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Formal Planning & Informal Settlement
The case of Konza Technology City
Official monument of the launch of the project
Margot Wapenaar 5948401 margot.wapenaar@student.uva.nl Word count: 26.883 Date: 17-09-2015 Master Human Geography University of Amsterdam Supervisor: dr. ir. Y.P.B. van Leynseele
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ABSTRACT
This research focuses on two types of city development. It looks at the (formally) planned city development and (informally) (and unplanned) settlement development. These two types of city development are combined in a specific large-scale flagship project of the government of Kenya: Konza Technology City. It is argued that informality is attracted by the satellite city development, even when the planning is still being developed and the anticipated city remains uninhabited. As a result of the announcement of the project people have come to the neighbouring town Malili where informal structures are continuing to pop up. The government has reacted on this unplanned development by putting a bufferzone in place, controlling the development in the area surrounding the proposed Konza Technology City site. This research discusses the formal planning aspect of Konza Technology City. Next to that it uses place making as a bottom up tool to describe the profiles, the perceptions and the aspirations of the settler in relation to the development of Konza Technology City. This is done with the use of a livelihoods approach. Finally, it discusses in what way informality can be governed, and shows that the perceptions on this are diverse. The governing of informality can range from a technical approach, in this case zonation, to a more process oriented approach, by seeing it as a type of organic growth. The way planners think about this and act upon it is crucial for the future of both Malili and Konza Technology City.
KEYWORDS:
satellite cities, Kenya, city development, informality, settlement, urban planning, African city development, place making, livelihoods
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Conducting research in Kenya did not go as (easily as) I had planned. The unexpected news that I needed special documentation was unfortunate. It took some headaches and quite a while before I received the correct documentation. The uncertainty about the ability to even collect data was unpleasant. It is very unfortunate that this made the first part of the stay in Kenya not as much fun and as prosperous as I had hoped. Fortunately once I received the proper documentation, conducting research went really well. I am very happy to have had this experience. However, I would very much like to thank my very good friend Sieske for welcoming me for a couple of days to her place in Stonetown on Zanzibar whilst my research was at a standstill and I felt very frustrated. Both she and the ocean made my blood pressure go down.
Numerous other people have contributed to this research. I would like to thank my supervisor dr. ir. Yves van Leynseele for the guidance and support during the process. I know that I am not the ideal student. Very important are the people I met during the fieldwork period in Kenya in February and March of this year. Without the help of the respondents it would not have been possible to write this thesis. I am very grateful for the way they welcomed me and shared their stories with me. Their experiences and insights are invaluable to this research.
A special thanks to Kinambuga, who, as a friend of a friend of one of my cousins has helped me tremendously by finding a place to stay for me in Nairobi, as well as by helping me find a research assistant. I would like to thank Wangoi for helping me with translation when necessary, for helping me find out where to go and how to get there, and for making the fieldwork period a special time. It would not have been this much fun without her. Most importantly I would like to thank Chedeye for letting me stay at her place and showing me around, helping me with a whole spectrum of practicalities, but especially for making me feel at home. Asante sana!
Finally, both my family and friends have been important during this process, as they are the ones who let me share the struggles(!), the triumphs and everything in between.
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1 Conceptual scheme showing the concepts used in this research. Source: M. Wapenaar.
Figure 3.2 Conducting the first questionnaires in a local pub; assistant waiting for a new respondent. Source: M. Wapenaar.
Figure 3.3 Conducting the first questionnaires in a local pub; entrance of the pub. Source: M. Wapenaar.
Figure 5.1 Table showing the key features of the survey respondents. Source: M. Wapenaar. Figure 5.2 Housing structures in Malili. Source: M.Wapenaar.
Figure 5.3 Housing structures in Malili. Source: M. Wapenaar.
Figure 5.4 Shops on public land; selling goods, food, clothes, land and commercial plots. Source: M. Wapenaar.
Figure 5.5 Shops on public land; selling goods, food, clothes, land and commercial plots. Source: M. Wapenaar.
Figure 5.6 Shops along Mombasa Road in Malili, the greener hills in the background. Source: M. Wapenaar.
Figure 5.7 Local hotel, one of the few permanent structures. Source: M. Wapenaar. Figure 5.8 Shop where residential and commercial plots are sold. Source: M. Wapenaar. Figure 5.9 Housing around the center of Malili. Source: M. Wapenaar.
Figure 5.10 Housing in the area, scattered over a wide distance, the wide open space behind the structures is the site for Konza Techno City. Source: M. Wapenaar.
Figure 6.1 Main challenges discussed in the Local Physical Development Plan. Source: M. Wapenaar.
Figure 6.2 Wildebeasts grazing on the land where Konza Technology City will be build. Source: M. Wapenaar.
