THE UNIVERSITY OF LEIPZIG

parliamentary session papers presented within the realm of biodiversity and natural resources
were reviewed. The research also reviewed different publications that were produced by
several environmental NGOs and other papers, reports and policy briefs published by various
environmental journals in Nairobi.
Primary data (national and sub-national level)
Data at the national level was gathered in Nairobi, while that at the sub-national level was
gathered in Kakamega district. The justification for using Nairobi arises out of the fact that
Nairobi is the national capital of Kenya and therefore houses most of the national key
ministries that were important for this mapping. These include the ministries of Agriculture,
Environment and Natural Resources, Lands, Water among others. Nairobi is also home to
most of the major agencies dealing with natural resources and environment. These include;
NEMA, Resource Surveys, Biodiversity Centre, National Museums of Kenya, the Forest
Department, and Kenya Wildlife Services among others. It is also imperative to mention that
Nairobi is the central operating point for most of the NGOs working in the realm of
biodiversity conservation and implementation of the numerous biodiversity protocols to
which Kenya as a nation has accented.
In terms of co-ordination mechanisms, it is instructive to point out that most of the actors
dealing with co-ordination of national and international biodiversity regimes are stationed
there. Besides, a lot of other opinion and informed leaders in this subject area are located and
based there.
The other issue that is worth mentioning is that the national formal institutional development
process in terms of policy and legal framing processes begins and reaches its zenith in the
city, so issues to deal with national norm emergency and national norm framing begin and
ends in Nairobi.
Lastly, Nairobi harbours the greatest bulk of the national population. More than 10% of the
country’s urban population resides there. With the high population growth of rate of 7%,
Nairobi is the commercial, industrial and trading capital. 106 The city is inhabited by people of
diverse cultures and diverse communities.
The sub-national mapping was obtained in Kakamega. It is of significant importance to
discern that Kakamega serves as a home for both Western provincial administration and the
district local government. It lies in the western part of Kenya. This region has a severe
shortage of land and most of the indigenous inhabitants are the predominantly agricultural
Luhya community. Agriculture accounts for 62% of the household income in this province
and the province has relatively low literacy rates and low infrastructure. 107 Data for the
national and sub-national level mapping covered different attributes such as standards applied
during institutional design at various levels, prioritisation of communities or household
106 GOK. 2004. Statistical Abstract. Nairobi: Government Printer.
107 GOK. 2006. Statistical Abstract. Nairobi: Government Printer.
28