Institutionalising patronage politics? Overlapping local authorities in the implementation of a participatory urban development programme in Nairobi

Through an original ethnography of a participatory slum-upgrading programme and an historical exploration of the history of the settlement’s governance, this paper seeks to analyse the complex arrays of overlapping local governance structures and how the new participatory structures introduced by the development programme have interacted with those previously in place. The informal settlement has been created through ethnic and political clientelism in the land allocation process since the late 1970s. Political patronage characterised pre-existing governance institutions such as the Council of the Elders chaired by a government-selected Local Chief.

The programme has created new participatory governance structures through community elections. On one hand, the process has further institutionalised some pre-existing inequalities; many members belonging to ‘traditional’ governance structures have been re-elected in the new residents’ committee. On the other hand, new sections of the residents – previously excluded – have gained access to decision-making arenas, generating internal conflicts whose effects will be analysed in the paper. Finally, the paper examines how and why the settlement’s elites have been able to reproduce themselves in the new and supposedly democratic local governance structure.