Ring roads, revived plans, & plotted practice: The multiple makings of Nairobi’s urban periphery

Abstract

From the Thika Superhighway to the opening of the Expressway, Nairobi’s recent history has been marked by the rapid development of large-scale mobility infrastructures. The paper uses the recently built urban bypass highways that circle the city as a heuristic entry point to theorise the urban and contribute to debates on the nature of the urbanising periphery in Africa. The empirical contribution of the paper is structured into three parts: plans; projects; and plotting. We show how plans operate as performative technologies, manufacturing the imaginary of how places fit into larger systems and relate to imagined cores. We then turn to the patchwork of projects – in particular the bypass roads and related ‘new towns’ – which reflect vestiges of these planning ideas, but in fact come to be operationalised as incremental expansions. Finally, we show how plotting – the plot-by-plot development driven by small businesses and families – in fact contributes the bulk of development activity. These investments knit urban fringes together in constant conversation with plans, and with the highway infrastructures which reduce the distances between places and spaces. Together, these vectors show the diverse ways in which the periphery is given imagination, substance, and value.