This chapter argues that an “infrastructural gaze” offers an important perspective on the persistence of colonial hierarchies in global finance. Thinking in terms of infrastructures helps us to understand the uneven geographies of colonial financial systems and how these have been reproduced over time. The chapter highlights two key infrastructural systems central to colonial financial systems: networks of bank branches and mortgageable land titles. Drawing primarily on examples from Kenya, the chapter shows how the uneven development of these infrastructures has conditioned the subsequent development of financial systems.

The right to freedom of thought is enshrined in Article 32(1) of Kenya’s 2010 Constitution. This right aims to facilitate democratic discourse, critical thinking, and societal progress. However, despite its constitutional protection, the right remains underdeveloped statutorily, in judicial decisions, and in academic literature. Ambiguity persists in defining and qualifying violations of this right, as no court has thus far engaged in a comprehensive analysis to establish its content and scope. Instead, it has been intertwined with discussions on the scope, application, and limitations of freedoms of expression, religion, belief, and opinion, being regarded as the essential inner element necessary for the exercise of these freedoms. This chapter examines the scope of the right to freedom of thought in Kenya and the importance of recognising it as an independent right, despite its interconnectedness with the aforementioned freedoms. Ensuring this recognition allows citizens to develop their own set of ideals and belief systems without facing coercion to disclose their thoughts, punishment for holding certain thoughts, impermissible alteration of their thoughts, or a lack of an enabling environment to hold and express their thoughts. To establish this, the chapter explores the historical and legal framework of the right to freedom of thought in Kenya and examines its interplay with related constitutional rights such as freedom of expression, belief, religion, and opinion. It addresses contemporary issues, including the impact of technology, surveillance, and cancel culture on freedom of thought. Recommendations are then made on its applicability and how courts and academics can navigate the complexities surrounding its scope, content, and limitations.

This case study presents innovative work by a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) to use corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a key component of its business strategy in Kenya. AVIC International’s (“AVIC INTL’s”) core business is exporting Chinese machinery and vocational training to enhance the use of equipment in host countries and to build local training capacity. Through active learning with stakeholders in Kenya, AVIC INTL has developed the “Africa Tech Challenge” to host training and competitions for candidates from Kenya. This project, first initiated in 2014, later became a signature CSR project for the company, one which was repeated annually and received Chinese government awards for companies’ overseas brand-building. This case study shows how CSR can be an effective business strategy for Chinese SOEs operating in African states. Chinese SOEs have started to use CSR projects to gain market access, build a positive image, and cultivate ties with host country politicians, industry, and civil society. The study also demonstrates how Chinese SOEs, over the course of overseas operations, have experienced a steep learning curve in host countries and how, despite structural asymmetry vis-à-vis China, African actors can actively shape the behavior of Chinese SOEs that are financially powerful and technically strong.

In Kenya, Utility Model Certificates (UMCs) are relatively popular with local applicants, and have been gaining in popularity over the past decade. The Kenyan UMC system is used largely as a replacement for the patent system, in contrast with other jurisdictions in which the two may be used strategically in combination. While a majority of patent applicants are foreign entities, nearly all UMC applicants are local entities, indicating that the UMC system is better designed to serve the local population of innovators.

Despite Kenya’s transformative and progressive 2010 Constitution, it is still grappling with a hybrid democracy, displaying both authoritarian and democratic traits. Scholars attribute this status to several factors, with a prominent one being the domination of the political order and wielding of political power by a few individuals and families with historical ties to patronage networks and informal power structures. The persisting issues of electoral fraud, widespread corruption, media harassment, weak rule of law and governance challenges further contribute to the hybrid democracy status. While the 2010 Constitution aims to restructure the state and enhance democratic institutions, the transition process is considered incomplete, especially since the judiciary’s role of judicial review is mostly faced with the difficult task of countering democratic regression.

This chapter examines Kenya's use of debt-based financial statecraft, revealing an uneven track record. It first describes how the Kenyan government diversified its portfolio of external finance with both international bonds and Chinese loans. Drawing on interviews with government and donor officials, the chapter then shows Kenya's mixed success in extracting bargaining leverage from its new sources of finance. While the Kenyan government achieved increased flexibility from donors on governance issues, it encountered greater resistance on financial management practices. The chapter highlights that donors' strategic interests in their relationship with Kenya encouraged them to be more flexible when Kenya diversified its portfolio of external finance, but that their concerns about accountability and use of funds led them to be more stringent on issues of financial management.

In this chapter, I show how the current shift to digitalising tax administration in Kenya is connected to its colonial fiscal structures both in its design and implementation. Firstly, the idea that technology can help economic development in countries like Kenya has existed since colonial times and still features in current policies that endorse technology for economic development. Secondly, colonial structures are also present in the implementation strategies of a digital platform like the e-filing system central in this case study as they rely on colonial infrastructures for implementation. ITax, the e-filing system that is the focus of this chapter, was implemented quite rapidly and made mandatory within a short period. This chapter argues that the ‘promise’ of digitalisation as a driver of sustainability, modernisation, and economic growth is outweighed by the harm done by colonial history impacting its practice. I argue that colonial fiscal policies are still shaping Kenya’s tax practices. A closer look at Kenya’s colonial fiscal history is important for understanding how the current tax systems are shaped and informed by past practices.

This chapter describes the book's case study approach, which compares Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya. All three countries experienced the regional trend of increased borrowing from China and in international bond markets in the 2000s. However, the countries vary in strategic significance and donor trust, allowing for tests of heterogeneity in the financial statecraft of borrowers. The chapter discusses the data collection process for the case studies, with over 170 elite interviews, mostly with government and donor officials participating in aid negotiations, and how this data is used to trace debt-based financial statecraft in each country. The chapter briefly provides background on each country's political and economic context and previews findings on how their external finance portfolios impacted aid negotiations with traditional donors.

Focusing on journalists’ training between 1960 and 2015, this chapter captures the enduring strength of colonial logic effectuated through nonjournalistic actors, such as the education field. It shows how curricula focused on Western canonical thought reinforce a sense of liminality in a field already perceived as out of touch. It discusses the role of journalism education in inculcating specific normative assumptions about how the fields should work on the continent. It argues that journalism education now, just as at the dawn of independence, is such that the profession is heavily moored on Western understandings of journalistic doxa.