Creativity in Everyday Practice : Resources and Livelihoods In
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Creativity in Everyday Practice Resources and livelihoods in Nyamira, Kenya Promotor: Prof. Dr. L.E. Visser Hoogleraar in de Rurale Ontwikkelingssociologie Wageningen Universiteit Co-promotor: Dr. P. G. M. Hebinck Universitair docent, Leerstoelgroep Rurale Ontwikkelingssociologie Wageningen Universiteit Dr. M. Omosa Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Development Studies University of Nairobi, Kenya Promotiecommissie: Prof. Dr. Ir. J. D. van der Ploeg, Wageningen Universiteit Prof. Dr. T. Dietz, Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof. Dr. L de Haan, Afrika Studie Centrum, Leiden Prof. Dr. P. Richards, Wageningen Universiteit Dit onderzoek is uitgevoerd binnen de onderzoeksschool CERES Creativity in Everyday Practice Resources and livelihoods in Nyamira, Kenya Edward Ontita Proefschrfit Ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor Op gezag van de rector magnificus van Wageningen Universiteit, Prof. Dr. M. J. Kropff in het openbaar te verdedigen op woensdag 28 maart 2007 des namiddags om 13.30 uur in de Aula Ontita, E. Creativity in Everyday Practice Rural household resources and livelihoods in Nyamira, Kenya ISBN: 90-5808- 617-3 For Cathy, Kevin & Ray Table of Contents List of Abbreviations xii Acknowledgements xiv Chapter 1. Introduction: Moving into Sengeta 1 Introduction 1 Commencing Life: cattle, goats and marriage 4 Scenarios in locating resources for marriage 9 What is a village? 12 Sengeta Village in a wider context 14 Outline of the book 14 Chapter 2. A Historical Overview of the Nyamira Landscape 19 Introduction 19 Landscape 20 Origins of Abagusii: myths and realities 20 Religion and Labour Organisation 22 Colonisation 24 Physical Features 28 Eucalyptus 30 Population 31 Education, Communication and Employment 32 Trade 33 Craft making and sales 35 Agricultural and Livestock Development 35 Land 37 Livestock 37 Tea 39 Maize 42 Finger Millet 43 Conclusion 46 Chapter 3. Resources and Livelihood: A Theoretical Mapping 49 Introduction 49 An Actor-Oriented Perspective 49 Livelihood Approaches 52 Resource – Livelihood Nexus 58 Landscape, Actor and Livelihood: Co-production of Resources 60 Conceptualising Resources 63 Agrarian Change: shifts of emphasis in rural livelihoods 67 Struggles with and within institutions 72 Social security and its analytical relevance 77 Identity and Lifestyle 79 Unit of analysis: the elusive household 82 Conclusion 85 Chapter 4. Methodological Approach 87 Introduction 87 Data Collection 88 Secondary Data 88 Extended Case Studies 89 Extended Case Studies in Context 91 Petro 92 Saulo 96 Nyandika 100 Dinah 104 Nyarwaru 106 Angima 107 Isena 111 Ogwagwa 113 Concluding Remarks 117 Chapter 5. Smallholder Tea Farming and Livelihood 121 Introduction 121 The Place of Tea in the Kenyan Economy 121 Smallholder Tea Growing in Rural Kenya 122 Tea: Locating a Resource in the Hands of Villagers 124 Genesis of Village Tea Growing: the Kericho Connection 124 Cultivating Labour for Tea Farming 131 Earning a Living through Tea: Resource Moulding in different ways 134 Tea Earnings and Making a Living through Sharing with others: ‘Feeling Alive’ 136 Villagers’ Assessment of their own Livelihood Outcomes 140 Deploying the tea resource with limited success: Saulo’s story 140 Varied Socio-cultural Dispositions and Livelihood Outcomes 142 Concluding Remarks 145 Chapter 6. Everyday Dealings in Smallholder Tea Markets: Soko Huru, Mashabiki and ‘Ghost Farmers’ 149 Introduction 149 Overview of Smallholder Tea Organisation in Kenya 149 Tea farmers and KTDA agents: a fluid intersection of lifeworlds 153 Smallholder tea leaf marketing problems 153 Beneath the Quest for Quality 154 Farmer’s responses to tea marketing problems 156 Soko huru livelihood opportunities 157 ‘Ghost farmers’ in invisible livelihood 161 Governance in the Smallholder Tea Sub-Sector 171 Conclusion 174 Chapter 7. Does Deagrarianisation Mean Moving Permanently Away from Agriculture? 175 Introduction 175 Debating Deagrarianisation 176 Directions in Deagrarianisation in Nyamira District 178 Involvement in Parents’ Fields 178 Migration to Work 181 Attachment to the land and indications of impending return 183 Back to the Land: the journey from non-farm employment to farming 186 Control over land and the dilemmas around its use for a living 191 Local brew 193 Nabeire ekorera – I am respectable, twists of custom and cue from a son197 Aging and land inheritance: the shrinking role of farming over time 200 Concluding Remarks 204 Chapter 8. Livelihood Diversification 209 Introduction 209 Issues in Livelihood Diversification 210 Forms of Livelihood Diversification 212 Kinship, Friendship and Gift Giving 212 Employment and Remittances 220 Trading: on the open markets, kiosks and road-sides 229 Local Brew Production and Sales 239 Crafts: Basketry, Thatching and Ballast-making 243 Conclusion 247 Chapter 9. Lifestyles and the search for social security in everyday life 251 Introduction 251 Social Security Studies: A Brief Review 251 Styles in the Search of Social Security 254 Accumulators’ Lifestyle 255 Lifestyle on the