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CONTENT
ABSTRACT ...ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... iii LIST OF FIGURES ... iv CONTENT ... v 1. INTRODUCTION ... 1 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 4 SATELLITE CITIES ... 4INFORMAL VERSUS FORMAL ... 5
GOVERNANCE ... 9
PLACE MAKING TOWARDS A RELATIONAL APPROACH ... 9
LIVELIHOODS ... 10
3. METHODOLOGY ... 12
QUESTIONS ... 12
RESEARCH DESIGN ... 14
UNIT OF ANALYSIS ... 15
DATA COLLECTION METHODS ... 15
SAMPLE ... 16
DATA ANALYSIS... 17
LIMITATIONS ... 18
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ... 18
4. FORMAL PLANNING OF KONZA TECHNOLOGY CITY ... 20
A NETWORK OF CITIES ... 20
THE BIRTH OF KONZA TECHNOLOGICAL CITY ... 21
IMPLEMENTING THE PROJECT... 21
CONCLUSION ... 24
5. MALILI SETTLEMENT AND THE LIVELIHOODS OF THE SETTLER ... 25
A WALK THROUGH MALILI ... 27
OVERNANCE STRUCTURES ... 31
LIVELIHOOD AND SETTLER TYPE ... 32
CONCLUSION ... 34
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COMPETING PERCEPTIONS ON HOW TO DEAL WITH THE MALILI SETTLEMENT ... 36
BUFFERZONE AS A MEASURE TO CONTROL DEVELOPMENT ... 38
CONCLUSION ... 40
7. CONCLUSION & DISCUSSION ... 42
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 44
APPENDIX 1 ... 48
OPERATIONALISATION FRAMEWORK ... 48
APPENDIX 2 ... 50
TOPIC LIST INTERVIEWS EXPERTS ... 50
APPENDIX 3 ... 52
SETTLER SURVEY ... 52
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1. INTRODUCTION
In January 2013, the development of the government-led, multi-billion dollar project Konza Technology City was launched by the president of Kenya (Government of the Republic of Kenya, 2013). According to the plans, the Konza Technology City project will contribute to transforming Kenya into a globally competitive country. The emphasis of the project is on the ICT sector. It intends to be the ICT hub of Africa. Silicon Savannah is its nickname, which reveals to some extent the plans the government has for the city. It plans to create 100,000 jobs and house 185,000 people by 2030, on a 5000 acre area. It is located about 65 kilometres south of Nairobi, and will be built from scratch. This project relates to a trend of the last couple of years, in which entirely new city centres or cities are constructed. Most of these projects aim to replace the current central business district with a 21st century globally connected one (Grant, 2009). Other projects take it further by developing a plan for a complete new city. These types of cities are discussed in literature as New Towns, or satellite cities (Watson, 2014; Grant, 2009). The development of satellite cities is a relevant topic of study. According to Grant (2009) the planning of satellite cities is a reaction on everyday urbanism in Africa. Satellite cities are supposed to create new urban landscapes, meaning that they should avoid problems associated with every day urbanism in Africa. According to Grant (2009) problems with every day urbanism are inadequate infrastructure and inferior service delivery, overcrowding, poor aesthetics, lack of zoning and code regulations, traffic gridlock, and informal economic activity. Large scale property developers are developing plans for satellite cities to respond to the wish of planners and politicians to reshape the urban African landscapes. Satellite cities are usually very ‘green’, and are usually branded in a specific way. A large part of the financing of the project is often done by private investors.
There has been a lot of critique on the development of New Towns and satellite cities. According to Murray (2011:1) these cities are often ‘fantasy projects’, because they represent the opposite of existing African cities. He argues the these cities are spatially fragmented, and have a lot of ‘walls, private security and skyrocketing prices’. This results in segregated areas, based on income. According to Grant (2009), some projects have already displaced people, because low-income families are not able to afford to live in the city. But what is worse, is that they are sometimes forced to move elsewhere because prices in the proximity of the new city will also go up. Satellite cities could incorporate affordable housing, but planners tend not to focus on this, because there is not much money to earn from low-income housing. Also, according to Watson (2014), in complex African settings, the implementation of these large scale city development projects often gets delayed indefinitely. De Boeck (2011:272) states that the wish of planners and politicians for a new urban landscapes relates to the government wanting to tear down the informal city, as well as unruly business and residential structures, in an effort to tidy up urban spaces. In an attempt to change the urban landscape they focus on new developments of satellite cities. But what should be held into account according to Grant (2009), is that these projects may be producing a landscape of elite enclaves and splintering urbanism. Next to that, these projects may initiate a resettlement process that widens the spatial exclusion of the poor.
2 Konza Technology City intends to take some of the pressure off of Nairobi, traffic wise, business wise as well as residential wise. The development tries to be a new and reinvigorated Nairobi: a place of development, economic growth and optimism. It intends to be a smart city, a city in which basic infrastructure is put in place before the building of offices and residential areas and the arrival of residents. At the moment, the project is finalizing phase 1, in which the focus is on basic infrastructure. In the case of Konza Technology City several of the aforementioned aspects of a satellite city can be recognized. Also, some of the critiques can be backed by this specific project. But there is another, not before mentioned, process happening. This project has attracted numerous people that are not included in the project. A lot of people have settled in the neighbouring town of Malili. When land is acquired for planned development, the proposed satellite city may attract unintended users or residents who buy into the idea and aspire for a plot in a place where development can be expected. As a planner from the Ministry of Land said, ‘Konza will impact its surroundings significantly: it will trigger development and urban sprawl and subsequently put stress on the environment’ (Splinter, 2014: 52). This suggests that a new type of very controlled urban development triggers a very traditional process, namely urbanization. Although it is somewhat different from traditional urbanization, because the city is not there yet. The development of the informal settlement is happening before the building of the project is finalised, and this process started before the building of the project even started. The continuing growth of the ‘informal’ settlement triggers different types of perceptions on how to handle the growth. The settlement is growing in an informal manner, as opposed to the very formal plans for Konza Technology City. The informal settlement may imply a set of risks and possibilities to the future residents of Konza Technology City. Informal settlements could become more formal and expected developments from targeted investors might not materialize according to plan. The early settlers (may) build a different town than what was proposed, as the town will reflect their assets and livelihoods.
There are different perceptions on informality. In this case, planners have responded to the production of informality in the Malili settlement by using a technical approach to minimize informality. A bufferzone has been put in place. Planners and politicians tend to see informality as something negative. Informality should be tempered. This research discusses the zonation as a measure to control informality, as opposed to a more process oriented approach, in which the development of Malili settlement is understood as an organic process.
It would be interesting to understand the relationship between large scale, abstract planning and bottom-up informal developments. To understand the process behind the growth of the Malili settlement and the various ways in which the settlement has affected the planning and governance of Konza Technology City, the following question is asked in this research:
How has the Malili settlement affected the planning and governance of Konza Technology City?
With this question the research tries to understand the many ways the settlement affects the planning process, and the other way around. Therefore this research will focus on the settler. It will use their place-making strategies to understand the diverse profiles and aspirations of the settlers, and how they see their future prospects related to Konza Technology City and the Malili settlement. To get a better understanding of the formal planning process, experts have also been consulted. Finally, different perceptions on governing informality are discussed.
3 Settlement can be understood both as a process as well as it already being there. This means it is both a material as well as a social construct. Therefore it is possible to discuss the perspectives on the settlement and on the planning of Konza Technology City of both the settlers as well as the experts. The settlement is discussed as an unintended consequence which needs to be dealt with. This thesis approaches the settlement through the place-making strategies of settlers. Based on the practices of residents, place-making will show and reflect on the assets and livelihoods of the residents. Conducting research on place-making strategies will give insights into the physical and build environment of the Malili settlement development. To understand the place-making strategies of the settlers, this research applies a livelihoods approach and discusses the settler’s needs and aspirations, and their prospects for the future, related to the settlement. To get a better understanding of the strategies, other forces influencing the processes must be discussed as well. Therefore attention is given to the formal planning process which lead and still leads to the development of Konza Technology City, and to the governance issues regarding Konza Technology City.
