N0n-Governmental Organizations, the State and the Politics of Rural
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by South East Academic Libraries System (SEALS) NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, THE STATE AND THE POLITICS OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN KENYA WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO WESTERN PROVINCE A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY of RHODES UNIVERSITY by FRANK KHACHINA MATANGA November 2000 ABSTRACT In recent decades, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have increasingly taken on development and political roles in Africa. This has partly been attributed to the New Policy Agenda (NPA) mounted by the international donors. The NPA is predicated on neo-liberal thinking advocating for an enlarged development role for the private sector and a minimalist state. This relatively new shift in development thought has been motivated by the declining capacity of the African state to deliver development and guarantee a liberal political system. This study, therefore, set out to empirically examine whether NGOs are capable of effectively playing their new-found development and political roles. The study was based on Kenya with the Western Province constituting the core research area. The fact that the Kenyan state has been gradually disengaging from the development process has created a vacuum of which the NGOs have attempted to fill. Equally important has been the observation that, for the greater part of the post-colonial period, the state has been largely authoritarian and therefore prompting a segment of civil society to take on political roles in an effort to force it to liberalize and democratize. Urban NGOs in particular, have been the most confrontational to the state with some remarkable success. Unlike their urban counterparts, rural-based NGOs have tended to be more developmental and play a politics of collaboration with the state. Many of the latter NGOs, although playing a significant role in rural development, have been co-opted into patron-client networks. Factors that influence NGOs= posture towards the state include the ii nature of their leadership, the extent of their international connections, and the level of resources at their disposal. The study=s principal conclusion, is that, in as much as NGOs and overall civil society have provided a basis for development and opposition to the state, there is an urgent and growing need for them to shift from a position of dependency, whether domestic or international, to relative autonomy. Only then, will their contributions be sustainable in society. iii NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, THE STATE AND THE POLITICS OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN KENYA WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO WESTERN PROVINCE TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract...........................................................................................................ii Abbreviations.................................................................................................vii List of Tables..................................................................................................ix Maps................................................................................................................x Acknowledgements.........................................................................................xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.......................................................................1 1.1 Statement of the Problem..........................................................................1 1.2 Objectives..................................................................................................7 1.3 Justification................................................................................................8 1.4 Hypotheses................................................................................................9 1.5 Conceptual Framework..............................................................................9 1.6 Methodology.............................................................................................18 CHAPTER 2: NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs), CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT..............29 2.1 The NGO Concept: Definition, Origins and Theoretical Justifications.......29 2.2 NGOs and the Politics of Development: A Review of Selected Literature...................................................................................................41 iv CHAPTER 3: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE KENYAN STATE: AN OVERVIEW...............................................................................53 3.1 The Colonial State.....................................................................................55 3.2 The Post-Colonial State............................................................................63 CHAPTER 4: THE DEVELOPMENT OF NGOs IN KENYA............................78 4.1 NGOs, Civil Society and the Colonial State...............................................78 4.2 NGOs and Civil Society in Post-Colonial Kenya........................................82 4.3 NGOs as Rural Development Actors in Kenya........................................109 4.4 NGOs and the Politics of Rural Development in Western Province.........112 CHAPTER 5: NGOs AND THE STATE: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THEIR RELATIONS AND IMPACT ON RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN WESTERN PROVINCE.......................................................131 5.1 Patterns of Interaction and Influence between Formal NGOs and the State.........................................................................................................132 5.2 Relations between Self-Help NGOs and the State...................................145 5.3 Inter-NGO Relations.................................................................................149 5.4 NGOs and Equitable Development...........................................................155 CHAPTER 6: NGOs= ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITIES AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN WESTERN PROVINCE............................161 6.1 Human and Material Resources in Formal NGOs....................................162 6.2 Human and Material Resources in Self-Help NGOs.................................169 6.3 Formal NGOs, Public Policy Advocacy, and the Development Process...172 6.4 Impact of Self-Help NGOs= Organizational Capacity on Rural Development.............................................................................................177 v CHAPTER 7: PARTICIPATION AND LOCAL CAPACITY BUILDING: THE IMPACT OF NGOs IN WESTERN PROVINCE.......................182 7.1 Nature and Levels of Participation in Formal NGOs= Projects..................184 7.2 Participation in Self-Help NGOs= Projects................................................ 189 7.3 Formal NGOs and Local Capacity Building.............................................. 192 7.4 Self-Help NGOs and Local Capacity Building........................................... 196 CHAPTER 8: NGOs AND THE DEMOCRATISATION OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF PARTNERSHIP FOR PRODUCTIVITY (PfP)..............................................................202 8.1 A History of PfP.........................................................................................202 8.2 PfP=s Relations with the State...................................................................204 8.3 PfP and its Internal Organizational Capacity.............................................207 8.4 PfP, Local Capacity Building and the Democratisation of Development...217 CHAPTER 9: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION..............................................228 APPENDICES.................................................................................................240 REFERENCES................................................................................................264 vi ABBREVIATIONS BDS Business Development Society of Kenya BNA Basic Needs Approach CCCC Citizens Coalition for Constitutional Change CD Community Development CHAK Christian Health Association of Kenya CEEDA Community Education and Economic Development Association CIDA Canadian International Development Agency COTU Central Organization of Trade Unions CPDA Christian Partners Development Agency DAC Development Assistance Committee DANIDA Danish International Development Agency DDC District Development Committee DDO District Development Officer DEC District Executive Committee DFRD District Focus for Rural Development DSDO District Social Development Officer FAO Food Agricultural Organization FORD Forum for the Restoration of Democracy FORD-A Forum for the Restoration of Democracy-Asili FORD-K Forum for the Restoration of Democracy-Kenya GOK Government of Kenya HDA Human Development Approach ICO International Churches Organization IFIs International Finance Institutions IMF International Monetary Fund IPPC Inter-Parties Parliamentary Committee vii IPPG Inter-Parties Parliamentary Group IRD Integrated Rural Development KADU Kenya African Democratic Union KANU Kenya African National Union KENGO Kenya Energy and Environmental Organization KREP Kenya Rural Enterprise Programme KWAP Kenya Woodfuel Development Programme MYW Maendeleo Ya Wanawake NCCK National Council of Churches of Kenya NCEC National Convention Executive Council NDA New Development Agenda NDPK National Development Party of Kenya NGO Non-Governmental Organization NORAD Norwegian Agency for International Development ODA Overseas Development Agency OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development PfP Partnership for Productivity PRIDE-K Promotion of Rural Initiatives and Development Enterprise-Kenya RD Rural Development RDF Rural Development