The Kenyanist

Scenario planning is a concept that helps us to make predictions about the future. It is often used in corporate strategy to analyse key factors that may impact and influence the business objectives from the operating environment. For countries, scenario planning can help to mitigate risks and set in motion policy incentives that cushion against the most adverse impacts. For instance, it could hel...

The aim of social protection policies is to protect the social wellbeing of people. Thistakes many forms including cash transfer programs to vulnerable groups, universal healthcare, feeding programs, and others. In Kenya, and to a large extent the global south, social protection policies sometimes seem to be a trade off between donor interests and what the people need. This begs the question, how...

In traditionally patriarchal societies, land ownership becomes a big cause of conflict especially when women hold the rights to ownership. In the recent past, Kenya has faced cases of violence against women as a result of land dispute. One of the affected communities is the Abagusii with the victims being mostly elderly women accused of witchcraft. In this episode of The Kenyanist, Kamau Wairuri h...

Food security is an issue that Kenya continues to struggle with. Kenya is often ranked poorly in food security, primarily due to the cost of this food. This in spite of agriculture’s contribution to the economy - 21.8% this year according to KNBS. Rain fed agriculture, inconsistent agricultural policies and perennial drought are some of the major issues that make it harder for people to access foo...

Sparked by the punitive Finance Bill and need for better governance, Kenya has been facing nation-wide protests since mid-June led by the Gen Z and youth in the country demanding for accountability from their leaders. Related to the revolutionary movement, we are joined by Dr. Abraham Rugo who has spent decades interacting with grassroots movements with the aim of creating change and maximizing on...

Somalia was recently formally admitted into the East African Community, a regional bloc with aspirations for deeper economic and political union. Somalia joins a more expanded bloc with members Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South-Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The recent admissions into the bloc have drawn criticism, with some analysts arguing that South Sudan, DRC and now...

Most Kenyan youths live under the gloom of economic uncertainty which leads to hopelessness. This has been against a backdrop of multiple interventions from the government and other stakeholders. Regardless, the subject of youth and livelihoods has endured massive interest within Kenya, with the youth bulge described as an ‘opportunity’ and a ‘ticking time bomb’ in some quarters. What cannot be un...

In a past episode of the Kenyanist, we talked about reforming the NHIF, which the government has recently undertaken to improve healthcare delivery. We also heard about how African countries spend about 6% of their GDP on health, which is less than the 9.5% of GDP in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Yet, the Abuja Declaration commits African countries to invest 14...

For many Kenyans, being part of an ethnic group is an important mark of their identity. It symbolizes belonging, and access to resources. The question of which ethnic groups belong in Kenya is another part of this salient debate. Ethnicity is often used as a means of mobilizing for state resources especially around elections. The question of which ethnic groups belong in Kenya therefore elicits se...

Kenya is renowned for producing world star athletes such as Eliud Kipchoge, a marathon legend, Faith Kipyegon, a top middle-distance runner, and the promising sprinter Ferdinand Omanyala. These among other athletes have consistently brought honor to Kenya with their stellar performances. Despite their success, the State of Athletics in Kenya is characterized by a paradoxical situation. On the one...

In this episode, Dr. Ken Opalo, a Georgetown University Professor provides a comprehensive analysis of Kenya's cost-of-living crisis. We unpack the underlying factors, assess government responses, and examine potential outcomes of current economic policies aimed at easing the cost of living. On the political front, blame games persist, with the opposition (Azimio) pointing fingers at the gover...

Kenya's political history is marked by protests. We can trace the history of protests to colonial times. In this episode, we are joined by Dr Westen Shihalo, a senior researcher from the University of Johannesburg, to examine the history of protests in Kenya from the colonial era to the present day. We examine how the protests against taxation and racial discrimination in colonial times paved...

Domestic work in Kenya, as well as in other parts of the world, is frequently characterized by low wages and a lack of recognition. Nevertheless, domestic workers have consistently proven to be indispensable to our daily lives. They maintain our households, ensure cleanliness, prepare our meals, and care for our children; essentially being responsible for our well-being.   Despite their significan...

