Kennedy Mkutu
Biographic Data
| ID | 95392 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kennedy Mkutu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kennedy |
| FAMILY NAME | Mkutu |
| SIGNATURE | MKUTU K |
| AFFILIATIONS | United States International University Africa |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0104-3374 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 113 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Settlements as dispossession
Evictions of irregular forest settlers by state authorities contributed to outbreaks of intercommunal violence., varying degrees of dispossession for different groups residing in the area which sets them against each other. • Colonial policies in Kenya of ethnic reserves form the backdrop to current ethnicised conflicts between indigenous and migrant settlers. • Conflict and violence is most intense at frontiers of socioecological transformation,…
How do commodity chains stabilize? Governing Kenya’s sand trade
Sand commodity chains are contested but surprisingly durable. • Considering ill-regulation of sand extraction in Kenya, informal governance mechanisms account for predictability. • The paper maps main actors, value creation and norms and rules governing the chain. • Social capital, wealth, bottom-up labour organization and regulatory loopholes sustain a market that is both ordered and unruly. The organization of sand extraction and trade in Kenya…
Left in the Dust
The southern rangelands of Kenya are home to pastoralist Maasai but are have increasingly become the site of development projects, the latest being the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and the associated Inland Container Depot. The projects have had a variety of effects through land claims, compensation, environmental and property damages, employment in construction and a local investment boom. Through the lens of ‘infrastructural violence’, which is…
(Re-)moving earth, building Kenya – The politics of sand extraction in Kedong
This article delves into the critical domain of sand mining and trade in the context of rapid urbanization and massive infrastructure development in Kenya. It joins the growing body of work in geography and political ecology that interrogates the social and political intricacies that govern the removal and forwarding of this ‘mundane’ mineral. More specifically, this article seeks to reappraise the concept of extractivism a term often applied in …
Sacrificing environmental degradation and conflict risks for economic development
Are residents of developing countries willing to support economic development despite environmental damage and conflict risks? To examine this question, we conducted a survey experiment in Turkana County, home to an economically and politically marginalised pastoral community in Kenya but newly impacted by a large-scale infrastructure development project, namely, the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor project, which will …
The frontier on the doorstep
Rural parts of Kenya are undergoing or are expected to undergo massive social-ecological change as a result of the government's ambitious development agenda driven by infrastructure and extraction. The pastoralist rangelands near the dormant Mount Suswa volcano in Narok, Kajiado and Nakuru counties have witnessed the creation of a modern railway and a geothermal project, and plans for further geothermal developments are expected together with a l…
Water Governance, Institutions and Conflicts in the Maasai Rangelands
Water scarcity in Narok county, Kenya may be attributed to demographic pressures, land-use changes, environmental degradation and the effects of climate change. This article combines methodologies from history and political science to investigate how local communities cope with water scarcity. In so doing, we consider how institutions, both indigenous and modern, mitigate conflict over access to and control of water sources. Cases are presented f…
Anticipation and Contestation along the Lapsset Infrastructure Corridor in Kenya
The Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor project is intended to traverse northern counties of Kenya, link with other corridors in Africa and attract investors. This article explores the dynamics of anticipation and how they relate to contestation over land, compensation and the benefits of development along the corridor area, finding that a variety of actors have different visions and capacities to position themselves favou…
Territorialising Conservation
Community-based Conservation seeks to strike a balance between nature conservation and economic growth by establishing spatial and institutional settings that maintain and even regain biodiversity while simultaneously allowing for sustainable land use. The implementation of community-based conservation blueprints on communal, often agronomically marginal lands, is in many southern and eastern African countries encouraged by the national governmen…
Oil extraction and public attitudes
Frontier NGOs
During the last decades, the boundaries between humanitarian aid and development on the one side and security and physical force on the other side became increasingly permeable. Several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) operating in the field of humanitarian aid and development established their own security measures and structures of force in order to fulfil their mandates. In this article, we deal with the particular question of why and how…
Megaprojects-mega failures? The politics of aspiration and the transformation of rural Kenya
Megaprojects are returning to play a key role in the transformation of rural Africa, despite controversies over their outcome. While some view them as promising tools for a 'big push' of modernization, others criticize their multiple adverse effects and risk of failure. Against this backdrop, the paper revisits earlier concepts that have explained megaproject failures by referring to problems of managerial complexity and the logics of state-led d…
