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<p>Notwithstanding its importance as highlighted in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 16.7 and the New Urban Agenda, public participation (PP) in Kenya continues to face significant challenges. Specifically, the activity is hostage to divergent expectations of key actors, which in turn slow down decision-making and hamper implementation of associated programmes. This paper examines inter-actor engagement in Kenya’s Informal Settlements Improvement initiatives (SUPs) with a view to unravelling the nature of conflicts that arise in associated PP processes. The study employs a qualitative approach, combining expert views (participating technocrats) and key informant interviews (target community members). The case study is Kahawa Soweto, one of Nairobi’s informal settlements and key target of historical and ongoing slum upgrading efforts. The paper weaves the two emergent voices to explicate the nature of conflicts in slum upgrading PP processes. Using the critical lenses of <i>Elite Theory</i>, Arnstein’s <i>ladder of participation and</i> Robert’s <i>Participation Cube</i>, the study illustrates the discursive tango between state and community as played out in SUPs and associated PP processes. The ensuing dialectic integrates what may be christened as the “clamp of society” and the “clamp of the state", representing the respective actor’s attempts to stifle the opposite’s voice in decision-making. The study concludes that despite manifestly inclusive and engaging PP processes, group interests, often undeclared, operate surreptitiously to defeat the pronounced objects of PP.</p>

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Interrogating competing tensions among procedures, expertise and community aspirations in public participation as barriers against achievement of urban renewal projects in Kenya

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月27日

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  • Fawcett O. Komollo,
  • Lawrence S. Esho,
  • Joseph M. Kedogo,
  • Jason M. Mochache,
  • Eve I. Muriithi

摘要

Notwithstanding its importance as highlighted in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 16.7 and the New Urban Agenda, public participation (PP) in Kenya continues to face significant challenges. Specifically, the activity is hostage to divergent expectations of key actors, which in turn slow down decision-making and hamper implementation of associated programmes. This paper examines inter-actor engagement in Kenya’s Informal Settlements Improvement initiatives (SUPs) with a view to unravelling the nature of conflicts that arise in associated PP processes. The study employs a qualitative approach, combining expert views (participating technocrats) and key informant interviews (target community members). The case study is Kahawa Soweto, one of Nairobi’s informal settlements and key target of historical and ongoing slum upgrading efforts. The paper weaves the two emergent voices to explicate the nature of conflicts in slum upgrading PP processes. Using the critical lenses of Elite Theory, Arnstein’s ladder of participation and Robert’s Participation Cube, the study illustrates the discursive tango between state and community as played out in SUPs and associated PP processes. The ensuing dialectic integrates what may be christened as the “clamp of society” and the “clamp of the state", representing the respective actor’s attempts to stifle the opposite’s voice in decision-making. The study concludes that despite manifestly inclusive and engaging PP processes, group interests, often undeclared, operate surreptitiously to defeat the pronounced objects of PP.