côtes Est du Lac Turkana au Nord du Kenya, est actuellement le plus grand projet d’énergie éolienne en Afrique et le plus grand investissement privé de l’histoire du Kenya. Ce projet bénéficie d’un soutien solide du gouvernement kényan, mais au niveau local il s’est développé dans un contexte considérablement controversé et a été accompagné d’accusations de spoliations de terres, de négligence commerciale et de violations de droits fonciers autochtones et des droits fonciers coutumiers. Cet article examine les effets au niveau local du développement de l’énergie éolienne sur le Lac Turkana. Il explore comment la valeur des terres a été transformée par le parc éolien et les effets de cette transformation sur les relations sociales locales, la territorialité et les connections avec le lieu. La privatisation rapide à grande échelle des terres et le développement des infrastructures a eu divers effets apparemment contradictoires; la population locale a d’une part cherché à bénéficier du projet et d’autre part vit de nouvelles formes d’exclusion. Ceci est particulièrement clair dans les litiges sur la distribution de l’emploi et de l’investissement sociale d’entreprise. Une conséquence notable a été l’exclusivité croissante des revendications foncières et des interprétations de l’histoire locale – les nouvelles valeurs attribuées aux terres ont généré de nouveaux sentiments quant aux droits et ont élevé les attentes quant au ‘développement’. Ces contestations révèlent que la valeur foncière consiste en bien plus que la ressource matérielle elle-même. Elle s’appuie sur les autres privilèges pouvant être obtenus à travers les droits au lieu et à l’appartenance.

Keywords:

• land
• infrastructure
• renewable energy
• northern Kenya
• frontier development

Mots-clefs:

• foncier
• infrastructure
• énergie renouvelable
• Nord Kenya
• développement frontalier

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank everyone who spoke to us in Marsabit County. We hope that this article will positively contribute towards understanding processes currently underway across the region. Although every effort has been made to verify the information discussed here, we take responsibility for any errors of fact and interpretation. Boru Hussein Boru (and ‘KAP’) provided important logistical support on the journey to Loiyangalani and shared some insightful first impressions of the concession area. We further thank Cherry Leonardi, Adrian Browne and two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Zoe Cormack http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1794-4775

Notes

1 See the Vision2030 website for list of ‘flagship’ projects http://www.vision2030.go.ke/projects/?pj=2 (accessed 15 April 2017).

2 A businessman from Marsabit, driving through the Lake Turkana Wind Power site. Fieldnotes (27 April 2016).

3 Currency conversions given in this article are based on the conversion rate between Kenyan Shillings and UK Pounds in December 2017

4 A forthcoming PhD thesis is exploring the local effects of LTWP in ethnographic perspective. See (Drew 2018)

5 SIPLF ‘Background’. A copy of this document is on file with the authors. 

6 ‘Community Grievances Against Lake Turkana Wind Power’ (p.1). A copy of this document is on file with the authors.

7 Mars_intrv015 Elder, Sarima (27 April 2016).

8 Mars_intrv016 LTWP Senior Liaison officer, Sarima (27 April 2016).

9 ‘Insight into the Turkana Windpark in Marsabit District, Kenya’, (p.6) November 2004. Produced by ‘Turkana Wind Power’ (an older name of Lake Turkana Wind Power). A copy of this document is on file with the authors.

10 Mars_intrv006 LTWP employee, Loiyangalani (23 April 2016).

11 Kenya National Archives (KNA) PC/NFD/1/2/1 Marsabit District Annual Report (1945, p.26).

12 Mars_intrv005 Community-Based Organisation leader, Loiyangalani (23 April 2016).

13 KNA PC/NFD/1/2/1 Marsabit District Annual Report (1919, p.1).

14 KNA PC/NFD/1/2/2 Marsabit District Annual Report (1931, p.4).

15 KNA PC/NFD/2/2/2 Marsabit District Handing Over Report (1935, p.3.)

16 KNA PC/NFD/2/2/3 Marsabit District Handing Over Report (1945, p.8).

17 KNA PC/NFD/1/2/2 Marsabit District Annual Report (1936, p.12).

18 KNA PC/NFD/1/2/3 Marsabit District Annual Report (1937, p.8).

19 KNA PC/NFD/1/2/4 Marsabit District Annual Report (1944, p.9).

20 KNA PC/NFD/2/2/2 Marsabit District Handing Over Report (1937).

21 KNA PC/NFD/2/2/2 Marsabit District Handing Over Report (1940, p.31).

22 KNA PC/NFD/2/2/2 Marsabit District Handing Over Report (1937, p.4).

23 SIPLF ‘Background’. A copy of this document is on file with the authors.

24 Mars_intrv016 LTWP Senior Liaison officer, Sarima (27 April 2016).

25 Mars_intrv016 LTWP Senior Liaison officer, Sarima (27 April 2016). For employment figures in February 2016 see Leferink (2016, 2).

26 Mars_intrv013 Religious leader, Loiyangalani (26 April 2016).

27 Mars_intrv021 Young man at a road block, South Horr–Laisamis–Sarima junction (29 April 2016).

28 LTWP Winds of Change Foundation Newsletter January 2017. A copy of this document is on file with the authors.

29 Mars_intrv016 LTWP Senior Liaison officer, Sarima (27 April 2016).

30 Mars_intrv011 Local government official, Loiyangalani (26 April 2016).

31 Mars_intrv012 Businessman, Loiyangalani (26 April 2016).

32 Community Grievances Against Lake Turkana Wind Power’ (p.4); Mars_intrv028 Nairobi 07.04.2016.29/12/2017 13:04:00

33 Community Grievances against LTWP (p.10).

34 Mars_intrv015 Elder, Sarima (27 April 2016).

35 Mars_intrv004 Former LTWP community liaison officer, Loiyangalani (23 April 2016).

36 Mars_intrv015 Community leader, Sarima (27 April 2016).

37 We heard this from several people and tried to visit the diviner to confirm the details of his prophecy, but we had to turn back because his homestead was too far from the road for us to access

38 Mars_intrv019 Elder, South Horr (28 April 2016).

39 Mars_intrv023 Elder, Hula Hula, Marsabit (1 May 2016).

Additional information

Funding

This article is based on research carried out for the ESRC-funded research project Cultural Rights and Kenya’s New Constitution at The Open University under [grant number ES/LO11603/1].