About this book
This interdisciplinary volume provides a comprehensive and rich analysis of the century-long socio-ecological transformation of Lake Naivasha, Kenya. Major globalised processes of agricultural intensification, biodiversity conservation efforts, and natural-resource extraction have simultaneously manifested themselves in this one location.
These processes have roots in the colonial period and have intensified in the past decades, after the establishment of the cut-flower industry and the geothermal-energy industry. The chapters in this volume exemplify the multiple, intertwined socio-environmental crises that consequently have played out in Naivasha in the past and the present, and that continue to shape its future.
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Figures, Tables and Maps xi-xiii
Abbreviations xiv-xv
Notes on Contributors
Chapter 1. Lake Naivasha, Kenya, in the Capitalocene / Gerda Kuiper, Eric M. Kioko, and Michael Bollig 1–11
Part 1: Naivasha’s History 13
Chapter 2. Arrivals and Departures: The Maa-Speakers and Their Successors in Naivasha-Nakuru, 1790–1912 / Richard Waller 15–39
Chapter 3. Environmental Conservation and Sustainability: Rhetoric and Reality / David Harper and Megan A. Styles 40–65
Chapter 4. Shifting Land Tenure Arrangements: Private Land-Buying Companies and the Shape of Naivasha’s Anthropogenic Landscape / Gerda Kuiper and Marie L. Gravesen 66–89
Part 2: Ecological Dynamics in the Lake Naivasha Catchment 91
Chapter 5. The Unique Natural Resources of Lake Naivasha; Can They Survive? / David Harper, Nic Pacini, Edward Morrison, Dominic Kimani, Timothy Mwinami, and Caroline Upton 93–127
Chapter 6. Linking Hydrology to Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Climate within the Lake Naivasha Catchment / Nic Pacini, Giulia Silvia Giberti, and David Harper 128–155
Part 3: Agricultural Intensification in and around Naivasha 157
Chapter 7. The Cut-Flower Industry in the Social-Ecological System of Lake Naivasha: Production Networks and Marketisation / Detlef Müller-Mahn and Andreas Gemählich 159–175
Chapter 8. Labour Relations in the Naivasha Cut-Flower Industry: A Moral Economy Approach / Gerda Kuiper 176–197
Chapter 9. Flourishing Flowers, Withering Livelihoods: Social Networks for Food Security in Naivasha, Kenya / Kariuki Kirigia 198–221
Chapter 10. Export-Crop Production in Kinangop (Kenya): Exploring Small-Scale Farmers’ Tactics and Strategies under Contract Farming / Gaële Rouillé-Kielo, Bernard Calas, and Sylvain Racaud 222–247
Part 4: Resource Conflicts and Co-Existence in and around Naivasha 249
Chapter 11. Frontier Dynamics: Cross-Cutting Ties, Conflict and Contestation on Agricultural and Conservation Hinterlands of Lake Naivasha / Marie Müller-Koné and Eric M. Kioko 251–278
Chapter 12. Devolution of Governance and the Politics of Fishery at Lake Naivasha, Kenya / Johannes Dittmann and Antony F. Ogolla 279–304
Chapter 13. Conflicting Futures of Geothermal Energy Development in Naivasha: Between State Visions and Community Expectations / Chigozie Nweke-Eze and Christine Adongo 305–330
Part 5: The Future of the Lake Naivasha Basin 331
Chapter 14. COVID-19 and the Cut-Flower Industry in Naivasha: Risk, Uncertainty and Preparing for the Future / Eric M. Kioko, Kristin Schmit, Annalia Gminder, Selina Emmanuel, Anne Achieng, and Silas Wanjala 333–352
Chapter 15. Megaprojects and the Transformation of Lake Naivasha Basin: Aspirations, Uncertainties and Social-Ecological Implications / Eric M. Kioko and Silas Wanjala 353–374
Index
Customer Reviews
Biography
Gerda Kuiper is a cultural anthropologist based at the University of Cologne. Her PhD, from the same university, resulted in multiple publications, including the monograph Agro-industrial Labor in Kenya. Cut Flower Farms and Migrant Workers' Settlements (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
Eric Kioko (PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology, 2016, Universiy of Cologne) is a lecturer at Kenyatta University. He has published in journals such as Africa, Africa Spectrum and The European Journal of Development Research.
Michael Bollig is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne. He has published widely on the environmental anthropology of Sub-Saharan Africa and co-edited the volumes Resilience and Collapse in African Savannahs (2017) and African Futures (2022).