The settler has been interviewed during a seven-week fieldwork in the area surrounding the Konza Technology City site in February and March of 2015. Experts have been consulted to get an impression of their perceptions on the planning of Konza Technology City and on the development of the Malili settlement. The consultation of experts has been done both in Malili and Nairobi.
The results of this research could be used to adapt and improve current plans, as well as for working towards a more inclusive way of (future) planning. Next to that, the research could serve as a stepping stone for future research.
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2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter will discuss the theories and literatures in which this study is embedded. It discusses the relation between formality and informality related to (African) city development, because in the case of Konza Technology City the planning procedures have led to informality. Satellite cities are seen as formal, whereas the development of a settlement is seen as informal. To understand the context of these processes attention is given to African city development and the concept of satellite cities. Informality is discussed in a normative manner, where it is perceived as a problem. As opposed to the perception that informality is bad, there is also theory in which informality is part of a type of organic growth. Informality is seen as a response to planning. This way, informality can be related to organic city development. This focus is part of the idea that it is more important to focus on the complexity of cities and to understand cities as relational cities. A better understanding of the governance issues related to this project is necessary and therefore attention is given to these concepts. Because this research focuses on the settlement, the settler is central. The settler is researched by using place-making as a people-centred methodology. Therefore, this chapter will also discuss place-place-making towards a relational approach. Place making is people-centred, social and material and relational. Governance issues will be discussed within the relational part, and then finally, attention will be given to the livelihoods strategies. A livelihoods approach is used in this research to understand the settler. In this chapter attention is given to this approach and the livelihoods assets that are used to describe a livelihood.
SATELLITE CITIES
According to Watson (2014) thanks to its resource boom, emerging middle class, and rapid urbanization, Africa is being marketed as a new real estate frontier (Watson, 2014). The rapid pace and intensity in which urbanization is happening in Africa requires a response. This response comes from large-scale property developers, often partly foreign, who develop projects to change the African urban landscape. The wish to construct new urban landscapes comes from the wish to avoid problems with everyday urbanism in Africa, such as ‘inadequate infrastructure and inferior service delivery, overcrowding, poor aesthetics, lack of zoning and code regulations, traffic gridlock, and burgeoning informal economic activity’ (Grant, 2009:323). According to Grant (2009) the new visions are two types of urban city development: (1) satellite cities, (2) new central business districts. This research focuses on the development of a satellite city. The satellite city can be linked to neoliberal thinking. Satellite cities are often the result of foreign investors and investment companies who are seeking new opportunities in Africa. They draw on existent ideas of western cities which are imported to Africa. An idea of creating hubs of growth where businesses are concentrated, typically in areas away from congested metropolitan African cities. The development is often privately driven and investments from (foreign) private companies are central for making the town economically viable (Kafkoula, 2009). However, the exact role of the public and private sector depends heavily on the specific case. According to Grant (2009) a lot of the projects have ‘eco-city’ characteristics (such as, wind and solar power, energy efficient building, green space), and the projects are often marketed in a specific way. Satellite cities share characteristics with New Towns. There is reason for critique on New Town or satellite city development. The involvement of the private sector has been the main reason for critique on New Town developments. Because the private sector is mainly interested in making profits, the New Town developments can easily become elitist or exclusive
5 (Watson, 2014). New Towns are generally thought to be a spatial framework, a space that will become something in time. Because they are completely planned, and built at once, they are though not to have any body and do not own any distinctive characteristics to become a meaningful place (Lupi, 2008). According to Watson (2014) both scholars and media have suggested that Africa’s New Towns are utopian. While governments claim to develop projects that will benefit the entire population, Watson (2014) suggests that ‘the most likely outcome of these fantasy plans is a steady worsening of the marginalization and inequalities that already beset these cities (Watson, 2014:215). Murray (2011:1) takes it further by stating that these projects are fantasy projects as they try to be the opposite of existing African cities.
INFORMAL VERSUS FORMAL
The development of cities is often planned in detail. Especially in western countries there is no room for unplanned city development. Every piece of land has its own land zoning, and rules and regulations make sure that these are being adhered to. In this particular case, attention is given to unplanned city development in Kenya as a result of a highly planned project. There are several examples of unplanned city development, because city development affects a lot of different aspects. For instance, as a result of planning the development of a city or of a neighbourhood, infrastructure is affected. The intensity of the use of the roads or of public traffic changes with the arrival of any form of development, as the development of a city or neighbourhood brings along the arrival of people. You can get these unplanned results when there is no accurate estimation of the different ways a development will affect the surrounding area. A more general concept lying behind unplanned development is the level of informality in a country. A high level of informality will most likely result in more examples of unplanned development, as it is not possible to estimate the different ways a development will affect the surrounding area.
According to Harrison et al. (2008) and Grant (2009) it seems to be generally agreed that there is a strong trend toward informalization in African cities. This means an overall growth in informal activity, particularly in the growth of informal settlements and the informalization of formal settlements (Harrison et al, 2008). Myers (2011) wonders whether African cities are exhibiting patterns and processes that are new and distinct than those of other cities of the world (Myers, 2011:192). He starts with stating that Africa is not all one thing, and no one country or city can be used as the example to stand in for all the rest (Myers, 2011:197). But then he adds that most African cities deal with some struggles: ‘overcoming colonial inheritances of poverty, underdevelopment and socio-spatial inequality dealing with informal sectors and settlements; governing justly; forging non-violent environments; and coping with globalization’ (Myers, 2011:16). One of these struggles is the dealing with informal sectors and settlements. Gaffikin & Perry (2012) focus on informality in Africa by saying that while the new cities presuppose strong planning and regulation, present-day Africa still is largely defined by the importance of its ‘informal’ and unregulated dimension in terms of urban governance. The informality dimension in Africa, or in any other country is discussed as an unintended phenomenon. How it is being handled differs per place and time. This shows that there is a discussion in Africa about informality, both in the economic sense as well as in terms of governance, and focussing on informal settlements.
