Developing against development: Resistance as participation in development induced displacement in Kenya

Abstract

people in the 20th century. Terminiski (2012) estimates that 15 million people are displaced annually by development projects. Although Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement (DIDR) projects are justified on the basis of greater good, eviction aggravates poverty by causing landlessness, food insecurity, lack of access to common property resources, increased morbidity, and mortality (Cornea, 2000; Bortolome et al, 2000). Downing (2002) also adds loss of access to public services, disruption of formal education activities and loss of civil and human rights as part of the risks. Such values and benefits are difficult to compute and therefore to compensate, yet such are the “things people have reason to value” (Sen, 1999). The integration of community participation in DIDR projects in the 1980s was therefore conceived as a strategy for reducing the adverse effects of such projects. However resistance and controversies still characterise such projects. This study posits that resistance is part of the participation process. Resistance often occurs due to the limitations of formal participation and not lack of it. Using data collected from the development project of the Yala swamp in Siaya County, in Western Kenya, this essay argues that disputes are attributable to four main factors. First, the objectives of participation by project developers and members of local communities are at variance. Secondly, the projects often fall short of expectations. Thirdly, the principle of full disclosure is not fully observed. And finally, external interests transform the initial agreements and expectations.Part 1 of this essay highlights important concepts including ‘participation’, ‘consent’, and ‘resistance’, and gives insight into the research methodology. Part 2 presents the case of Yala swamp and its background. Part 3 and 4 discuss the research findings. The main argument is that resistance is an integral part of participation.1. Peoples’ Participation in DIDRThe practice of people’s participation was introduced and formalized in DIDR in the early 1980s (World Bank, 1994; Oliver-Smith, 2001). Participation is a strategy of involving communities in development processes, tapping into their local knowledge, building local capacity, and eventually transferring ownership back to them (Chambers, 2005; Schudder and Corlson, 1982). Among the benefits of participation are community empowerment, civic engagement, and ultimately good governance (Turnhout et al, 2010). Participation in DIDR captures the contradictory characteristics of development. While it is seen as desirable and ‘people focused’, it has become conditional for accessing international funding (White, 1999; Schech and vas Dev, 2007). To potential victims of mega projects, participation is about giving their consent. Staked against the principle of public interest, victims’ consent or refusal carries little wait.Conceptualizing ‘consent’, ‘conformity’ and ‘resistance’Consent is an agreement to a proposal; it can also mean approval and willingness to give or to receive. In DIDR literature, informed consent is a requirement that can only be obtained through full disclosure and community participation. However it is noteworthy that there is a contradiction when we use the term consent in involuntary displacement: victims often have no choice because governments have legal protection in acquiring private land for public use drawn from the principle of eminent domain.Conformity on the other hand involves group dynamics. Crutchfield (1955) defines conformity as “yielding to group pressure”. Influence may be exercised through bullying, criticism, persuasion and teasing.Resistance is a set of processes of negotiation between actors who operate from particular positions along a spectrum of power relations (Gandhi, 2003: 6). Development projects attract resistance because of the unequal benefits they provide and the losses they incur. This multiplicity of losses and benefits are located in the centre of development chains that embodies different group interests.Volume XV, (5) 2018Dulo NYAORO1Developing against Development: Resistance as Participation in Development Induced Displacement in Kenya1 Dulo Nyaoro is a PhD candidate in the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. This paper is part of an on-going PhD project on People’s Participation in development-induced displacement and resettlement in Kenya.Introduction1Introduction In Tanzania, the struggle for space and resources is embedded in a long history of accumulation by dispossession, shaped by a large web of multi-scalar powers of exclusion. Tanzania is considered a country rich in natural resources, with considerable ‘idle’ and ‘unexploited’ lands by international and national institutions. The former concepts are taken up locally by those who help implement estates, and rhetorically in advocacy discourses during negotiations. In the Kilombero district, more than 80% of the land that covers the Kilombero valley and the surrounding mountains are already enclosed for environment