Migration and Regional Development in Kenya
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Local/Global Encounters
Migration and Regional Development in Kenya
JOHN O. OUCHO
ABSTRACT John O. Oucho presents the interrelated patterns of development and internal migration patterns and trends, hypothesizing their relationship in Kenya. Much of human activity is limited to the wetter, densely settled parts, the drier parts occupied by forests and national parks or game reserves. In the past four decades, three provinces have been net in-migration regions, the remaining five, net out-migration areas, consistently influencing and being influenced by regional development status. KEYWORDS Kenya; region/province; internal migration; lifetime migration; regional development; interrelations
Background to development and migration Kenya consists of eight provinces that are made up of districts, which British colonial government bequeathed to independent Kenya with boundaries that are coterminous with ethnic-unit boundaries, a characteristic that time and a gain faults the solidarity of the nation-state. Since independence in 1963, the country represents a typical neo-liberal economy in which the market forces have shaped not only the structure and pattern of development but also the magnitude and pattern of internal migration. The country has experimented with different development strategies that still entrench regional inequality, which affects and is in turn affected by internal migration. Kenya is a dual economy comprising the traditional sector languishing in subsistence production and the modern formal sector in urban centres and commercial agriculture; in fact, it is a triple economy because a vibrant informal sector in urban economies provides more employment to a growing army of unemployed persons. Because of its diverse physical and human features, Kenya is best known as a‘land of contrasts’; only 17 percent of it is arable land (about 3^4 percent of it occupied by forest and national park and game reserves) and much of human activity is thus limited to this small area. Land is a highly prized resource in Kenya, and land-centred struggles often trigger ethnic conflict among different users of the resource. Like other sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, Kenya experiences four types of internal migration: (1) Ruralçrural, which is dominant and comprises three sub-types (migration from the traditional sector to plantation agriculture, nomadic mobility and migration for agricultural land colonization); Development (2007) 50(4), 88–93. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100425
Oucho: Kenyan Regional Migration (2) Rural^urban, which is conspicuous because it underlines the disparity between the two locales; (3) Urban^urban (inter-urban), migration that partly accounts for rapid urbanization; (4) Urban^rural, including return migration of former urban migrants, which gathered momentum following economic reforms prescribed by the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), specifically retrenchment of public servants aged 55 years and above. The fifth component is forced migration, which, from time to time, has produ
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