Mobilization and protest: the struggle to save Karura Forest in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Recent literature in geography and related sciences has sought to demonstrate the role of different forms of spatialities such as space, place, scale and mobility in structuring social movement formations. In so doing, the literature has gone beyond the conventional structural explanations of the development of collective organized resistance. Within this line of scholarship, some have called for the need to go beyond focusing on single positions of spatiality in isolation from others and to address how multiple spatialities, combined, influence the development and practices of social movements. A fuller understanding of how multiple spatialities impact movements must also include consideration of empirical cases beyond the current focus on North American, European and Latin American contexts. This paper, therefore, investigates the development of a loosely organized resistance movement in Kenya and its efforts in the late 1990s to protest against government-sanctioned plans to privatize Karura Forest, a public forest reserve located in the City of Nairobi. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Nairobi between 2005 and 2006, my findings suggest that a combination of spatialities influenced how the movement organized and mobilized the public to participate in the protests.

Keywords:

• organized resistance
• spatialities
• deforestation
• urban
• Kenya

Notes

1. The GBM has since 1977 been actively engaged in environmental conservation and protection efforts in Kenya.

2. Since 1991, the RPP has been campaigning against environmental and other forms of oppression in Kenya.

3. The KHRC has since 1992 been campaigning for human rights and democratic reforms in Kenya.

4. KFWG is a forum of individuals, government agencies, NGOs and grass-roots community organizations concerned with forest protection in Kenya.

5. FAN is a network group of local communities, policy makers and researchers advocating for better environmental policy in Kenya.

6. OF is a Mazingira Institute initiative that has since 1996 been working to stop the illegal allocation of public lands in Kenya.

7. The NCCK is a multi-faith church organization in Kenya which, among others, works for justice in the country.

8. The LSK is a professional association of Kenyan lawyers that promotes the rule of law in the country.

9. ICPAK is an accountants’ trade group that also promotes the professional integrity of its members.

10. KVEAA is a professional trade group of Kenya’s real-estate agents. It seeks to professionalize the valuing, selling and management of private property in the country.

11. An official publication that the Kenya government uses to disseminate its policies.

12. The commission is named after is chair, Mr Paul Ndung’u.