According to Hart (1983), the informal sector is an autonomous, unregulated, often illegal, small-scale, low technology arena for jobs many people would use as a ways into formal sector employment, formal sector employment meaning registered, regulated, legal, waged, and often
6 larger-scale, higher-technology, legal work (Myers, 2011:71-72). The ILO report on a research in Nairobi in 1972 has also been important for defining the concept of informality. The ILO report applied specific characteristics for understanding informality. The characteristics for identifying informal sector activities include ‘ease of entry, reliance on indigenous resources, family ownership of enterprises, small scale of operation, labour-intensive and adapted technology, skills acquired outside the formal school system, and unregulated and competitive markets (ILO, 1972:6). Different perspectives on conceptualizing informality have been used in the last decade. More recent writing on the informal sector in urban Africa has argued for reconsidering informality more broadly, meaning including more aspects than just informality in business and employment (Lindell, 2010). According to Konings et al. (2006) focussing on the economic conceptualizations of informality misses the wider ways in which housing, land, infrastructure, and services, as well as politics and social organizations, develop informally, and the ways in which state agencies, and other formal institutions, act informally or act to produce informality (Konings et al., 2006). This suggests that informality can be detected in various aspects of a society. In this research attention is given to the Malili settlement, which is located next to the proposed Konza Technology City site. This research approaches the settlement as an informal type of city development.
It is important to emphasize that the views on informality are diverse. Potts (2008) argues that the role of the state towards informality has changed over time. The state has been both encouraging the informal sector, as well as discouraging. Especially in Africa the scale and importance of the informal sector as a source of livelihoods has changed because of rapid urbanization in combination with the absence of growth in formal employment positions. Potts (2008) argues that urbanization in the west has always been combined with a growth in formal employment. In Africa this has not been the case, and because of little state benefits to fall back on, the informal sector grows because it has to fill the need for new jobs, and people use the informal sector as a coping strategy.
Potts (2008) argues for multi-path development, agreeing to let change happen in any direction, either in the direction of a bigger formal sector or in the direction of a bigger informal sector. This, as long as the structural interdependence and links between the two sectors is taken into account and notion to global forces is given. Watson (2007) discusses the future of both informal and formal visions. She states that the outcomes vary in terms of how formal and informal visions ‘work together and how this working together’ will eventually shape the city. As discussed by Konings et al. (2006), the focus on the wider ways in which different aspects act informally or produce informality is needed. One of the aspects which is important for the conceptualization of informality is the informal development of housing and land (Konings et al., 2006). According to Myers (2011:83) the main concern with what informality means or what to do about informal settlements focuses on land. Land issues in countries show the uncertainties with rights to occupy, control, and build on land.
When discussing informality as an unintended process, informal settlement can also seen as an unintended outcome of planning. A lot has been said about informal settlements. Syagga et al. (2001) suggest that as a result of the lacking of clear and specific policies for housing, land use planning and land management in Kenya, a clear division of land is difficult (Syagga et al, 2001). This results in the occurrence of informal settlements. The UN’s uses a definition for a slum which is similar to the characterization of an informal settlement. A slum is discussed as ‘a contiguous settlement where the inhabitants are characterized as having inadequate housing and basic services and a slum is often not
7 recognized and addressed by public authorities as an integral part of the city’ (UN-Habitat, 2008). For the analyzing of slums UN-Habitat uses five criteria of household life. The five criteria are access to improved water supply, access to improved sanitation; security of tenure; durability of housing; and sufficient living area (UN-Habitat, 2008) . A household is considered a slum by the UN when one of the criteria is not met. According to Okoth-Ogendo (1999) three major tenure sub-types can be distinguished in informal settlements in Kenya, namely shared ownership, squatting and temporary occupation licence. Shared ownership means that land is acquired by joint purchase through land buying companies, cooperatives, trusts, societies self-help groups, while individual members are issued with share certificates. Squatting means that land is acquired through invasion of public or private vacant land. Temporary occupation license means that land is acquired by permission from central government through the local authority for the use of vacant public land on a temporary basis. According to Syagga et al. (2001) most of the house-owners in informal settlements have some form of quasi-legal tenure through letters of allotment from Chiefs or through agreements with land owners on private land.
Just like the views on informality in general differ, the views on informal settlements also vary. Planners would often like to see the informal settlements formalized. De Boeck (2011:272) states that it are not always the planners that wish to formalize or erase informal settlements. In some cases it is the government that wishes to tear down the informal city as well as ‘unruly business and residential structures, in an effort to tidy up urban spaces’. This tidying up of urban spaces is done by ‘banning containers and kiosks that typically accommodate informal enterprises, and by concentrating on grandiose new developments’ (De Boeck, 2011:272). In the last decades, governments in African cities have tried to champion the development potential of informal activity, by harnessing it, and thus formalizing it (Myers, 2011). Planners and urban professionals would like to remove informality for several reasons, but mainly to reduce poverty. In some cases, formalizing the informal settlements is used, in others the informal settlements are bulldozed for political ends (Harrison et al, 2008). According to Watson it makes sense that formal planning, especially when based on the rationality of Western modernity and development, would like to see ‘proper’ communities. But, she states, the marginalized majority in informal settlements have a different perspective of what a city should be, based around their attempt ‘to survive, materially and culturally, in ... alien places’ (Watson, 2007:69). This proposes that the unintended outcome of planning is not necessarily unintended by its users. Myers discusses that this brings along two contrasting sets of concepts and practices that are deeply and essentially different, which will crash into each other in those cities, in urban planning, both in the building and managing of environments through land subdivision and its regulation, housing construction, infrastructure and service provision, and in the attachment of socio-cultural meaning and value to such places (Myers, 2011:80).
