‘NAI-ROB-ME’ ‘NAI-BEG-ME’ ‘NAI-SHANTY’ HISTORICIZING SPACE-SUBJECTIVITY CONNECTIONS IN NAIROBI FROM ITS RUINS WANGUI KIMARI DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO September, 2017 © Wangui Kimari, 2017 Abstract What can personal histories from poor urban settlements in Nairobi tell us about the history and future of this city? How do these entangled life stories belie vogue narratives of phenomena such as rural-urban migration, urban-development and postcoloniality, while also shedding light on the durability of empire? Through an ethnographic and archival exploration of the poor urban settlement of Mathare, located close to central Nairobi, I argue that urban planning emerges from within an assemblage of imperial political, social, economic and ecological ideas and practices, to produce what I term ecologies of exclusion. In essence, these planning interventions, materializing from within epistemologies of empire, co-constitutively manifest as neglect and force in Nairobi’s margins to create and sustain inequality in certain neighbourhoods—its ruins. In addition, I show how, both now and in the past, this mode of urban governance conjures up and sustains negative stereotypical subjectivities about certain populations in order to legitimize inequalities within its formal spatial management practices. Furthermore, contemporary colonial modes of urban planning require a constant and ever more forceful militarization of poor urban spaces. Notwithstanding this now naturalized violent space-subjectivity enterprise, those who have long been categorized as the “robbers,” “beggars” and “shanty dwellers” of Nairobi engage with and emerge from these ruins of empire through unexpected ethical and political projects. And, from within their urban struggles, they render alternative subjectivities of self and space that articulate more grounded narrations of the history and possible futures of this city. ii Acknowledgments To put it mildly, doing this PhD was a learning process in multiple arenas. And it was really only the caring and humanity accorded to me by many people that kept me putting one foot before the other (and drinking one coffee cup after the other!). Not everyone can be named here – that would be another 250 pages. But, to the old and new people in my life, please know that you have contributed to this in many ways. For the most obvious suspects: Niyoa, my mother, my father (who was the first person who told me to take an Anthropology class!), Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC), Njau, Stevo, Julie, Gacheke, my supervisor Teresa Holmes and supervisory committee – Wenona Giles and Zulfikar Hirji, Nyambura, Beth, Bill Skidmore (!!!!) and my wayward siblings. For the not so obvious suspects: Colette (my faithful friend and copy editor), Dacia, Liliane, Kimalee, Aika, Wakhanu, Blair Rutherford, Toby Moorsom, June Payne (and family!), my Kisii and Kikuyu family, Sinmi Akin-Aina, Tade Aina and my PASGR people, our Dadaab students, my York PhD cohort and even (very strangely) York University for having the back of this international student. And also for Biki Kangwana for your generosity, love and support that has paved this last phase of the PhD. I hope we can create more paths together. For Anastacia and Otabenga. For Mathare (revolutionary) spirits who never let me recover. For the afflictions and affections of the crazy city Nairobi that have shaped both this research and the routes I would like to take after this. For Jacques Depelchin and Aunty P for unwittingly setting me on this path. And in the hopes that somehow this can contribute to more just lives not just for Mathare residents, but for everyone, shukran sana; ni ngatho muno; mbuya muno sana; maze thank you, thank you. iii Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................................ iii Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1 A Forgotten Ruin .................................................................................................................................... 11 Brief Literature Review of Nairobi ......................................................................................................... 18 Methods ................................................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter Summaries ................................................................................................................................. 25 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 28 Chapter 1: Conceptual, Theoretical and Methodological Framework ....................................................... 30 Theoretical Map ...................................................................................................................................... 34 On Space ................................................................................................................................................. 43 Ruins ....................................................................................................................................................... 45 Relics ....................................................................................................................................................... 49 Ecology of Exclusion .............................................................................................................................. 52 On Subjectivity ....................................................................................................................................... 56 Subjectivity ............................................................................................................................................. 58 Matigari ................................................................................................................................................... 62 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 67 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 79 Chapter 2: History of Urban Planning in Nairobi 1898-2014 ...................................................................... 81 Nai-robbery, Nai-shanty and Nai-beggary .............................................................................................. 87 Mathare ................................................................................................................................................... 98 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 105 Chapter 3: A Ghetto of Women ................................................................................................................ 107 Urban Pioneers ...................................................................................................................................... 109 Women in Nairobi ................................................................................................................................. 112 iv The Gendered Everyday, Space and Subjectivity ................................................................................. 119 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 126 Chapter 4: The Story of a Pump: Life, Death and Afterlives in an Urban Planning of “Divide and Rule” 128 Life ........................................................................................................................................................ 129 Multiplication ........................................................................................................................................ 133 Death ..................................................................................................................................................... 136 Recursive Histories ............................................................................................................................... 138 Afterlives ............................................................................................................................................... 139 Chapter 5: Masafara and Watu wa Mtaa ................................................................................................. 142 Youth Groups ........................................................................................................................................ 147 Self-Help City ....................................................................................................................................... 149 Mathare Youth Groups .........................................................................................................................