The Social Life of the Roundabout
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Source: own photo THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE ROUNDABOUT a case study of the Thika Highway Improvement Project and its impact on the Githurai roundabout, Nairobi, Kenya Ellen Blank, 5745322 Master Thesis Human Geography Project: New Towns in Africa: Visionary Cities or Spaces of Exclusion? Supervisor: dr.ir. Y.P.B. van Leynseele 2nd reader: dr. F.M. Pinkster Date: 18 August 2014 i ABSTRACT This research started with a very a very instrumental approach to infrastructural development projects in Nairobi, Kenya and witnessed a long journey before arriving at the social life of the roundabout. I discovered that these projects, and planning as a whole, interfaces in many ways with a much wider use of space which is really multidimensional, contested and fragmented. These infrastructural projects develop a life of their own when they encounter everyday lives. This thesis discusses the social life of the roundabout by studying two related aspects of this development. Firstly, the planning and design in the Thika Highway Improvement Project is reconstructed as seen from the stakeholders involved in the process. And secondly, the reworking of such a megaproject on the everyday livelihood of the ‘survivors’ of the Githurai roundabout, Nairobi, Kenya. The thesis argues that the Thika Highway Improvement project was an ambitious flagship project with a strong state involvement. The public-private partnership (PPP) as a mechanism for infrastructural development is in this case seen as an awkward, skewed form of PPP since the private actors are simply the executors in the process. On the one hand, planning in Nairobi follows a very predictable course with many goals. However, the governance framework makes it really difficult to implement plans. Since development projects are not discrete (in a clearly defined development space) but touch down in settings where there are economies at play that defy the project logics. In this way the social life of the roundabout should be seen as a metaphor for understanding governance and how projects get a life of their own when they encounter everyday lives. This process shows a break with studying PPPs as projects with clear design stages and responsibilities. The outcomes of the ‘unplanned and organic’ city are impossible to grasp and further research is necessary to get a good picture of these social intertwined procceses. ii FOREWORD AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS his research was implemented in the New New Towns project, a collaboration of the T International New Towns Institute with i.a. the University of Amsterdam. The research was carried out for the Master thesis of the study Human Geography at the University of Amsterdam. The fieldwork was conducted in greater Nairobi, Kenya between the 20th of March and 7th of May 2014. In February, the research started with a clear problem statement on infrastructural public- private projects in Kenya and their financing. A very instrumental view on analyzing the policy process of these projects. However, during the course of this study this focus changed since I discovered that these projects, and planning as a whole, interfaces in many ways with a much wider use of space which is really multidimensional. In this, the city in the African context should be seen as an organism. Interventions here could lead to very different outcomes over there. The thesis doesn’t present the reader with a clear advice but tries to explain a story of how planning is trying to grasp and include everything which is not possible at all. Instead the thesis is trying to grasp these dynamics in these projects with displaying its complexities. This discovery, and many others, were part of my journey in this study in which I never would have imagined possible to learn so much and see so many. Therefore I would like to express my gratitude to my local research supervisor Dr. Esho for pushing me in the right direction, Yves for providing me with a lot of guidance and support, my research assistant David and Gaby, Eline and Laura. During one of many sleepless nights I came up with the metaphor of the survivor. The thesis was hard work but in order to research survivors it turns out you also have to be one! Ellen Blank iii LIST OF FIGURES AND PHOTO’S Figure 1.1 Map of Nairobi, the Githurai roundabout and Thika Superhighway Figure 2.1 Conceptual scheme of the research Figure 3.2 Map of the Nairobi Metropolitan Region Figure 3.1 Corridor development in The Metropolitan Growth Strategy of 1973 Figure 3.2 Map of the development of (building) density in Nairobi’s Eastlands Figure 3.3 Colonial residential segregation in Nairobi in 1960 Figure 3.4 A map of the (implemented) Nairobi bypasses Figure 4.1 The historical planning stages of Nairobi Figure 4.2 Map of the three lots in the THIP with the Chinese constructors Figure 4.3 The awarded contracts in the THIP Figure 5.1 Mental maps of two respondents. Photo 4.1 The Thika Superhighway in April 2014 as seen from Kasarani cross-over bridge. Photo 5.1 The Githurai roundabout and market as seen from the highway Photo 5.2 The current ‘empty’ roundabout with fly-over Photo 5.3 The informal market stalls with the elevated highway right iv LIST OF ACRONYMS AfDB African Development Bank AfDF African Development Fund APEC African Private Engineer Consulting CBD Central Business District CES Consulting Engineer Services CSUD Colombia University - Center for Sustainable Urban Development DPH District Planning Officer EIA Environmental Impact Assessment ERA Environmental Risk Assessment EBC Exim Bank of China GoK Government of Kenya INTI International New Towns Institute KARA Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations KeNHA Kenya National Highways Authority KERRA Kenya Rural Roads Authority KFS Kenya Forest Service KURA Kenya Urban Roads Authority NEMA National Environment Management Authority NMGS Nairobi Metropolitan Growth Strategy NGOs Non Governmental Organizations OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development PPP Public-Private Partnership THIP Thika Highway Improvement Project TUK Technical University of Kenya v Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... ii Foreword and acknowledgements.................................................................................................................................................. iii List of figures, tables and boxes ........................................................................................................................................................iv List of acronyms ........................................................................................................................................................................................ v Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1. Theoretical framework .......................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Structuring governance: urban development and planning ............................................................................ 4 1.2 Perceptioning and framing the social life ................................................................................................................. 6 Chapter 2. Research methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Research approach and design ............................................................................................................................................. 9 2.2 Operationalization and conceptual scheme .................................................................................................................. 10 2.2.1. Operationalization of the core concepts .............................................................................................................. 10 2.2.2. Conceptual scheme ....................................................................................................................................................... 11 2.3 Research question and sub-questions ............................................................................................................................ 12 2.4 Unit of analysis .......................................................................................................................................................................... 13 2.5 Data collection methods ....................................................................................................................................................... 14 2.6 Sampling ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 17 2.7 Data analysis ....................................................................................................................................................................... 18 2.8 Limitations and ethical considerations .................................................................................................................. 18 Chapter 3. Urbanizing greater Nairobi : a changing political landscape ......................................................................