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Ken Flottman’s Blog on Democracy in Kenya, East Africa and the United States

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Tag Archives: labor

Happy International Tea Day

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Ken
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politics interlude . . . (of course the image of a worker on a tea plantation can be politically freighted . . .)

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Posted in agriculture, Development in Africa, Kenya, UK | Tagged agriculture, exports, James Findlay, Kenya, Kericho, labor, tea, trade, worker | Leave a reply

“Incredible Shrinking Kibera”–a lesson that should inspire humility in Western capitals

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Ken
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When we see popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya that no one in the United States or the West more generally seems to have anticipated we ought naturally to be drawn to some soul searching about how much we really know about societies and countries in Africa–and how what we do know gets filtered and reported back to policy makers and the public at home.

My experience in East Africa and what I have learned since certainly suggested caution and humility to me.  One particular glaring example I can highlight is the fiasco of what I will call “Incredible Shrinking Kibera”.  First let’s start with the setting:  right in the heart of Nairobi, one of the most cosmopolitan African capitals in many respects–a city that is a magnet for Western expats, in particular offices of international organizations and NGOs on a regional or Africa-wide basis, as well as a huge regional diplomatic presence.  Lots of tourists from the UK and the US in particular.  Yet, it has turned out that Western conventional wisdom about Nairobi has included numbers for the population of the Kibera informal settlement (“the largest slum in Africa”) that are vastly beyond those cited in Kenya’s new census.  Either the conventional wisdom about 1 million people, or perhaps many more, living in Kibera was vastly inflated, or the new Kenya census finding only a fraction of that population is completely flawed–or both if the real population is, say, double the census figure and less than half the “conventional wisdom”.   If Kenya can’t get anywhere close in a census, even in Nairobi, then how serious can we really be about drawing new boundaries and electoral districts and free and fair elections with equal voting rights for all citizens next year?  If the census is close, then a lot of us in the West have been shown to be either seriously misinformed about something that shouldn’t be so hard to know, or of “spinning” beyond the bounds of a fair representation of the facts.  I myself have referenced the “conventional wisdom” without the skepticism that I should have had.

I was fortunate to have a friend in Kibera and thus an introduction to one family and community in one neighborhood there, as well as being involved in a pre-election survey of the Langata parliamentary constituency in December 2007 and in observing a bit of the voting in one of the more upscale areas on election day with our international delegates.  I started to scratch the surface.  Personally, my family and I had more connection to Kawangware.  Wherever you live in Nairobi, if you are interested, you can pick a nearby informal settlement and start getting acquainted.

Here is a good blog about Kibera:

“Slum Tourism in Kibera: Education or Exploitation?” Brian Ekdale

4) Don’t assume you understand Kibera after spending a couple of hours there. I’ve been there 10 months and still learn new things every day. Kibera is a very complex place. People like to say 1 million residents, but population figures are contested. Not every organization is doing what they say they are doing. Not everyone is impoverished (I know some who have good jobs but would rather financially support their families and neighbors than move to a wealthy area and leave behind those that helped raise them). Now that you’ve been there, go back and read those articles and watch those videos I mentioned in #2.

5) Don’t think Nairobi is a city of contradictions. Sure, you can get a mocha and french toast at Nairobi Java House, go on a Kibera tour in the late morning, and then grab some upscale Indian food at Yaya Centre for lunch without traveling very far. But understand the Java House/Yaya/Westgate life does not exist in spite of Nairobi’s slum population, they exist because of Nairobi’s slum population. Cheap labor built those massive structures. Cheap labor stocked the shelves. And cheap labor keeps them running. That labor walks home at night to sleep in Kibera, or Korogocho, or Mathare, etc.


Maziwa Fresh, a photo by AfriCommons on Flickr.

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Posted in democracy, Development in Africa, elections, Kenya, Nairobi, Poverty, Tourism | Tagged census, Kenya, Kibera, labor, Nairobi, population, voting | Leave a reply

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AfriCommons Favorites

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  • 👉🏼Why would we trust the Kenyan IEBC vote tally when they engaged in fraudulent procurement practices for key technology?

FOIA Cables and the 2007 Kenyan election--a series

  • a. Lessons for Kenya's 2012 election from the truth trickling out about 2007–New cables from FOIA (Part One)
  • b. Lessons from the 2007 elections and the new FOIA cables–Part Two
  • c. Lessons from the 2007 Kenyan election and the new FOIA cables–Part Three
  • d. Lessons from the 2007 elections and the new FOIA cables–Part Four
  • e. Lessons from the 2007 elections and the new FOIA cables–Part Five
  • f. Part Six–What did the U.S. Ambassador report to Washington the day after the Kenyan election?
  • g. Part Seven–One last FOIA cable on the 2007 Exit Poll
  • h. Part Eight–New Kenya FOIA documents: Diplomacy vs. Assistance Revisted; or Why Observe Elections If We Don't Tell People What We See?
  • i. Part Nine–What Narrative Was the State Department's Africa Bureau Offering the Media While Kenyans Were Still Voting? And Why?
  • j. Part Ten–FOIA documents from Kenya's 2007 election–Ranneberger at the ECK: "Much can happen between the casting of of votes and final tabulation of ballots, and it did"
  • k. Freedom of Information Series (Part 11): Better to Learn More Lessons from Kenya's Last Election After the Next One?
  • l. Africa Bureau under Frazer coordinated "recharacterization" of 2007 Kenya Exit Poll showing Odinga win (New Documents–FOIA Series No. 12)
  • m. Why is IRI’s report on the Kenya 2007 Exit Poll missing from the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse? (FOIA Series Part 13)
  • n. The simple truth of the allegedly "contested" Kenya 2007 exit poll–what IRI reported to USAID (FOIA series part 14, War for History series part 19)

Organizations

  • ACE Electoral Knowledge Network (UNDEF)-Kenya
  • Africa Research Institute
  • African Politics Conference Group
  • AFRICOG: Africa Centre for Open Governance
  • Centre for Multiparty Democracy-Kenya
  • East Africa Initiative–Open Society
  • ELOG–Election Observation Group
  • InformAction–Kenya 2017 election reporting
  • International Center for Transitional Justice–Kenya
  • International Commission of Jurists–Kenyan Section
  • Inuka Kenya Trust
  • Kenya Human Rights Commission
  • National Council of Churches of Kenya
  • Transparency Int'l-Kenya

Studies and Reports

  • "Ballots to Bullets"–Human Rights Watch
  • "Count Down to Deception: 30 Hours that Destroyed Kenya" – Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice
  • "Kenya: a country fragmented" – Africa Research Institute
  • "Turning Pebbles: Evading Accountability for Post-Election Violence in Kenya"–Human Rights Watch, Dec. '11
  • Commission of Inquiry into 2007 elections (Kriegler Commssion)
  • Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence (Waki Report)
  • USAID–Assessment of the Pre-electoral Environment: AN EVALUATION OF SUPPORT TO THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR . . . 2007 ELECTIONS

US Government

  • Africa Center for Security Studies
  • AFRICOM–US Military Command
  • House Foreign Affairs Committee
  • Senate Foreign Relations Committee
  • State Dept. Africa Bureau
  • U.S. Senate Resolution on 2013 Kenya Election, etc. (bipartisan; unanimous consent)
  • United States Institute of Peace – Africa
  • USAID Blog
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