By Gediminas Lesutis
People’s responses to large infrastructure projects – railways, bridges, highways – are rarely neutral. To some, these projects represent powerful social and political promises of transformative change and a brighter future. To others, they mean evictions and the disruption of livelihoods.
The reaction of Kenyans to the country’s Standard Gauge Railway, dubbed the Madaraka Express, is no different.
In 2017, Kenya finished the railway’s first phase, which connects the Port of Mombasa to the country’s interior. Its second phase stops abruptly in Naivasha, a town 120km northwest of the capital, Nairobi. Ultimately, the railway is planned to reach Kenya’s border with Uganda at Malaba, helping further to connect East Africa’s regional transport and trade.
Alongside other large projects, such as a transport corridor from the Lamu Port to South Sudan and Ethiopia, the Standard Gauge Railway is central to Kenya’s current national development policy, Vision 2030.
The policy frames these mega-projects as key to attracting the private sector interest needed to fuel economic growth, increase exports and alleviate poverty. From this perspective, the new railway is a powerful symbol of development, change, and national pride.
But there’s a flip side. In my earlier research on the impact of the railway project, I looked at evictions, displacement, and the interruption of livelihoods. In my new study, I sought to examine how people cope with these disruptions in their lives.
The resounding response? This mega-project has yet to bring the promised positive changes. My latest research builds on my earlier work, which showed that the project increased socio-economic inequalities across Kenya. I demonstrated that mega-projects tend to represent only the state’s and business elites’ interests.
In this study, I further explore how those most disadvantaged to experience the changes brought by mega-projects.
Villages cut in two
I undertook more than five months of fieldwork between November 2018 and January 2020 in different urban, peri-urban and rural locations between Mombasa and Narok in the country’s southwest. I interviewed more than 200 people to better understand whether and how the new railway had affected their lives.
Makueni County is located in the south-eastern part of Kenya. Some of the county’s small villages, such as Kima, home to over 400 people, were cut into two when the railway was built. An embankment and fence runs right through what was once a single village. Previously, residents could visit their neighbours and relatives in less than 15 minutes. Today, it takes one hour to reach the closest underpass that connects Kima.
As a group of men in the village told me, “(The government is) imagining that they are creating development for the people, but this is not the case; this railway brings serious problems (here) – the road to development is paved on the pain and suffering of poor people like us.”
According to community leaders, this disruption of local mobility patterns occurred due to a blatant disregard for their lives from the national government and the project contractor, China Road and Bridge Corporation.
Several community liaison officers expressed similar views in other parts of Kenya. They were contracted by Kenya Railways to mediate community relations before and during the railway’s construction. These officers explained how the railway design was developed without prior community consultation and ignored existing mobility routes.
What’s needed
As demonstrated in other contexts, the key to avoiding mega-projects having a dramatic effect on vulnerable groups is to rigorously assess the social and environmental impacts before, during, and after project construction.
These legal mechanisms exist in Kenya. But there needs to be more political will to use them.These projects are likely to bring the promised development if local people’s needs and livelihoods are considered when mega infrastructure is planned and implemented.
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