The world is re-emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are only now beginning to understand the full impact of the crisis. In Kenya, we need to take this opportunity to reflect on how we can better prepare for future pandemics. At the same time, we need to reconsider culture’s role in helping us cope with and make sense of difficult events in our lives.     One of the most powerful ways that...

Kenya’s food culture is dynamic and evolving, based on both local and foreign influences. On the local front, we know that different cultural groups in Kenya have their own foods and unique ways of preparing them. This diversity also makes it difficult for us to talk about a Kenyan cuisine in the same way that we might talk about Ethiopian, Nigerian, or Indian cuisine. As some arguments go, we can...

In this episode, we seek to understand the political economy of street vending in Kenya, by speaking to Nathan Kariuki, a PhD student at the Centre for African Studies, in Bordeaux, France whose PhD project examines street vending in Kenya. What is described as the informal economy or jua kali, has been noted to be a significant portion of Kenya’s economy. For instance, it is widely acknowledged t...

In The Kenyanist today, we are joined by John Kinuthia, a Senior Program Officer at the International Budget Partnership who has recently, together with his colleagues, published a study on the transparency and accountability of the NHIF. Health financing is a big deal. It has been part of global, regional and national political conversations.  It is known that the developed countries in the world...

In this episode of The Kenyanist, we aim to broaden and deepen our understanding of the lost Kenyan artefacts, by talking to the incredible Jim Chuchu, a Kenyan artist who has been in the lead of efforts to identify and document Kenya’s cultural items that are held outside Kenya. Jim has been part of the International Inventories Programme (IIP), an international research and database project that...

In the first episode of The Kenyanist’s second season, Kamau Wairuri speaks to Dr Beatrice Akala, an educationist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, on the country’s transition for the 8-4-4 system to the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC). The discussion seeks to cut through the cacophony of voices that have marked the public discourse on CBC and ge...

For this International Podcast Day special episode, our new producer Tevin Sudi has a conversation with our executive director and host, Kamau Wairuri, for our listeners to get to know him a little bit better. We talk about his background, why he started the Kenyanist, some of his favourite episodes, season 2, and much more. He even tells us if we’ll ever see his name on the ballot one day. You ca...

This episode explores the legal, social, and political dimensions of forced evictions in Kenya with Pauline Vata. She is a seasoned human rights lawyer with expertise in land, housing, and natural resource governance issues, positively influencing public policy in formulating laws that safeguard rights to housing and land. The discussion starts with the legal instruments that the government can re...

In this episode of The Kenyanist, Sylvanus Wekesa hosts Nicodemus Minde who is a lecturer of International Relations at the United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi, Kenya. The discussion is focused on the rising concern in Kenya’s August 2022 elections in regards to the economic security and political considerations in the East African region; with stiff competition between the tw...

In this episode, Kamau Wairuri hosts Eugene Ngumi, a public affairs consultant based in Nairobi, to discuss the politics of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in Kenya. They trace the origins of the SGR, going back to the building of the old meter-gauge railway by the colonial government, it’s virtual collapse in the 1990s and the attempts to revive it in the early 2000s. After a concession attempt...

Kamau Wairuri hosts Billian Okoth Ojiwa (@BillianOjiwa) to discuss his work as a community organiser in Kenya. Billian is the founder of the Billian Music Family, a community building organisations based in Mathare in Nairobi. Hosting a population of over 500,000 people, Mathare is one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi. They discuss Billian’s childhood in Mathare, his early music care...

Show notes   In this episode, Kamau Wairuri hosts Ken Opalo to discuss the financing of development at the grassroots in Kenya.  Ken is an Assistant Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University at Washington DC (USA).  See Ken’s Profile here . They discuss the nature and impact of the Harambee System in the post-colonial period in Kenya. The opposition of parl...