Agricultural Intensification, Environmental Conservation, Conflict and Co-Existence at Lake Naivasha, Kenya

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

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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).