Obudho, R.A. (1983). Urbanization in Kenya: A bottom-up approach to development planning. (Revision of a doctoral thesis on development and urbanization, 1974). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

OVERVIEW

What is the nature of a city? Walter Christaller’s central-place theory has been outlined by Brian J.L. Berry and Allen Pred and quoted by R.A. Obudho in his "Urbanization In Kenya":

The basic function of a city is to be a central place providing goods and services for the surrounding tributary area.

The centrality of a city is a summary measure of the degree to which it is a service center.

Higher order places offer more goods, have more establishments and business types, larger populations, do greater volumes of business, and are more widely spaced than lower order places.

Low order places provide only low order goods to low order tributary areas; these low order goods are generally necessities requiring frequent purchasing with little consumer travel.
—(Obudho, 1982, p. 11.)

Obudho continues:

In undeveloped countries, the majority of consumers are not supplied with goods and services from a central place. Central-place functions are performed by mobile agents who move from place to place thus giving rise to the periodic market.

It is important to trace the development of traditional markets because...their modernization processes (traditional markets) have provided a base from which diffusion and expansion of urban life has transformed the rural areas. Conversely, periodic and daily markets also fostered improved spatial integration between rural and urban areas. Even in East Africa where most of the market systems were imposed during the colonial period, the periodic markets have been one of the major links in the urbanization process. (Obudho, 1982, pp. 16-17)

The development of two types of centers—the modern central place and the traditional subsystems of markets and their interaction—are analyzed from geographical, demographic, and economic perspectives.

The author concludes:

The existing approach to development issues in most of Kenya has some inherent problems. Most of the development planning strategies are (top-down and) urban-oriented, and the social and physical planning proposals have, in practice, been focused on the major urban centers. The policy of improving the conditions in major urban areas has resulted in a high rate of rural-to-urban migration, and adequate services and social development have been stimulated in these centers at the expense of the rural areas.

The improvement of major urban centers has not worked hand in hand with the development of the hinterland in order to encourage the agricultural development of the rural areas. Rural development projects have often failed because they are not linked in any way with the emerging central places in the rural areas. Rural problems and urban problems should not be viewed in isolation but as an interrelated spatial system.

Spatial planning in Kenya, on the basis of the central places of the urban place sub-system, will not alter the dual, neo-colonial economic system but may only succeed in fostering its growth...Planning of the market place and the rural system should be central rather than peripheral to development strategy. These development problems can be reduced only by planning at the local level.

The Kenya government, cognizant of the lack of spatial development in the rural area since 1966, has lately (the 1970-74 development plan) stressed more emphasis in rural development...Both the 1974-78 and the 1978-82 development plans have also emphasized the rural development (especially the 1978-82 development plan). (Obudho, 1983, pp. 229-230)

IMPLICATIONS

1. Of vital importance to African societies are the themes of population growth, urbanization, resources, and development. This book provides a scholarly analysis of these issues.
2. Church, organizational, and national development in Africa can often be governed by personal and institutional interests and by funding sources or available aid. This work serves as a corrective to such temptations.
3. Astute African criticisms of Western systems and neo-colonialism most often deal with its dichotomies and lack of holistic approaches. Here, too, the dichotomy between urban and rural is seen as neo-colonial. African development must be holistic if it is to retain essential integrity.
4. The emphasis here on bottom-up planning and development bears witness to the democratic nature and needs of African society. Development imposed from without or on self-serving internal elements misses the true needs of the people.
5. The lessons of this study should be applied to social service organizations. The effective youth worker should master the principles described here.

Dean Borgman cCYS