The Complexity of Radicalization and Recruitment in Kwale, Kenya
Al-Shabaab, the East-African affiliate of Al Qaeda has carried out a number of large-scale devastating attacks in the region and a steady stream of smaller scale ones. In recent years Al-Shabaab’s ongoing strength has relied upon its ability to build local support within Kenya. This work looks at Kwale County on Kenya’s coast and examines some of the factors involved in radicalization and/or recruitment into the group, including economic hardship…
Future visions, present conflicts
This work analyses the politics of anticipation and ensuing fears, tensions and conflicts in relation to Kenya’s Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor which is to pass through several previously marginalized counties in the north of the country. Isiolo county, in the centre of Kenya is home to several different ethnic groups of whom some are perceived to be better informed about LAPSSET than others, or have certain advantage…
Conservancies, Conflict and Dispossession
Formerly marginal areas are increasingly the focus of extractive mega-projects, which are framed as necessary for economic growth and a modern industrial economy. Yet there are concerns that such projects are unjustly displacing local populations, facilitated through the alliances of local elites with foreign investors. This article asks, who are the winners and losers from oil exploration in the Turkana region of Kenya? Using longitudinal ethnog…
Exploring the Hidden Costs of Human-Wildlife Conflict in Northern Kenya
Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is often considered in terms of how the impact on humans can be mitigated, but in the context of the larger goal of meeting conservation goals. This article explores the hidden costs of HWC on human well-being in northern Kenya through a qualitative case study of Laikipia County. Drawing on narratives of wildlife as destructive, wildlife as inherently more important or valuable than humans, and wildlife preservation …
Oil and Emerging Conflict Dynamics in the Ateker Cluster
Resource wealth is linked to conflict, particularly where institutions are weak. This may occur through a number of mechanisms, including grievances of communities over inequality and threatened livelihoods, exacerbated by resource extraction. This article looks at the early stages of oil exploration moving towards extraction in Turkana county, Kenya, which is part of the wider conflict-prone pastoralist Ateker cluster. It argues that resource ex…
Behind the conflict in central Kenya that’s costing lives and hitting tourism
Changes and Challenges of the Kenya Police Reserve
In rural Kenya, the main visible security force is the Kenya Police Reserve, an unpaid force guarding localities and armed by the state. Turkana County faces challenges of low state penetration, small arms flows, and armed intercommunal conflict. The state has a weak hold on Kenya Police Reservists (KPRs) and their arms, and this situation is weakening further as many move into paid private security roles, including guarding oil exploration and d…
Ungoverned Space’ and the Oil Find in Turkana, Kenya
In developing countries, mineral wealth has usually failed to benefit most people at both national and local levels. Conflicts between locals and investors and/or governments over perceived lack of local opportunities and negative impacts such as environmental degradation are common. In 2012 a substantial reserve of oil was struck in Turkana, north-west Kenya, bringing hopes of boosting the national and local economy, and leading to grand-scale p…
Counter-terrorism in Kenya
The terrorist attacks of 7 August 1998 raised serious questions about transnational and domestic terrorism in Kenya and the Horn of Africa. What motivated terrorists to target Kenya? Why Kenya? Could these attacks have been stopped? How did Kenya and the international community respond to the attacks? Not only did the attacks target Western (US and Israel) interests but also Kenyan interests. Later Kenya was designated an ‘anchor state’ and ‘fron…
Complexities of Livestock Raiding in Karamoja
Karimojong define different motives for raiding: restocking, retaliation, and theft for sale on markets. This article focuses on the third type, or akoko raiding, which operates outside of the informal governance system of the elders, and is necessitated by short-term livelihood needs for some, and driven by profiteering for others. It may be done in large groups, or small groups of youths, and may be managed by racketeers, or richer cattle owner…
Guns and Governance in the Rift Valley
The small arms threat to peace, security, and sustainable development
Disarmament in Karamoja, Northern Uganda
Disarmament is a major feature of international, regional and national small arms and light weapons control policy and legislation worldwide. The proliferation of arms is now a significant problem amongst pastoralists in the Horn of Africa. In Karamoja, northern Uganda, where armed inter-communal and intra-communal conflict is disrupting lives and livelihoods, several attempts at mitigation have been tried. This article considers whether disarmam…
Megaprojects-mega failures? The politics of aspiration and the transformation of rural Kenya
Megaprojects are returning to play a key role in the transformation of rural Africa, despite controversies over their outcome. While some view them as promising tools for a 'big push' of modernization, others criticize their multiple adverse effects and risk of failure. Against this backdrop, the paper revisits earlier concepts that have explained megaproject failures by referring to problems of managerial complexity and the logics of state-led d…
Future visions, present conflicts