Edge: Digging in, looking inwards 261 Lifestyle in the Shadows 268 Grey Lifestyle: crime and contraband in village life 277 Opportunistic Dependency Lifestyle: Nyakenywa 284 Summary 285 Chapter 10. Re-defining Resources in Everyday Practice 289 Introduction 289 An Overview of Resource Studies 289 Directions in villagers’ creation of resources 291 Re-defining Land in Everyday Practice 291 Livestock Tenant-keeping and Trade 295 Reclaiming and redirecting the wild into the market 298 Leasing out tea bushes 302 Harnessing local brew; busaa and chang’aa 303 Re-inventing situations for information exchange 304 Evolution of formal education as a resource 305 Recapitulation and Discussion 307 Concluding remarks 310 Chapter 11. Summary and Conclusions 313 Resource Creation, Livelihood and Lifestyle: Some Reflections 318 Complexity, Uncertainty and the Future 321 Implications for policy 322 From commencing life to everyday practice 323 Bibliography 325 Samenvatting 343 Glossary of Gusii, Kiswahili and Contextual English Words 353 Curriculum Vitae 357 List of Figures Figure 2.1 Population Projections for Nyamira District, 1999 - 2010 33 Figure 2.2 Area (Ha) under Tea 1996–2005: Nyamira District and National Smallholder Compared 40 Figure 2.3 Tea Leaf Production (KGs) 2001 – 2005: Nyamira District and National Smallholder Total Compared 41 Figure 2.4 Smallholder Tea Leaf Payment Trend in Kenya, 1994 - 2003 42 Figure 2.5: Area (Ha) under Maize in Nyamira District, 2001 - 2005 43 Figure 2.6: Maize Production in Nyamira District, 2001 - 2005 44 Figure 2.7: Area (Ha) under Obori in Nyamira District, 2001 - 2005 45 Figure 2.8: Obori Production (90 Kg Bags) in Nyamira District, 2001 - 2005 45 Figure 5.1 Year farmers first planted tea on their farms 125 Figure 6.1 Schematic representation of the KTDA management function in the smallholder tea sub-sector in Kenya 151 Figure 6.2 Main tea marketing problems faced by farmers in 2005 154 Figure 6.3 Farmers’ responses to tea marketing problems in 2005 156 Figure 9.1 Relationships between some lifestyles for livelihood protection 285 List of Tables Table 2.1 Area under coffee and yields in the period 1988 – 1995 in Nyamira District 36 Table 2.2 Nyamira District finger millet output and value in KES 44 List of Maps Map 1: Kenya and the location of Nyamira District 12 List of Abbreviations AD Anno Domini BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BC Before Christ Cap. Chapter CBS Central Bureau of Statistics CEE Common Entrance Examination CNN Cable News Network DC District Commissioner DFID Department for International Development of Britain DO District Officer ECA Economic Commission for Africa EIU Economic Intelligence Unit [of London] GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade GDP Gross Domestic Product Ha Hectares IBEAC Imperial British East Africa Company ICA International Coffee Agreement IFIs International Financial Institutions IMF International Monetary Fund KES Kenya Shilling KETEPA Kenya Tea Packers Ltd KJSE Kenya Junior Secondary Examination KNA Kenya National Archives KTDA Kenya Tea Development Agency KUSSTO Kenya Union of Small Scale Tea Owners MOA Ministry of Agriculture MP Member of Parliament MOPND Ministry of Planning and National Development ODA Overseas Development Agency ODI Overseas Development Institute PC Provincial Commissioner RNFE Rural Non-Farm Employment SACCO Savings and Credit Cooperative SAPs Structural Adjustment Programmes SCDA Special Crops Development Authority SDA Seventh Day Adventist Church SSA Sub-Saharan Africa TBC Tea Buying Centre TBK Tea Board of Kenya USA United States of America WTO World Trade Organisation ZD [KTDA] Zonal Directors Approximate Exchange Rates (KES to USD 1) 1976 KES 8.16∗ 1985 KES 16.00∗∗ 1995 KES 56.00∗∗∗ 2000 KES 78.00 2001 KES 79.00 2002 KES 80.00 2003 KES 76.00 2004 KES 76.00 2005 KES 72.00 2006 KES 70.00 ∗ Heyer, J. JK Maitha, and WM Senga (1976) Eds. Agricultural Development in Kenya: An Economic Assessment. Nairobi: Oxford University Press. P.XV. ∗∗ Orvis, S. 1977. P. 60. ∗∗∗ http://www.oanda.com (rounded off for a random December date in 1995, 2000 – 2006. Acknowledgements Many people have contributed to the completion of this work. It is difficult to list all of them in these pages, because the journey has been long. The journey started with my parents’ decision to send me to primary school at the beginning of the 1970s. That is when they embraced their dream, planted the seed and set me off to search for knowledge. I hope I have lived their dream, and so to you mum and dad – Sibiah and Nelson – a big thank you. I grew up in a large, supportive family – my siblings Agnes, Elijah, the late Tabitha, Dan, Periah, Hassan, Yabesh, Nelly and Gideon have, over a long time, provided the support that has culminated in the completion this book. Their families have equally been supportive, especially during the fieldwork for this book. They have been a blessing and I thank God for them and their help in accomplishing this work. I thank my wife Catherine and the boys: Kevin and Rodney, for their love, prayers, patience and encouragement as I spent many months in the field in Nyamira and later in The Netherlands writing up.