Towards a Political Economy of Transportation Policy and Practice in Nairobi

• Published in: Urban forum (Johannesburg) Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 1 - 21
• Main Author: Klopp, Jacqueline M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.03.2012
• Subjects: Africa; Cities; Human Geography; Kenya; Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning; Nairobi; Policy making; Political economy; Political Science; Population Economics; Practice; Social Sciences; Sociology; Transport economics; Transportation; Transportation policy; Urban studies; Central Business District; Transportation Sector; Road Construction; Common Pool Resource; United Nations Environment Programme
• ISSN: 1015-3802; 1874-6330
• DOI: 10.1007/s12132-011-9116-y

Despite the importance of transportation projects and policies in terms of shaping urban land, space and quality, in general, analysts, policymakers, and civil society do not always hold this sector up to the same level of political analysis and monitoring as they do for others like health, education, land or housing. Indeed, critical political, sociological and historical analysis is more the exception than the rule, in part because theorizing around transportation tends to be the domain of economists and engineers (Khayesi and Amekudzi 2010, Vasconcellos 2001). This paper aims to help fill this gap by conducting a preliminary historically informed, political economy and institutional analysis of decisions on transport policy in the Nairobi metropolitan region with a particular focus on the majority of residents in Africa's cities who do not own cars and are reliant on inadequate, often unsafe public transport, walking or riding bicycles to reach work and services (Gannon and Liu 1997: 12, Salon and Gulyani 2010). Building a public transportation system that offers more choice for the majority, in addition to making the cities healthier, more accessible and livable for all, is also critically important to challenging historically entrenched inequalities in access to urban space and opportunities. In brief, the transportation sector might be more fully incorporated into struggles to reconstitute citizenship in Africa's cities and entrench 'deep democracy' (Appadurai 2002). Adapted from the source document.