This work analyses the politics of anticipation and ensuing fears, tensions and conflicts in relation to Kenya’s Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor which is to pass through several previously marginalized counties in the north of the country. Isiolo county, in the centre of Kenya is home to several different ethnic groups of whom some are perceived to be better informed about LAPSSET than others, or have certain advantage…
Frontier NGOs
During the last decades, the boundaries between humanitarian aid and development on the one side and security and physical force on the other side became increasingly permeable. Several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) operating in the field of humanitarian aid and development established their own security measures and structures of force in order to fulfil their mandates. In this article, we deal with the particular question of why and how…
Oil and Emerging Conflict Dynamics in the Ateker Cluster
Resource wealth is linked to conflict, particularly where institutions are weak. This may occur through a number of mechanisms, including grievances of communities over inequality and threatened livelihoods, exacerbated by resource extraction. This article looks at the early stages of oil exploration moving towards extraction in Turkana county, Kenya, which is part of the wider conflict-prone pastoralist Ateker cluster. It argues that resource ex…
Conservancies, Conflict and Dispossession
Formerly marginal areas are increasingly the focus of extractive mega-projects, which are framed as necessary for economic growth and a modern industrial economy. Yet there are concerns that such projects are unjustly displacing local populations, facilitated through the alliances of local elites with foreign investors. This article asks, who are the winners and losers from oil exploration in the Turkana region of Kenya? Using longitudinal ethnog…
Changes and Challenges of the Kenya Police Reserve
In rural Kenya, the main visible security force is the Kenya Police Reserve, an unpaid force guarding localities and armed by the state. Turkana County faces challenges of low state penetration, small arms flows, and armed intercommunal conflict. The state has a weak hold on Kenya Police Reservists (KPRs) and their arms, and this situation is weakening further as many move into paid private security roles, including guarding oil exploration and d…
Ungoverned Space’ and the Oil Find in Turkana, Kenya
In developing countries, mineral wealth has usually failed to benefit most people at both national and local levels. Conflicts between locals and investors and/or governments over perceived lack of local opportunities and negative impacts such as environmental degradation are common. In 2012 a substantial reserve of oil was struck in Turkana, north-west Kenya, bringing hopes of boosting the national and local economy, and leading to grand-scale p…
(Re-)moving earth, building Kenya – The politics of sand extraction in Kedong
This article delves into the critical domain of sand mining and trade in the context of rapid urbanization and massive infrastructure development in Kenya. It joins the growing body of work in geography and political ecology that interrogates the social and political intricacies that govern the removal and forwarding of this ‘mundane’ mineral. More specifically, this article seeks to reappraise the concept of extractivism a term often applied in …
The frontier on the doorstep
Rural parts of Kenya are undergoing or are expected to undergo massive social-ecological change as a result of the government's ambitious development agenda driven by infrastructure and extraction. The pastoralist rangelands near the dormant Mount Suswa volcano in Narok, Kajiado and Nakuru counties have witnessed the creation of a modern railway and a geothermal project, and plans for further geothermal developments are expected together with a l…
Exploring the Hidden Costs of Human-Wildlife Conflict in Northern Kenya
Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is often considered in terms of how the impact on humans can be mitigated, but in the context of the larger goal of meeting conservation goals. This article explores the hidden costs of HWC on human well-being in northern Kenya through a qualitative case study of Laikipia County. Drawing on narratives of wildlife as destructive, wildlife as inherently more important or valuable than humans, and wildlife preservation …
Anticipation and Contestation along the Lapsset Infrastructure Corridor in Kenya
The Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor project is intended to traverse northern counties of Kenya, link with other corridors in Africa and attract investors. This article explores the dynamics of anticipation and how they relate to contestation over land, compensation and the benefits of development along the corridor area, finding that a variety of actors have different visions and capacities to position themselves favou…
Complexities of Livestock Raiding in Karamoja
Karimojong define different motives for raiding: restocking, retaliation, and theft for sale on markets. This article focuses on the third type, or akoko raiding, which operates outside of the informal governance system of the elders, and is necessitated by short-term livelihood needs for some, and driven by profiteering for others. It may be done in large groups, or small groups of youths, and may be managed by racketeers, or richer cattle owner…
Counter-terrorism in Kenya
The terrorist attacks of 7 August 1998 raised serious questions about transnational and domestic terrorism in Kenya and the Horn of Africa. What motivated terrorists to target Kenya? Why Kenya? Could these attacks have been stopped? How did Kenya and the international community respond to the attacks? Not only did the attacks target Western (US and Israel) interests but also Kenyan interests. Later Kenya was designated an ‘anchor state’ and ‘fron…
Left in the Dust
