Hybrid networks, everyday life and social control: Electricity access in urban Kenya

Abstract

This article examines electricity access in Kisumu and Kitale, Kenya, through the mediation of land tenure relations. Despite a reported rapid expansion of formal network connectivity, various everyday practices have emerged, including piecemeal electricity purchase and communal meter sharing, which mean electricity access is controlled and mediated at various social scales. It is argued that such practices represent hybridised forms of electricity access and that landlord–tenant relations alter the socio-technical electricity network and how access is lived and experienced.