Abstract

North of Nairobi, the city’s sprawl enters a landscape of impoverished smallholders, causing land prices to skyrocket. Kenya’s economic commentators urge these part-time proletarians to sell their land—deemed unproductive “dead capital”—as an antidote for rural poverty. Senior men from the region insist this ancestral land cannot be sold, because retaining it while working for wages constitutes the cornerstone of masculine personhood. However, in a world of peri-urban destitution, where wages cannot provision desires for middle-class lifestyles, masculine principles of land retention are being abandoned for experiences of abandon. Male landowners alienate family land to fund lifestyles of conspicuous consumption, especially in alcohol. The consumption of dead capital to furnish desires of abandon suggests that Nairobi’s urban expansion is made possible by such binge economies of land on its peri-urban peripheries. The conclusion proposes consumption as a theory of changing moral orientations to the short term when people encounter economic dead ends. 

Muhtasari

Kaskazini mwa Nairobi, kuenea kwa jiji kunaingia kwenye maeneo ya wakulima wadogo maskini, jambo ambalo linasababisha bei ya ardhi kuongezeka kwa kasi. Watoa maoni wa uchumi nchini Kenya wanahimiza wafanyakazi hawa wa muda kuuza ardhi yao-inayochukuliwa kama “mtaji mfu” usiozalisha- kama suluhisho la umaskini wa vijijini. Wanaume wazee kutoka eneo hilo wanasisitiza kwamba ardhi hii ya urithi haiwezi kuuzwa, kwa sababu kuimiliki huku wakifanya kazi za mshahara ndicho jiwe la msingi la utambulisho wa kiume. Kando na hayo, katika ulimwengu wa umaskini wa pembezoni mwa miji, ambako mishahara haiwezi kukidhi mahitaji ya maisha ya tabaka la kati, misingi ya kiume ya kuhifadhi ardhi inaachwa na nafasi yake kuchukuliwa na maisha ya “raha”. Wamiliki wa ardhi wa kiume wanaitenga ardhi ya familia ili kufadhili mitindo ya maisha ya anasa yanayoonekana wazi, hasa katika ulevi. Matumizi ya “mtaji mfu” ili kutimiza tamaa za kujiachia yanaonyesha kwamba upanuzi wa jiji la Nairobi unawezeshwa na uchumi wa kuachana na ardhi kwa njia ya kupindukia katika maeneo yake ya pembezoni. Hitimisho linapendekeza matumizi kama nadharia ya mabadiliko ya mwelekeo wa maadili kuelekea muda mfupi wakati ambao watu wanakumbana na magumu kupata njia za kiuchumi.

Keywords

abandon; consumption; land sale; binge economy; urban frontier; kinship; Kenya; kujisahao; matumizi; uuzaji wa ardhi; uchumi wa matumizi yakupindukia; pembezoni ya miji; ukoo

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2026 Peter Lockwood

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