The southern rangelands of Kenya are home to pastoralist Maasai but are have increasingly become the site of development projects, the latest being the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and the associated Inland Container Depot. The projects have had a variety of effects through land claims, compensation, environmental and property damages, employment in construction and a local investment boom. Through the lens of ‘infrastructural violence’, which is…
Oil extraction and public attitudes
Disarmament in Karamoja, Northern Uganda
Disarmament is a major feature of international, regional and national small arms and light weapons control policy and legislation worldwide. The proliferation of arms is now a significant problem amongst pastoralists in the Horn of Africa. In Karamoja, northern Uganda, where armed inter-communal and intra-communal conflict is disrupting lives and livelihoods, several attempts at mitigation have been tried. This article considers whether disarmam…
Guns and Governance in the Rift Valley
The small arms threat to peace, security, and sustainable development
Disarmament in Karamoja, Northern Uganda
Disarmament is a major feature of international, regional and national small arms and light weapons control policy and legislation worldwide. The proliferation of arms is now a significant problem amongst pastoralists in the Horn of Africa. In Karamoja, northern Uganda, where armed inter-communal and intra-communal conflict is disrupting lives and livelihoods, several attempts at mitigation have been tried. This article considers whether disarmam…
Complexities of Livestock Raiding in Karamoja
Karimojong define different motives for raiding: restocking, retaliation, and theft for sale on markets. This article focuses on the third type, or akoko raiding, which operates outside of the informal governance system of the elders, and is necessitated by short-term livelihood needs for some, and driven by profiteering for others. It may be done in large groups, or small groups of youths, and may be managed by racketeers, or richer cattle owner…
Counter-terrorism in Kenya
The terrorist attacks of 7 August 1998 raised serious questions about transnational and domestic terrorism in Kenya and the Horn of Africa. What motivated terrorists to target Kenya? Why Kenya? Could these attacks have been stopped? How did Kenya and the international community respond to the attacks? Not only did the attacks target Western (US and Israel) interests but also Kenyan interests. Later Kenya was designated an ‘anchor state’ and ‘fron…
Ungoverned Space’ and the Oil Find in Turkana, Kenya
In developing countries, mineral wealth has usually failed to benefit most people at both national and local levels. Conflicts between locals and investors and/or governments over perceived lack of local opportunities and negative impacts such as environmental degradation are common. In 2012 a substantial reserve of oil was struck in Turkana, north-west Kenya, bringing hopes of boosting the national and local economy, and leading to grand-scale p…
Changes and Challenges of the Kenya Police Reserve
In rural Kenya, the main visible security force is the Kenya Police Reserve, an unpaid force guarding localities and armed by the state. Turkana County faces challenges of low state penetration, small arms flows, and armed intercommunal conflict. The state has a weak hold on Kenya Police Reservists (KPRs) and their arms, and this situation is weakening further as many move into paid private security roles, including guarding oil exploration and d…
Oil and Emerging Conflict Dynamics in the Ateker Cluster
Resource wealth is linked to conflict, particularly where institutions are weak. This may occur through a number of mechanisms, including grievances of communities over inequality and threatened livelihoods, exacerbated by resource extraction. This article looks at the early stages of oil exploration moving towards extraction in Turkana county, Kenya, which is part of the wider conflict-prone pastoralist Ateker cluster. It argues that resource ex…
Behind the conflict in central Kenya that’s costing lives and hitting tourism
Exploring the Hidden Costs of Human-Wildlife Conflict in Northern Kenya
Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is often considered in terms of how the impact on humans can be mitigated, but in the context of the larger goal of meeting conservation goals. This article explores the hidden costs of HWC on human well-being in northern Kenya through a qualitative case study of Laikipia County. Drawing on narratives of wildlife as destructive, wildlife as inherently more important or valuable than humans, and wildlife preservation …
Conservancies, Conflict and Dispossession
Formerly marginal areas are increasingly the focus of extractive mega-projects, which are framed as necessary for economic growth and a modern industrial economy. Yet there are concerns that such projects are unjustly displacing local populations, facilitated through the alliances of local elites with foreign investors. This article asks, who are the winners and losers from oil exploration in the Turkana region of Kenya? Using longitudinal ethnog…
Territorialising Conservation
Community-based Conservation seeks to strike a balance between nature conservation and economic growth by establishing spatial and institutional settings that maintain and even regain biodiversity while simultaneously allowing for sustainable land use. The implementation of community-based conservation blueprints on communal, often agronomically marginal lands, is in many southern and eastern African countries encouraged by the national governmen…
Oil extraction and public attitudes
Frontier NGOs
During the last decades, the boundaries between humanitarian aid and development on the one side and security and physical force on the other side became increasingly permeable. Several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) operating in the field of humanitarian aid and development established their own security measures and structures of force in order to fulfil their mandates. In this article, we deal with the particular question of why and how…
