Abstract
The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in Kenya is an infrastructure megaproject that was completed through the cooperation between Kenya and China. This paper examines the environmental narratives of three key actors involved in the construction of the SGR: the Kenyan government, the Chinese government, and Kenyan conservationists. Utilizing Foucauldian discourse analysis and Jäger’s (2012) critical discourse framework, this paper investigates how these actors exercise discursive power to frame the discourse surrounding the SGR and its environmental impacts. The findings reveal a stark contrast between governmental narratives that emphasise economic advancements while largely omitting ecological concerns; and the narrative of conservationists that foregrounds environmental and wildlife destruction, which is often marginalised in the dominant framings of the discourse. The Kenyan and Chinese governments utilised strategies that prioritise national development and compliance with legal regulations, presenting themselves as responsible actors while downplaying dissent. Conservationists, in contrast, leverage public opinion, legal mechanisms, and critiques of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) to assert their agency and challenge dominant narratives. The analysis highlights imbalances in the discursive power of the actors, resulting in the constrained agency of civil society actors. This study contributes to understanding the perspective of non-state actors and their exercise of agency to show how they navigate and exercise power in the context of infrastructure megaprojects in Kenya.