Stasis and Slums: The Changing Temporal, Spatial, and Gendered Meaning of ‘Home’ in Northeastern Kenya

Abstract The conflict referred to variously as the ‘Shifta War’ or ‘ gaf Daba ’ took place in northeastern Kenya from 1963–8. In the hopes of containing the ‘shifta’, or guerillas, fighting against it, the Kenyan state implemented a policy of forced settlement or ‘manyattazation’. This article explores the temporal, spatial, and gendered implications of ‘manyattazation’ and its antecedents. It indicates that changes in spatial organization transformed the economic and cultural realms of northeastern Kenyans in ways that resonate into the present. Government ‘manyattas’ began primarily as trading centers, became virtual prisons during the war, and continue to be sites of conflict over the meaning of home. This article posits a local history of altered migration in which state progress is paradoxically linked to poverty and stasis, through temporal discourse.