Megaprojects-mega failures? The politics of aspiration and the transformation of rural Kenya
Megaprojects are returning to play a key role in the transformation of rural Africa, despite controversies over their outcome. While some view them as promising tools for a 'big push' of modernization, others criticize their multiple adverse effects and risk of failure. Against this backdrop, the paper revisits earlier concepts that have explained megaproject failures by referring to problems of managerial complexity and the logics of state-led d…
The Complexity of Radicalization and Recruitment in Kwale, Kenya
Al-Shabaab, the East-African affiliate of Al Qaeda has carried out a number of large-scale devastating attacks in the region and a steady stream of smaller scale ones. In recent years Al-Shabaab’s ongoing strength has relied upon its ability to build local support within Kenya. This work looks at Kwale County on Kenya’s coast and examines some of the factors involved in radicalization and/or recruitment into the group, including economic hardship…
Future visions, present conflicts
This work analyses the politics of anticipation and ensuing fears, tensions and conflicts in relation to Kenya’s Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor which is to pass through several previously marginalized counties in the north of the country. Isiolo county, in the centre of Kenya is home to several different ethnic groups of whom some are perceived to be better informed about LAPSSET than others, or have certain advantage…
Water Governance, Institutions and Conflicts in the Maasai Rangelands
Water scarcity in Narok county, Kenya may be attributed to demographic pressures, land-use changes, environmental degradation and the effects of climate change. This article combines methodologies from history and political science to investigate how local communities cope with water scarcity. In so doing, we consider how institutions, both indigenous and modern, mitigate conflict over access to and control of water sources. Cases are presented f…
Anticipation and Contestation along the Lapsset Infrastructure Corridor in Kenya
The Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor project is intended to traverse northern counties of Kenya, link with other corridors in Africa and attract investors. This article explores the dynamics of anticipation and how they relate to contestation over land, compensation and the benefits of development along the corridor area, finding that a variety of actors have different visions and capacities to position themselves favou…
The frontier on the doorstep
Rural parts of Kenya are undergoing or are expected to undergo massive social-ecological change as a result of the government's ambitious development agenda driven by infrastructure and extraction. The pastoralist rangelands near the dormant Mount Suswa volcano in Narok, Kajiado and Nakuru counties have witnessed the creation of a modern railway and a geothermal project, and plans for further geothermal developments are expected together with a l…
(Re-)moving earth, building Kenya – The politics of sand extraction in Kedong
This article delves into the critical domain of sand mining and trade in the context of rapid urbanization and massive infrastructure development in Kenya. It joins the growing body of work in geography and political ecology that interrogates the social and political intricacies that govern the removal and forwarding of this ‘mundane’ mineral. More specifically, this article seeks to reappraise the concept of extractivism a term often applied in …
Sacrificing environmental degradation and conflict risks for economic development
Are residents of developing countries willing to support economic development despite environmental damage and conflict risks? To examine this question, we conducted a survey experiment in Turkana County, home to an economically and politically marginalised pastoral community in Kenya but newly impacted by a large-scale infrastructure development project, namely, the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor project, which will …
How do commodity chains stabilize? Governing Kenya’s sand trade
Sand commodity chains are contested but surprisingly durable. • Considering ill-regulation of sand extraction in Kenya, informal governance mechanisms account for predictability. • The paper maps main actors, value creation and norms and rules governing the chain. • Social capital, wealth, bottom-up labour organization and regulatory loopholes sustain a market that is both ordered and unruly. The organization of sand extraction and trade in Kenya…
Left in the Dust
The southern rangelands of Kenya are home to pastoralist Maasai but are have increasingly become the site of development projects, the latest being the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and the associated Inland Container Depot. The projects have had a variety of effects through land claims, compensation, environmental and property damages, employment in construction and a local investment boom. Through the lens of ‘infrastructural violence’, which is…
Settlements as dispossession
Evictions of irregular forest settlers by state authorities contributed to outbreaks of intercommunal violence., varying degrees of dispossession for different groups residing in the area which sets them against each other. • Colonial policies in Kenya of ethnic reserves form the backdrop to current ethnicised conflicts between indigenous and migrant settlers. • Conflict and violence is most intense at frontiers of socioecological transformation,…
Geography (18 works) · Political science (16 works) · Economics (11 works) · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Business (8 works) · Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact (8 works) · Sociology (8 works)