Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa

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Based in Uppsala, Sweden, the Institute is dedicated to providing timely, critical and alternative research and analysis of Africa and to cooperation with African researchers. As a hub and a meeting place for a growing field of research and analysis, the Institute strives to put knowledge of African issues within reach for scholars, policy makers, politi- cians, media, students and the general public. The Institute is financed jointly by the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). www.nai.uu.se Forthcoming titles Margaret C. 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Fantu Cheru and Renu Modi (eds), Agricultural Development and Food Security in Africa Amanda Hammar (ed.), Displacement Economies in Africa About the author Mary Njeri Kinyanjui is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya. She holds a PhD in geography from the University of Cambridge. She researches on economic justice, small businesses, economic informality, social institutions and issues of international development. She has published articles in the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business , Hemispheres , African Studies Review , African Geographical Review and Journal of East African Research and Development . She has been a visiting scholar at the International Development Centre (IDC) at the Open University in the UK and at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva. Some of her publications include ‘Women informal garment traders in Taveta Road, Nairobi: from the margins to the center’, African Studies Review 56(3): 147–64 (2013) and Institutions of Hope: Ordinary people’s market coordination and society organisation alternatives , Nsemia Publishers (2012). Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa From the Margins to the Centre Mary Njeri Kinyanjui Zed Books london Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa: From the Margins to the Centre was fi rst published in 2014 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London N1 9JF. www.zedbooks.co.uk Copyright © Mary Njeri Kinyanjui 2014 The right of Mary Njeri Kinyanjui to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Typeset in Arnhem, Futura Heavy by Apex CoVantage. LLC Index: [email protected] Cover designed by Rogue Four Design Printed and bound by All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data available ISBN 978-1-78032-631-3 hb ISBN 978-1-78032-630-6 pb Contents Acknowledgements | vii Indeed Structured Living Indeed | ix Map | xi 1 Introduction . 1 2 Theorizing planning and economic informality in an African city . .17 3 Economic informality in Nairobi between 1980 and 2010 . .37 4 Women in Nairobi . .43 5 Women, mobility and economic informality . .63 6 Women in economic informality in Nairobi. .75 7 The quest for spatial justice: from the margins to the centre . .87 8 Women’s collective organizations and economic informality . .99 9 Conclusion . 117 References | 125 Index | 135 Acknowledgements The fascination with the movement of women from the margins to the centre was prompted by a television commercial that showed a mama mboga (veg- etable vendor) hawking vegetables in an Asian upmarket settlement in Nairobi. Rather than shouting herself hoarse to attract customers, as some traders do, she resorted to using a mobile phone to market her goods to customers. One of her customers was a female Asian in a nearby high-rise apartment. Aft er the transaction, the customer used a rope to lower a bag to where the mama mboga was. The mama mboga then packed the vegetables into the bag and the Asian woman in turn pulled it up to her apartment. This advertisement triggered a number of thoughts in me. First, I started thinking about the predicament women have been put in by masculine planning ideologies. One of the women is a hawker moving around with a basket on her back, calling out to customers to buy her goods, while the other, the client, is confi ned in an upmarket, high-rise building. The other implication of this commercial is the unchanging nature of women in the city as seen through the eyes of the television commercial developer. I personally identify with the predicament, having been born and bred in a village and having migrated to the city as a young adult. I came to Nairobi only when I joined Kenyatta Univer- sity College in 1980. It is in this city that I have been searching for space and opportunity for the last 30 years. Since I came to the city to pursue a university education, I have witnessed the constant struggle of women to move from the margins of socio-political and economic activities to the centre of the city. I witnessed the period when most shops in the city were either owned or run by men of Asian origin with African male shop assistants. There were very few women shop operators or owners. The majority of the women were either mobile hawkers or were situated in designated markets such as Kenyatta, Gikomba and Jericho. With time, this situation has changed. Women have moved into the central business district. Female faces are appearing behind the shop counters, while in some places, such as Taveta Road, women have taken over the entire street. vii There are many people who have walked with me in my attempt to interrogate and understand the movement of women from the margins to the centre of the city whom I wish to acknowledge. First, I wish to thank my research assistants – Perpetual Njeri, Peter Twigg, Mathew Kimaru, Ruth Kimaru, Leila Nyaanga and Joseph Kabiru – for carrying out the survey interviews. Second, I wish to acknowledge Professor Ragnhild Overa, Inga-Britt, Professor Ilda Lindell, Profes- sor Beth Maina, Philo Ikonya, Thiven Reddy, Birgitta Hellmark Lindgren, Sonja Johansson, Anniel Njoka, Joseph Kirika, Francis Kanyoni, Fredrick Mwangi, John Kiragu, Seneiya Kamotho, Josephat Juma, Esther Wanjiru Mburu, Pau- line Wambua, Susan Wothaya, Lydiah Gitau and Dr Marjory Waweru for the roles they played in the diff erent stages of the development of this manuscript. Third, I wish to recognize the participants at the following seminars in which I presented some of the fi ndings and had interesting discussions: the British East African Institute, Nairobi; the Nordic Africa Institute; and the Department of Geography, University of Bergen. Fourth, I wish to acknowledge the Nordic Africa Institute for giving me a three-month fellowship to do part of the writing of the manuscript. Fift h, I am grateful to the women respondents who took time out of their busy schedules to give me an account of their socioeconomic activities and experiences in their quest to move from the margins to the centre. Sixth, I am grateful to my parents, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces for cheering me up during the process of writing. Seventh, I cannot forget my friends Lydia Gitau, Angela Kamau, Anne Kamau, Felix Kiruthu, Wanjiru Gichuhi and Eunice Wanjoya for their support. I also wish to thank my daughter Mercy Nyambura for buying me books on urbanization. This book is dedicated to my daughter Mercy Nyambura. She sent me the following poem aft er completing her Associate Degree in Nursing at Lake Land Community College, USA. The poem alerted me to the hidden dangers of structured living, hence the change in the way I used to think about economic informality and the development question. Indeed Structured Living Indeed The walls—look the same The pictures on them tell it all. The fl oor carpeted, as good as new; Where are the holes in it … Or the patches fi lled with memories? The way—a short distance Yet the mileage is high, The wear and tear minimal Not from one, two or three Many a people walk this hall To and from the vantage point … They hobble back and forth, Seeking solace, sharing aff ection.

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