Masters of survival

Abstract

The book provides information on environmental hostility and East African reactions to it. It focuses on the environmental hardships experienced by various sections of Kenyan society including the Boni hunter-gatherers, nomads, women, elders, Nairobi workers and the unemployed garbage collectors in the city. The ten chapters provide information for both an overview of the situation and case studies, covering: human needs and environmental over-exploitation; famines in East Africa, timetable for a catastrophe; economics of garbage collection, a survival strategy for Nairobi's urban poor; Kokwo, change and challenges of an indigenous political institution; development theories and the future of Kenya nomads; the forest people, Boni hunter-gatherers; managing a difficult environment, small-scale vegetable irrigation scheme at the lakeshore; Pokot women's struggle for water; Mutomo, a market in the periphery; and Nairobi, a city under siege.