Visioning the Modern:
The Challenges and Risks Surrounding Kenya’s Proposed
Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport Corridor
The Lamu South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor is the largest project currently being planned for the East Africa region. With an estimated budget of $23 Billion, this decade-long process of regional transformation is expected to create numerous opportunities for international investment, while coaxing regional social and political
fissures to the surface of this contested landscape.
Throughout East Africa and across Kenya, this project represents a shift in regional prioritization from past efforts to simply control and contain the vast ‘uncharted hinterlands’ on the periphery, to a future in which these landscapes are transformed. Tribalism, territorialization, frontierism, cultural prioritization and anticipated economic displacement put this already contentious initiative in a constant state of flux. In order for the project to succeed however, the complex - yet delicate - framework of international agreements and political hierarchies must remain in place...
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