According to Myers (2011) informal settlements are often very different from one another, and they are characterized as such by their residents. Next to that, they are very diverse within and between cities in the region. Hendriks (2010) agrees by saying that his study recognises the differences and heterogeneity of informal settlements in different contexts and even within the same country (Hendriks, 2010:57). He argues that informal settlements are not homogenous. The settlements are very different in ‘physical layout, density of housing units, size (built-up area), availability of basic urban services, materials and methods of construction, and tenure, ranging from neighbourhoods with methodical planning and a moderate concentration of dwellings, to areas with an arbitrary
8 layout and extremely high densities’ (Hendriks, 2010:134). Also, the socio-economic profiles of the residents are very different. He understands these differences in relation to several factors, including ‘the history and evolution of settlements, location, ethnic composition and original ownership of land’ (Hendriks, 2010:135). His opinion on the informal settlement is rather positive as he discusses the efficient operation and functioning of informal settlements. He states that this is ‘partly ascribable to heterogeneity, which allows individuals and groups to play all roles: leaders and followers, financiers and borrowers, and buyers and sellers’ (Hendriks, 2010:135). Myers emphasises that the informal settlements should be seen as the ‘homes of people,’ and everyday realities are often normalized for residents, regardless of the poverty, hardship, or grief that that form of ‘normal’ might be (Myers, 2011:70-71). Locatelli and Nugent (2009) argue that we need to understand ‘how urban dwellers in Africa develop their own mechanisms of productions and create their own urban forms [and]... developmental norms’ (Locatelli & Nugent, 2009:7).
The debates regarding informality and governance are complex and intertwined. To think of how informality and formality can work together requires a change of governance. Myers argues for some form of hybrid governance over urban land, as it would appear to be the most viable option. But there are some issues caused by differences between cities and contexts. Myers (2011) argues for a ‘deepening of democracy in terms of contestation, enhancement of capabilities, and genuine decentralization of decision-making’ (Myers, 2011:194). Although there are some struggles that most African cities share, Myers would like to force theorists to see the ‘complexities, or the multiplexities’, of urbanism from Africa (Myers, 2011:197). Harrison also discusses theoretical concerns with the way urban planning is being perceived and handled by urban theorists. He argues for thinking across the borders between rational planning and alternative rationalities and practices, seeing particular hopefulness in ‘zones of exchange where different modes of thinking intersect with common space’ (Harrison, 2006:326). Myers (2011) argues that this perspective of Harrison is too abstract, and discusses a model designed by Pieterse, who is able to discuss real concerns with urban development practice. Pieterse (2008) has recognized that there are many different agendas conflicting in the urban policy field, functioning at different scales and in different discursive fields. In the model of Pieterse urban development practitioners, the state, private sector, or civil society actors, have to work through five domains of political engagement, toward a ‘relational city’ (Pieterse, 2008:106). The practitioners should work through the examination of representative politics, stakeholder forums, campaigns of direct action, alternative projects of grassroots development, and symbolic politics. Relational cities, according to Pieterse, are cities that have a more complete understanding of the plurality of action spaces. The diverse set of actors in urban development connect with one another ‘across divides between formal and informal, symbolic and concrete, collaborative and contestatory’ (Pieterse, 2008:106). With this model he hopes to stimulate ‘more comprehensive analytical accounts of political practices in the city’. Myers argues for the relational city as discussed by Pieterse although he worries that the routes to a relational city are diverse and unpredictable. The contesting ideas on how governance is used in relation to informality is discussed in this research. Data will show how the Konza development is governed, and how contesting opinions are realized. It will show the city as a governance challenge, as it is targeting the informal settlement in whichever way. Simone (2004) discussed the representations of ‘African’ cities in scientific literature. He has developed a vision of the countless ‘possibilities of becoming’ there are in African urbanism (Simone, 2004:3). African urbanism cannot be understood as one thing. Simone uses several ‘specific conceptual notions’ as ‘a means of focusing attention on a process of
9 interconnection in the gaps between clearly designated and defined urban institutions, spaces, and actions’ (Simone, 2004:22). These specific conceptual notions are informality, invisibility and movement. Therefore, African cities can be understood by including these conceptual notions and at the same time taking in the diverse nature of African urbanism. Simone’s (2004:241) goal is to ‘provide a theoretical basis for promoting a sense of the ‘multiplex’ in African urban development. Simone’s theory does not comply with the perception of planners to control informality. He suggests a more process oriented view on city development. The settlement is a response to formal planning and should be viewed as an organic process. He suggest adapting to changing realities, as opposed to controlling unplanned realities. It is interesting to see what informality looks like in the Malili settlement and in what way planners respond, or should respond, to this.
GOVERNANCE
According to Kooiman and Bavinck (2013) governance is the organized and routine, but rarely harmonious collection of governing activities executed by interacting actors in response to public needs and visions. All actions are taken to solve societal problems and to create societal opportunities. Governments operate next to private sources of authority. In this research attention will be given to urban governance, which looks at both cities and governance. Urban governance sees cities as large complex systems (Hopkins, 2001). Urban governance tries to explain human activities by physical patterns and socio-economic aspects of cities. It focuses on plans, governance, and regulations as governance tools to improve human settlements. According to Hopkins (2001) the urban governance is based on three aspects, namely plans focus on the making, arrangement, and coordination of decisions; regulations emphasize on the restriction, expansion, and distribution of rights; and governance focuses on collective choices and actions as manifested for example by government and participation. It discusses the physical aspects, as well as the non-physical aspects. The physical aspects consist of the spatial arrangement, like land use and management, transportation, infrastructure, architecture and construction, real estate and environment. The non-physical aspect consists of city economics, city sociology, city political theory, city public management, and city public finance, such as crime, social welfare, institutions, government and organization, administration, policy, and budgeting. These aspects will be used in the research to operationalize the concept of governance. (The original operationalization scheme can be found in appendix 1.) Questions for both the settlers, as well as the experts have been derived from this literature.
PLACE MAKING TOWARDS A RELATIONAL APPROACH
Place making is a people-centered approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces (Schneekloth & Shibley, 1995). Place making in practice entails looking at, listening to, and asking questions to the people who live, work and play in a particular space with the intention to discover assets, needs and aspirations (Schneekloth & Shibley, 1995). In the article of Gieryn, place making is discussed as the making of places. Examples of the making of places are of identifying, designating, designing, building, using, interpreting and remembering (Gieryn, 2000:468). In this research, place making is used as a bottom up approach in which local actors tell the story about informality. Informality is a construction by planners, whereas place makers look do not look at it as informality but as everyday practice. Place makers looks at the insight about place, politics and networks. According to Pierce et al. this is done by recognising the flexible, multi-scalar and always developing meanings of place: meanings that are produced via socially, politically and economically
10 interconnected interactions among people, institutions and systems (Pierce et al., 2011:59). To gather this information a livelihoods approach was used. The livelihoods approach is discussed in the following subchapter.
