'Donor-driven' neoliberal reform processes, 'democratization' and the production of deforestation in Kenya: The case of Karura and Oloolua forests in Nairobi

In sub-Saharan Africa, like most of the developing world, democratization has coincided with neoliberal economic reform. Yet, studies of democratization and neoliberalism tend to remain separate, failing to recognize their complex interconnections, both in their material and discursive dimensions. At the heart of this dissertation research is the question of how these interconnections are manifested in the environments of urban sub-Saharan Africa. The dissertation examines the role that combined processes of implementing neoliberal adjustment programs and electoral democratization in Kenya played in the deforestation of Karura and Oloolua forest reserves. The forest reserves are located in Nairobi, the nation's commercial and political capital. Both forests underwent accelerated loss of trees and land in the 1990s, a period during which state elites were grappling with early phases of neoliberal reform and electoral democratization in the country. Additionally, the dissertation examines responses from various civil society groups and individuals to the issue of deforestation. Ideas in urban political ecology, debates around relationships between the environment and both processes of democratization and neoliberal economic reform, and discussions of collective action arising from civil society and social movements inform the analysis in this dissertation. The dissertation draws from interviews and discussions conducted with state and city officials, key individuals of various civil society groups, and ordinary Nairobi residents. The dissertation also considers relevant print materials. This study concludes that the realities of electoral democracy and neoliberal economic reform in Kenya complicate simplistic views of the interactions between democratization and neoliberalism. The study argues that the pressure to satisfy donors with a neoliberal agenda, in combination with the pressure to raise funds to compete in a multiparty election, led state elites to sell and develop the public forests to reserve their power, under the pretense of privatization and reform.