Hybrid Land Administration and Street-Level Bureaucracy in Peri-Urban Settlements: A study of Waitiki Farm, Kenya
Date
2022-06-01
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Abstract
The thesis develops hybrid governance and street-level bureaucracy theories, as a set of hypotheses, to explain land administration effectiveness in Waitiki, an in situ regularised peri-urban informal settlement in Mombasa, Kenya. Peri-urban informal settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa are dynamic and complex situations under which conventional land administration systems are likely to be dysfunctional. To improve the effectiveness of land administration systems in peri-urban settlements, the study argues that it is necessary to explore how street-level land administration officials provide services and how the multiple land governance systems relate. In addition, the study draws upon Lipsky’s Street Level bureaucracy theory and Hybrid Governance theory to develop hypotheses to explain street-level land administration officials (SLAOs) service delivery and hybrid governance arrangements inter-relationship. Using these hypotheses and drawing on the aforementioned theories, two theories as sets of hypotheses suited to the Waitiki case were developed. To investigate the research problem a case study strategy of inquiry was adopted. A single case, Waitiki Farm, was used in the study. Waitiki Farm was chosen because it is an informal settlement that was upgraded in situ and hybrid land governance continues to prevail. Both official and unofficial organisations and leadership structures play a role in land tenure administration. In addition, SLAOs are active in Waitiki Farm. Data was collected from multiple sources. The primary data comprised a total of 105 semi-structured interviews involving 148 people. I used 42 key-person interviews and 57 door-to-door interviews with residents. Secondary data included historical documents, national and county government documents, the courts’ law reports and documents, NGO documents, land administration, and demographic documentary, and online data from different government agencies. The fieldwork was undertaken between May and November 2017. To build theory, an interpretive approach was used i.e., interpreting data as the research progresses and building on prior theories as one does not start from a clean slate. Hybrid governance and Street Level bureaucracy theories were developed from the Waitiki data analysis. The hybrid governance theory that emerged explained that the de facto hybrid governance arrangement continues to be dominant and influential in in-situ regularised peri-urban settlements because SLAOs and residents use them for different land tenure administration functions.
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Keywords
Land Tenure, Land Administration, Kenya, Peri-Urban, Informal Settlement,
Citation
Muthama, D.M. (2022). Hybrid Land Administration and Street-Level Bureaucracy in Peri-Urban Settlements: A Study of Waitiki Farm, Kenya (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.