LIVELIHOODS
Myers talks about an invisibility that ‘haunts a great many areas in African cities’. At the same time he sees ‘incredibly imaginary and imaginative facets’ of the city emerge around this invisibility, which is ‘creative, propulsive and innovative’ (Myers, 2011:197). According to Konings et al. (2006:3), ‘the majority of the residents in disadvantaged African neighbourhoods have not passively watched conditions deteriorate... they appear to behave as active agents, devising alternative strategies to shape their livelihoods.’ According to Lindell (2002:30) ‘in contrast to the logic of land reforms that aim to formalize the informal systems, ‘in their daily struggle for survival urban dwellers develop their own rationality and logic of behaviour, which often do not comply with externally imposed visions of the city’ or wouldn’t be enforceable in ‘modern courts of law,’ but they sustain ‘people’s livelihoods in a context of widening material poverty’. These authors all discuss the ability of people to not only adapt to the situation, but also improve their situation. Ferguson adds to this idea that residents are active agents as they are ‘able to come up with alternative ideas which create creative urban practices’ (Ferguson, 2006:175). This suggests that informality can be positive. Because this research uses place making as a bottom up approach to understand informality in the Malili settlement, the settlers are perceived as active agents. To understand the assets, needs and aspirations of people, this research uses theory of livelihoods to get an understanding of the assets of the settlers.
Livelihoods are defined as ‘comprising the assets, activities and the access to these (mediated by institutional and social relations) that together determine the living gained by an individual or a household’ (Ellis 2000:10). Another definition of livelihoods is ‘capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources) and activities required for a means of living’ (Carney, 1998). Assets theory was first mentioned in rural livelihoods literature (Scoones, 2009; Bebbington, 1999). Moser (2011) moved the theory of capitals from the rural poor towards urban poor livelihoods. When discussing livelihoods assets, the emphasis is on the assets people have, instead of discussing what they do not have. This research will look at both, because place-making discusses the assets, but also the needs and aspirations of people. According to Moser (2011) ‘the more assets people have, the less vulnerable they generally are; the greater the erosion of people’s assets, the greater their insecurity’ (Moser, 2009: 11). The fieldwork for this research was focused on the assets of the informal settler in the area around the proposed Konza Technology City, as the assets can be understood as part of the place-making strategies of the informal settler. The heterogeneous characters of the livelihoods of settlers shape the social and physical landscape. This way, the African city is seen as a result of process driven by diverse, heterogeneous strategies of actors.
Because the livelihoods approach is people-centered, attention is given to diversity between households and the multiple livelihood opportunities through diversification of resources (Hendriks, 2010). The access to assets, the trade-offs between them, vulnerability to loss and resilience in coping with loss, as well as support or lack of it provided through local governance strategies leads to increased security (Rakodi, 2002). Literature uses the term assets as well as capitals. This research will use the term assets, although when referring to other literature, the concept of capital is used as well. Assets are made up by certain economic, social, political, physical and natural means that define
11 someone’s capacity to undertake actions (Rakodi, 2002). People make use of their capitals when they are in an insecure situation (Moser & Satterhwaite, 2010). A division of assets can be made between human (labour, skills, education, health status), financial (savings, loans, credits, wages, pensions), productive (housing/tenure security, tools and equipment, livestock, household goods, social and economic infrastructure) natural (land, natural resources), and social (networks on level of community, city, state and international) (Rakodi, 2002). Social assets are more complex than the other assets, as they discuss the social assets at community, household or individual level. According to Moser (1998) social capital for the urban context is defined as ‘reciprocity within communities and between households based on trust deriving from social ties’ (Moser, 1998). Hendriks differentiates social capital into bonding, bridging and linking capital. Bonding capital is based on the relations with immediate family members, neighbours and close friends. The weaker bridging social capital residents have is based on the relations with people of different ethnic, geographical and occupational backgrounds. They are used for getting ahead and creating public benefits (Granovetter, 1973). Linking capital is capital which will help to promote the interest of the household with people of influence in institutions such as government agencies and banks. In addition, Hendriks states that as opposed to the rural context, in the urban context, social capital is more diverse, less linked to the extended family, more individualistic and less group-oriented (Hendriks, 2010:167).
Some of the interesting results Hendriks (2010) found are discussed as they are relevant for the operationalization of concepts for this research. He found that access to and preference of assets and livelihood opportunities depends on household characteristics like gender, class, ethnicity, caste, religion, age, size, and other household characteristics (Hendriks, 2010: 169). Therefore, an understanding of the household characteristics of the settlers around the proposed Konza Technology City area is vital. Hendriks found that access to monetary income and availability of financial services is crucial for survival of urban households as well as for longer term investments. The natural resources are considered less important assets for urban contexts. And one other interesting finding is that ‘households with a longer period of stay in the informal settlement have larger total asset bases, especially through the building of relations’ (Hendriks, 2010:170), therefore questions about duration have also been asked.
There has been some critique on the use of the livelihoods approach. The emphasis is said to be on the agency of the resident. A deprivation of assets is seen as an inability of the resident. There is hardly any attention for the underlying power structures at meso- and macro level. According to Hendriks (2010) the livelihoods and social capital literature often leave out the political perspective. Bebbington (2006) agrees by saying that the livelihoods approach does not explore the ways in which institutions and structures are embedded in broader relations of the political and cultural economy. He argues that the broader relations drive the ways in which assets are distributed in society. Next to that, they underpin the institutions that govern and give value to those asset distributions. However, in spite of the critiques, this research used the livelihoods approach to obtain a better understanding of the production of informality in the Malili settlement.
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3. METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the research framework. It starts with discussing the questions asked in this research. After that, attention will be given to the research design, the unit of analysis, the data collection methods, the data analysis and finally the limitations and ethical considerations of this research.
QUESTIONS
Existing literature does not discuss formal planning related to informal settlement development in an African city context. Existing theory mainly focuses either on formal planning in a western context, or on African or non-western informal city development. But the combination between the two does not get discussed much. What is happening in Konza Technology City is quite exceptional. This research describes what is happening and does that by focusing on both types of city development and the governance issues these types of development trigger. This research explores the various processes that have been triggered by the development of the plan for Konza Technology City. To accomplish that, the research looks into a couple of different aspects. The research aims to understand how the Malili settlement has affected the planning and governance of KTC. This research will discuss both the settlers as well as the planning aspect, and the relation(ships) between the two.
