Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi

In recent years much attention has been given to the potential role of the informal sector in the economic development of Kenya. In part this emphasis has followed the observation that the informal sector uses an appropriate technology to produce an appropriate set of products. But the emphasis or the role of the informal sector also reflects concern with the inequitable path of the current strategy of growth. This working paper is essentially of a polemical nature and aims to be explicit. Some of the assumptions underlying much of the analysis and to raise the implications of a development strategy based on the informal sector as a leading sector of development.