Tenuous Wires, Covert Excreta Flows, and a Formal/Informal Interface: Uncovering New Facets of Informality in Nairobi

Utilizing qualitative research in Nairobi’s informal settlement of Mukuru, this dissertation will explore the multiple roles of informal service providers, unravel their ties to formal actors, and develop new tools for analyzing informal service delivery. ‘Informal’ typically denotes activities that fail to comply with government regulations, and urban informality is always changing, contextually-determined and cross-cutting across multiple domains. I seek to fill multiple gaps in the literature on informality and service provision for low-income urban residents. Past studies rarely examine informal electricity providers or narrowly analyze ‘electricity theft,’ while my analysis of electricity providers will reveal the groups’ multiple facets and changes over time. In my sanitation case study, I analyze seasonal and spatial variations as well as proposing a new approach for studying slums’ waste flows. Although there is ample research of formal/informal linkages between firms or in a single sector like water, there is only limited comparative research of formal/informal ties in urban service provision. I develop a new typology of how informal water, electricity, and sanitation providers in Nairobi’s slums relate to formal actors; my analysis of a ‘formal/informal interface’ can also encourage further research into these ties. Taken together, my chapters can foster rigorous comparative analyses and promote more appropriate initiatives in African informal settlements where informal providers play a central (though sometimes problematic) role in serving the poor./nMukuru’s heterogeneous informal providers and their diverse ties to formal actors make this slum a fitting site for uncovering new facets of informality in urban service provision. Located on private lands in Nairobi’s industrial area, Mukuru has rarely featured in past studies or benefited from upgrading projects. Although Mukuru is undergoing electrification, the project has yet to displace well-established informal electricity providers and the slum’s sanitation has been largely neglected by state or donor projects. Given its diversity of sanitation solutions, Mukuru is unusually well-placed to reveal how excreta are disposed in informal settlements and in turn to develop new methods for addressing these hazardous practices. Along with informal electricity and sanitation providers, Mukuru has active water vendors with their own modes of relating to government officials. With few donor- or government-led infrastructure interventions to date, Mukuru offers an appropriate study setting for analyzing a profusion of non-state service providers and for comparing formal/informal ties in urban service delivery. Based upon over a year of fieldwork in Mukuru, my dissertation draws upon semi-structured interviews, observations, and focus groups with residents and service providers as well as interviews with experienced practitioners in Nairobi./nIn Chapter 2, I argue that electricity cartels simultaneously resemble gangs, electricity thieves, and informal workers, and these multiple facets create a corrupt, entrenched system that still provides an accessible service. Power cartels are comprised of youths who usually live in Mukuru, and they offer a range of benefits to customers like payment extensions and low-cost connections, even if the services undoubtedly remain hazardous. Although they initially clashed over customers and were ethnically divided, providers are now mixed and not primarily violent actors. I explain how cartels regularly collude with Kenya Power and the police; cooperate and compete amongst themselves; and provide flexible services that are quite socially-embedded. While not downplaying the unsafe or collusive aspects, I aim to provide a nuanced understanding of these shadowy figures’ multiple roles and to inform future electricity interventions. I also seek to enrich the literature on non-state providers (NSPs) by showing the mutability and complex motives of cartels while challenging a static classification of providers’ profit orientation or sectarian ties./nChapter 3 analyzes how excreta are disposed in Mukuru and develops a mixed-methods approach that can be replicated by local organizations. While analyses of the ‘sanitation chain’ (from user to ultimate disposal) helpfully recognize the need for comprehensive approaches, I suggest that this discrete sequence is misleading for informal settlements. Instead, Mukuru’s wastes are disposed via non-linear, often improvised strategies that can vary by season, residents’ age, gender, and other factors. I also critique past studies of excreta flows that typically utilize epidemiological methods that are too technical for local organizations, or miss fine-grained practices and variations in informal settlements. I develop a feasible mixed-methods approach for understanding slums’ waste flows that could be subsequently utilized by sanitation advocates, urban poor federations or other local practitioners. Furthermore, I underscore the importance of ongoing maintenance by male latrine-emptiers and (largely female) caretakers who clean shared latrines. I argue for gender- and age-sensitive strategies as well as multi-sectoral initiatives combining fecal sludge management (FSM) with adequate drainage, menstrual hygiene facilities, and solid waste management. Finally, I argue the ‘sanitation chain’ in Mukuru is best understood as an emergent co-creation of households, caretakers, and service providers who regularly shift in their interactions with (at times filthy) shared latrines and tenuous networks like open drains or brittle water pipes./nChapter 4 analyzes how Mukuru’s informal providers interact with formal actors, and my typology can encourage further comparative research. Although there are related literatures on hybrid security governance and informal institutions, past studies rarely offer a comparative framework on urban informal service providers or focus on broader scales than informal settlements. In my exploration of a ‘formal/informal interface,’ I argue that these interactions represent a continuum ranging from latrine-emptiers (usually ignored by police and relevant officials) to electricity cartels that regularly bribe and periodically clash with state actors. Additionally, I offer a new typology of informal providers as invisibly parallel (latrine-emptiers), invisibly parasitic and collusive (sewer hook-ups), visibly parasitic (water), and visibly parasitic and collusive (electricity). I also offer a detailed comparison of water and electricity cartels, who differ in their levels of conflict, salience of ethnicity, and competitive vs. cooperative pressures. Lastly, I discuss how water and electricity providers can deploy ‘trappings of formality,’ including a strategic display of official meters to avoid paying fines. Understanding the interface not only helps to uncover the deep-seated, complex roots of informal provision but may also develop more appropriate interventions, such as tackling the collusive ties that contributed to the rise of cartels./nI conclude with policy lessons and methodological reflections, as well as analyzing ways to emulate informal providers’ accessible, flexible services. Based on past slum electrification projects, I identify key challenges and mechanisms that may facilitate the transition to formal power; I also briefly discuss experiences with Nairobi’s ongoing electrification project. I propose a research agenda into (sometimes unsavory) informal providers and suggest that future slum upgrading initiatives may benefit from a nuanced analysis of informal providers and their ties to official actors. After acknowledging the challenges of studying informal providers, I discuss the implications for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and argue for holistic slum upgrading projects rooted in a thoroughgoing analysis of dynamic, multifaceted informal providers.

Advisor: Corburn, Jason