Before conducting fieldwork, the settlers were expected to produce Konza Technology City as an ‘unplanned city’. The main question was: How do different place-making strategies by settlers lead to
the emergence of Konza Technology City as an ‘unplanned city’? Because there are no people living
in Konza Technology City yet, and the settlers live in a close town right next to the site, discussing the producing of an ‘unplanned city’ is not entirely correct. Therefore the focus has been moved towards two types of city development and the place where these two meet each other. Particularly interesting are the governance issues that are triggered by both types of city development. Therefore the main question of this research is:
How has the ‘informal’ Malili settlement affected the ‘formal’ planning and governance of Konza Technology City?
With this question a broad understanding of both the planning as well as the settlement, and both its governance issues can be obtained. Settlement can be understood both as a process as well as it already being there. This means it is both a material as well as a social construct. Therefore it is possible to discuss the perspectives on the settlement and on the planning of KTC of both the settlers as well as the experts. This question suggests a relationship between the settlement and planning and governance of KTC. The settlement is discussed as an unintended consequence which needs to be dealt with. Discussing the informal settlement will be done by describing the place-making strategies of local settlers and discussing governance structures and vulnerabilities. To answer this question, it is necessary to add sub questions, as they will help structure the research. The information gathered by answering the sub questions will be crucial for the answering of the main question.
13 The sub questions will be as follows:
1. How was Konza Technology City planned? 2. What are the place-making strategies of settlers?
In which the following will be discussed:
-livelihoods of settlers
-needs & aspirations of settlers (related to the settlement) -future prospect of KTC and Malili
3. What are the (professional) perceptions on the Malili informal settlement?
In which the following will be discussed:
-competing perceptions on governing informality -bufferzone as a measure to control informality
The first sub question focuses on the original plans of Konza Technology City. It will discuss the formal plans. The answer to this question will serve as background information, which is important for the understanding of the process of the development of Konza Technology City as a satellite city. It will discuss the governance structures which influence (or have influenced) the development of Konza Technology City, and its unintended outcomes. This will give an understanding of the institutional framework in which Konza Technology City is being developed. To do that, the research will examine the governing processes of the formal planning of Konza Technology City. An extensive overview of the aims and goals of the project will be given, and the key stakeholders and their specific role in the project will be mentioned. Also, there will be attention given to the implementation of the project, and the phases in which the project will be developed. All these aspects will serve as part of the understanding of the formal view on Konza Technology City as a satellite city. It will also discuss the changes the project has undergone since initiation. Sub-question number one is discussed in chapter 5.
The second question deals with the place-making strategies of the settlers. This question is answered in chapter 6 and will discuss the story of Malili Town and the perspectives of the settlers. To understand the place-making strategies of residents a description of their livelihood strategies has been given. Next to that, attention is given to the needs and aspirations of the settlers regarding the settlement. Finally, it discusses the future prospects of Malili Town and of the settlers, based on the settlers perspectives.
The third question discusses governing informality. It discusses the perceptions of experts on the production of informality. Attention is given to the authorities governing the area around Konza Technology City. It discusses the way informality is being handled as a social construct and is seen as a problem by planners. As a result and measure to control informality a bufferzone has been put in place. The process leading to the implementation of zonation is discussed. As a result, it will be possible to understand the position of human settlement in the plans of Konza Technology City. The third question is answered in chapter 7.
Below the conceptual scheme based on the research questions is given. It shows a conceptualization of the relationships between the concepts used in this research. This conceptualization shows the relations that were expected before data was gathered, although slight alterations were made along the way. The operationalization framework in which the concepts are categorized into dimensions
14 with specific variables can be found in appendix 1. This framework was also made for the proposal of the research. It describes the categorizations that were expected beforehand.
?livelihoods
Figure 3.1 Conceptual scheme showing the concepts used in this research. Source: M. Wapenaar.
RESEARCH DESIGN
The research is of an exploratory nature and will use a qualitative method. According to Bryman (2008) when conducting qualitative research the focus is on interpretation rather than on quantification, and the emphasis is on subjectivity rather than on objectivity. The purpose of the research is seen as an orientation towards a process, and there is concern with context. There is very limited knowledge about the combination of two types of city development, (formal) planning and (informal) settlement and the governance issues this combination triggers. Therefore this research has an exploratory and inductive nature. As opposed to deductive research, inductive research allows research findings to emerge from the frequent, dominant or significant themes inherent in raw data, without the restraints caused by structured methodologies (Bryman, 2008). The research will look at one location, or case, and will not study the same phenomenon in other locations. Konza Technology City thus functions as a case study. It will be ‘an intensive study of a single unit for the purpose of understanding a larger class of (similar) unit’ (Gerring, 2004: 342). Case study research can gain deep insights into certain phenomena, which makes it a good research method for an exploratory research. The case can be understood as a revelatory case. The basis for the revelatory case exists ‘when an investigator has an opportunity to observe and analyse a phenomenon previously inaccessible to scientific investigation’ (Yin 2003:42). The case of Konza Technology City is an extraordinary case for now, but can become an example for similar processes in other parts of the world. There are several satellite cities scheduled to be built in other countries where both top-down planning can be seen and informality can be experienced in the country. Although it is not necessarily the purpose of this research, it could function as a revelatory case.
UNINTENDED OUTCOME OF PLANNING GOVERNING INFORMALITY PLACE-MAKING BY SETTLERS MALILI -Livelihood strategies -Needs & Aspirations -Future prospects -Governance structures PLANNERS Formal planning process Konza Technology City
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UNIT OF ANALYSIS
In order to understand and reconstruct the way in which the Malili settlement affects planning and governance of the Konza Technology City development, it was necessary to differentiate two units of analysis in this research. Because this research mainly tells the story of the settler and the relation between the settlement, the planning and the governance issues this evokes, the unit of analysis in this research is the settler. The profiles and perspectives of the settler on the settlement and the development of Konza Technology City are central in this research. The settler functions as the unit of analysis in the sense that they have been interviewed (on a semi-structured basis). They tell the story. However, experts have also been consulted. They were consulted for a better understanding of the formal planning process and especially for their views on the unplanned informal settlement development and the way it should be handled. These stakeholders have been selected due to their respective roles, responsibilities and perspectives on various issues concerning the development of Konza Technology City.
