Well put, Ken! Very effective linking of spatial inequality to what some might see as Kenya's counterintuitively low national averages on health indicators, compared to neighbouring countries. I argued in C. Boone, Spatial Inequality and Political Cleavage in Africa: Regionalism by Design (Cambridge, 2024), that core-periphery patterns of spatial inequality and the political dynamics that emerge from these are visible in many countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Your observations about how policy contributes to spatial inequality, and how policies could be designed to mitigate this, are well taken. Thanks for a great post on An Africanist Perspective.
Excellent analysis as always. On areas (periphery vs core), during the 2007- 2013, there was a ministry in charge of the arid zones. I think it was folded after the 2013 elections. I wonder if it was effective in Amy way.
A focus on human development, can be a useful experiment, as a policy direction. Unfortunately, education and health have taken a beating, and there doesn't seem to be serious interest in making things better.
Investing in people is something that most African countries can do better at; better quality higher-education to build skills and technology to drive innovation can do a lot of good. But what mostly happens is that government invest in capital cities with all the important urban services to attract foreign investments and a few rural areas are transformed into tourism hubs for the same purpose, growing spatial inequalities. Ultimately, many living in rural areas and peripheries are left out from basic services and human development. It's a deliberate policy choice.
Well put, Ken! Very effective linking of spatial inequality to what some might see as Kenya's counterintuitively low national averages on health indicators, compared to neighbouring countries. I argued in C. Boone, Spatial Inequality and Political Cleavage in Africa: Regionalism by Design (Cambridge, 2024), that core-periphery patterns of spatial inequality and the political dynamics that emerge from these are visible in many countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Your observations about how policy contributes to spatial inequality, and how policies could be designed to mitigate this, are well taken. Thanks for a great post on An Africanist Perspective.
Excellent analysis as always. On areas (periphery vs core), during the 2007- 2013, there was a ministry in charge of the arid zones. I think it was folded after the 2013 elections. I wonder if it was effective in Amy way.
A focus on human development, can be a useful experiment, as a policy direction. Unfortunately, education and health have taken a beating, and there doesn't seem to be serious interest in making things better.
Wonderful piece, Ken. Kenya is starting to evolve…
https://open.substack.com/pub/nauxhadrian/p/brics-is-dead-long-live-brcks-why?utm_source=app-post-stats-page&r=62hoap&utm_medium=ios
Investing in people is something that most African countries can do better at; better quality higher-education to build skills and technology to drive innovation can do a lot of good. But what mostly happens is that government invest in capital cities with all the important urban services to attract foreign investments and a few rural areas are transformed into tourism hubs for the same purpose, growing spatial inequalities. Ultimately, many living in rural areas and peripheries are left out from basic services and human development. It's a deliberate policy choice.