conservation, mining extraction, hydro-power plants or large-scale plantations purposes. Nevertheless, the SAGCOT (Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor) program identified 182,198 ha (28% of the village lands) “that could be offered for investment” (SAGCOT, 2012b: 12). On top of that, a complex and institutionalized land demarcation and valuation process is being undertaken: from the introduction of the Certificate of Customary Rights of Occupancy in 2004, the Land Use Planning Act No. 6 of 2007 which “provides procedures related to the preparation of village land use planning in a sustainable and participatory manner” (ibid, 2013: 126), the Tanzania-G8 Land Transparency Partnership (TLTP) in 2013, to the Land Tenure Support Program (LTSP) launched in partnership with the Denmark’s development cooperation (DANIDA), the British Department for International Development (DFID) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) in 2016, several huge and heavily-financed programs aim at formalizing land rights and clarifying village borders and plans. In this paper, I will focus on the Ruipa Site, one particular area of the valley which is highly coveted and is one of the latest “interstices” of environmental conservation. While the establishment of a RAMSAR site1denies access to the wetlands on the east, and the expansion of the Kilombero Nature Reserve (KNR) restricts access to the forest on the west, the central and district governments plan to revive a sugar cane plantation project of 10,000 ha that is highly contested by local inhabitants. During the negotiations for land enclosures, different powers play in the struggle for space and resources. I will first show how the Village Land Use Plans (VLUPs) are used as one of the powerful tools by District and Village leaders to impose their planning objectives. Then I will underline that this plan, anchored in the Local Government Act and the Village Land Act of 1982 and 1999 respectively, highlights the necessity to think about the definition of a “village” and its legal recognition in the “global land rush” in Tanzania2.A revival based on an historical mapIn 1976, in the same way, the Nyerere government established the Mngeta farm on 5,848 ha (60 km south-west of the valley) in cooperation with the Korean government; the Sugar Development Corporation (SUDECO3) with the .1.IFRANairobi.1.IFRANairobiVolume XV, (1) 2018Adriana BLACHETHE LANDS USE PLANS AND THE VILLAGES’ SUBDIVISIONS IN THE GLOBAL LAND RUSH: THE CASE OF THE RUIPA SITE IN THE KILOMBERO VALLEY, MOROGORO REGION, TANZANIA1 The RAMSAR Convention is an international treaty adopted in Ramsar (Iran) in 1971 for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands, which was signed by in August 2000 by Tanzania.2 This paper is part of my PhD thesis which analyzes the Kilombero Valley and its surrounding mountains as a “system” in which different actors evolve at multiple scales. In that sense, the Valley as a “cluster” is one component and representation of this “system”. It can be understood as a space that is polarized both by its own resources and geophysical characteristics and open to national and international scales, observing its historical and contemporary production and the subsequent power relationships involved (Lefebvre, 1974). My fieldwork took place during a total of 13 months, focusing on the whole valley and then subdividing my analysis at a village level to understand the declension of powers of exclusions at intermediary and micro scales in the “interstices of the firm” (Chouquer, 2011). 3SUDECO is now known as the Sugar Board of Tanzania (SBT).1Introduction In Tanzania, the struggle for space and resources is embedded in a long history of accumulation by dispossession, shaped by a large web of multi-scalar powers of exclusion. Tanzania is considered a country rich in natural resources, with considerable ‘idle’ and ‘unexploited’ lands by international and national institutions. The former concepts are taken up locally by those who help implement estates, and rhetorically in advocacy discourses during negotiations. In the Kilombero district, more than 80% of the land that covers the Kilombero valley and the surrounding mountains are already enclosed for environment conservation, mining extraction, hydro-power plants or large-scale plantations purposes. Nevertheless, the SAGCOT (Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor) program identified 182,198 ha (28% of the village lands) “that could be offered for investment” (SAGCOT, 2012b: 12). On top of that, a complex and institutionalized land demarcation and valuation process is being undertaken: from the introduction of the Certificate of Customary Rights of Occupancy in 2004, the Land Use Planning Act No. 6 of 2007 which “provides procedures related to the preparation of village land use planning in a sustainable and participatory manner” (ibid, 2013: 126), the Tanzania-G8 Land Transparency Partnership (TLTP) in 2013, to the Land Tenure Support Program (LTSP) launched in partnership with the Denmark’s development cooperation (DANIDA), the British Department for International Development (DFID) and the Swedish I