DATA COLLECTION METHODS
This research uses several different research methods. Also within the sub questions different methods have been applied. The use of different research methods will make sure credibility standards are met. The use of several methods means that cross-checking data can be done. This cross checking of data, also called triangulation, means that more than one method or source of data is used (Bryman, 700).
A content analysis has been done in order to describe the formal planning process. According to Bryman (2008) content analysis is used to search out the underlying themes in the materials which are being analysed. It allows categories to emerge out of the data, and is useful for recognizing the meaning of context. For the content analysis reports and documents regarding the project of Konza have been analyzed. Reports, documents and news articles function as a general background for the research. But they have also been of crucial importance for the answering of sub question one, as it has helped to get an understanding of how Konza was originally planned.
Next to that, experts have been interviewed, using the semi-structured interview method. According to Bryman, a semi-structured interview is an interview in which the interviewer would like to discuss specific topics, but there is no strict framework in which these topics are handled. This means that there is some freedom in the interview for the interviewer and the interviewee to explore other aspects of the situation concerning the interview (Bryman, 2008). The open nature of semi-structured interviews means that there is a possibility for discussing other topics, or going deeper in to the question. The semi-structured interview topic list can be found in Appendix II. Experts include staff at organizations that are stakeholders in the Konza Technology City plans, local policy makers or other relevant stakeholders. Experts have been consulted to capture an impression of Konza’s formal planning process, the way the development was anticipated, and how it is governed. They were aked about their perceptions on how to govern informality in the Malili settlement. The semi-structured interviews with key informants have also been crucial in delivering data and information is used to triangulate the information obtained through the research methods in which the settlers are addressed.
In addition to the content analysis and the semi-structured interviews, surveys with closed as well as open questions were held. According to Bryman (2008) a survey is a method that is used for
16 gathering data from a sample of individuals. Every respondent is asked the same question, which will help to compare data. The data gathered from a survey reflects on a certain population. In this case, the data gathered from the surveys is used to describe the livelihoods of the settler, which means that the survey population the Malili settler is. The respondents were asked about their assets. The survey can be found in appendix II.
Next to the before mentioned research methods, some other methods have been used. To get a better understanding of the settlers and their living conditions, an initial transect walk has been done in Malili, and structured observations have been made. A transect walk can be done to getter a better understanding of the research area. The transect walk was done with a local. The market leader of Malili showed the researcher around and was able to give an interesting background to the area. The local was also able to connect the researcher to local experts. According to Hoyle et al. (2007): ‘A transect walk is an information gathering exercise and tool for describing and showing the location and distribution of resources features, main land uses and landscape along a given transect’. Observations can be seen as a similar research method, also used to understand the area better. However, the transect walk is more focused on a physical understanding of the area, whereas the observations focus on the community aspect of the research area. Bryman perceives the observation method as a somewhat anthropological method, because the researcher injects himself in a community to get a better understanding of the community (Bryman, 2008). In this research both methods have been applied, as the researcher has started out with a transect walk and stayed within the area during the fieldwork period. However, it should be mentioned that the stay in the settlement did not last for the full period, because of issues with a local politician, who demanded proper documentation before being allowed to stay there.
During the interviews field notes have been made to understand the setting and context of the interview. According to Bryman (2008) field notes can help the researcher to keep their research in mind in a clear order. Daily notes were made to reflect on the interviews, both on how it went, but also on the content of the questions being asked. This is important because the tone of the interview and the location might not come through in the transcription of the interview. The detailed notes contain the observations of the interviewer on the (emotional state of the) respondent and on the setting of the interview (location, date, time). At some point during the fieldwork, the field notes triggered the idea to adjust the order of the questions of the survey, which was done after the fourth survey.
SAMPLE
The documents used for the content analysis have been collected by non-probability sampling. According to Hoyle et al. (2007), non probability sampling is used when there is no way of estimating the probability that each element has been included and due to its advantages of convenience and economy. The documents were acquired by asking respondents, looking for references in already collected documents and by searching the internet.
Both the respondents for the surveys with open-ended questions, as well as the respondents for the semi-structured expert interviews have been located by using snowball sampling. According to Bryman (2008), snowball sampling is used when a research concerns a special population whose members are difficult to locate. He states that this is especially the case when researching in a foreign country. In the case of the survey respondents, this research has used the snowball sampling
17 strategy as the respondents do not have clear addresses because of the informal nature of the settlement, and mapping the area is quite hard because of unclarity about the sizes of the settlements and the rather large area. Also, by doing snowball sampling the number of respondents has most likely been the highest. A total of 30 survey respondents was met. Although it varied at times, the average time spent on the survey was about half an hour, but some would last well over the hour. Initially, there was the idea to diversify the settlers by location. That is why six of the respondents do not live in Malili, but in Konza Town. Konza Town, not to be mistaken with Konza Technology City, is not located next to Mombasa Road, like Malili, but is however located next to the proposed site of Konza Technology City. Because the number of respondents is not over 30 it is best to include all surveys, even though not all respondents live in Malili. In retrospect, it would have been better to conduct all of the surveys in Malili, but because a lot of the characteristics Malili has, Konza Town also has, it is possible to use all of the surveys. For instance, both towns are highly affected by the development of Konza Technology City, and both are dealing with an increase in population due to the development of Konza Technology City.
Below, two pictures showing the local pub in Malili in which the first surveys were conducted. They were done in a local pub which was suggested by the local marketleader who lead the transect walk.
Figure 3.2 + 3.3 Conducting the first questionnaires in a local pub; left: assistant waiting for a new respondent; right: entrance of the pub, source: M. Wapenaar.
Some of the respondents for the semi-structured expert interviews were also located by using snowball sampling. This was not necessarily because their addresses are unclear, but mostly because it was quite hard to reach experts. In some cases it was possible to reach the experts, but they were either unwilling or unable to help. In the end, sixteen experts were interviewed. The length of the semi-structured expert interviews was very different. It depended on the respondent’s time and ability to answer the questions. It varied from thirty minutes to an hour and a half. Appendix 4 shows the scheme of the sixteen experts, with their type of expertise.
DATA ANALYSIS
Because of the use of qualitative research methods, the data analysis will also be qualitative. The data has been coded. The transcribed data was sorted by type of data: survey respondents (the settler), key informants/experts and observations. The data has been broken down into component parts, which are given names. 542. A lot of the expert interviews were recorded and all were
