LAPSSET: Good for Lamu? Good for the Horn?
On Thursday 5 June the Rift Valley Institute sponsored a public event in partnership with the National Museums of Kenya in Lamu Fort: ‘LAPSSET: Good for Lamu? Good for the Horn?’ Four speakers discussed the potential impact of the proposed LAPSSET (Lamu Port–South Sudan–Ethiopia Transport) Corridor on the Horn of Africa in general and Lamu in particular. The […]
Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Kenya: The Shifta conflict
On Monday 15 December 2014, the RVI Nairobi Forum hosted a discussion with Hannah Whittaker of Brunel University, author of Insurgency & Counter-Insurgency in Kenya: A Social History of the Shifta Conflict. She was joined by Ambassador Ali Korane, Kenya’s special envoy to the Horn of Africa, and the discussion was moderated by Ibrahim Farah, a Horn […]
Pastoralism and Development in Africa
On 29th April 2013 the RVI hosted a seminar to discuss the new book Pastoralism and Development in Africa: Dynamic Change at the Margins (London: Earthscan, 2013), in collaboration with the Future Agricultures Consortium. The seminar brought together researchers, policy makers and practitioners to reflect critically on how pastoral-driven innovation can be incorporated into policies […]
Community’s anxiety about LAPSSET fueled by lack of information
This blog post first appeared on the Mipakani Project website (www.mipakani.net). The Mipakani Project is an open-access knowledge base covering development initiatives in the border areas of eastern Africa. It was written by Liz Mahiri. Liz is a Programme Officer at the Rift Valley Institute in Nairobi and the Project Coordinator for the Mipakani Project. […]
Rift Valley Forum coast series
The prospect of devolved county government has been met with particular enthusiasm in Kenya’s former Coast province since the passage of the new constitution in 2010. Many see devolution as offering a panacea for decades of the Coast’s perceived marginalization and underdevelopment by the central state. The Coast’s communities welcomed the opportunity of a new […]
Eastleigh and beyond
While Kenya considers how to deal with the hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees it has hosted for more than two decades, Somali trade and business in Kenya appears to be booming, with links to a wider global diaspora and trade hubs in the Middle East and Asia. Nairobi’s Eastleigh has become symbolic of this […]
LAPSSET: A Transformative Project or a Pipe Dream?
The Lamu Port-South Sudan Transport Corridor (LAPSSET) is an extremely ambitious project. There are multiple elements rolled up in this project: the development of a new port at Lamu; an oil pipeline from that port to South Sudan; road and railway links; and a possible line to southern Ethiopia. There are also plans for a new […]
After Kenya’s August 2017 elections: observing the observers
Following the historic, unprecedented decision by the Supreme Court to nullify Kenya’s presidential election, which international election observers had largely commended, the credibility of observers, and the practice of observation, was seriously damaged. In this article, RVI Fellow Aly Verjee identifies six lessons for international election observers ahead of the re-run of polls planned for 26 […]
Women in Nyandarua County determined to make milestones despite obstacles
The Rift Valley Institute, with the support of the East Africa Research Fund (EARF), has embarked on a major research study looking at the leadership and influence of women in politics in Kenya, which aims to map the level of women’s representation in decision-making roles in the government, identify the factors that impact the level […]
War Crimes and Statebuilding
The Rift Valley Institute’s Nairobi Forum, in partnership with Storymoja Africa, hosted a panel discussion with Rasna Warah (Kenya), author of War Crimes in Somalia, Michael Walls (UK) of UCL, author of A Somali Nation-State, to discuss Somali history, political transitions and foreign aid at the 2014 Storymoja Festival. The authors were joined on the […]