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Echoes of Development: Environmental Discourses and Agency around Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway Cover

Echoes of Development: Environmental Discourses and Agency around Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway

Glocality
Volume 8 (2025): Issue 1
By: Johanna Bächle  
Open Access
|Nov 2025

References

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  19. 19Lamarque, H. (2023). Inside Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway Passenger narratives on large-scale transport infrastructure, connectivity, and political controversy, In T. Zajontz et al. (Eds.), Africa’s Railway Renaissance: The Role and Impact of China (pp. 241–258). Routledge. 10.4324/9781003208594-12
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  23. 23Mboya, C. (2024). What happened in Beijing in September? An Analysis of FOCAC and the Geopolitics of Africa’s Partnerships. African Policy Research Institute. Retrieved from https://afripoli.org/what-happened-in-beijing-in-september-an-analysis-of-focac-and-the-geopolitics-of-africas-partnerships.
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  24. 24Ministry of Ecology and Environment The People’s Republic of China (MEE) (2021). Vision of ecological civilization provides solutions for global crises. https://english.mee.gov.cn/News_service/media_news/202110/t20211015_956692.shtml
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  30. 30Mwendwa, M. (2017, January 4). SGR Will Destroy the Ecology of Nairobi National Park, Experts Warn. TalkAfrica. Retrieved from https://www.talkafrica.co.ke/sgr-will-destroy-the-ecology-of-nairobi-national-park-experts-warn/.
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  43. 43Vishwanath, A. (2017, October 24). The Standard Gauge Railway: Are We Doing it Right? SWARA Magazine. Retrieved from https://swara.co.ke/the-standard-gauge-railway-are-we-doing-it-right/.
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  44. 44Wang, Y., & Wissenbach, U. (2019). Clientelism at work? A case study of Kenyan Standard Gauge Railway project. Economic History of Developing Regions, 34(3), 280–299. 10.1080/20780389.2019.1678026
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  45. 45Wissenbach, U. (2020). African agency in the Belt and Road Initiative: Kenya’s rail investment as China’s flagship BRI project in Africa. In M. A. Carrai, J. Defraigne, & J. Wouters (Eds.), The Belt and Road Initiative and Global Governance (pp. 171–189). Edward Elgar Publishing. 10.4337/9781789906226
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  46. 46Wissenbach, U., & Wang, Y. (2017). African politics meets Chinese engineers: The Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway Project in Kenya and East Africa. China Africa Research Initiative, School of Advanced International Studies, Working Paper, 2017(13), 1–33. https://hdl.handle.net/10419/248141
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  47. 47Xinhua. (2016, February 27). Chinese-built modern railway unleashes huge benefits in Kenya. China Daily. Retrieved from https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2016-02/27/content_23663172.htm.
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  48. 48Zajontz, T. (2022). Debt, distress, dispossession: towards a critical political economy of Africa’s financial dependency. Review of African Political Economy, 49(171), 173–183. 10.1080/03056244.2021.1950669
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  49. 49Zhao, S. (2016, March 27). Standard Gauge Railway project transforming Kenyan lives. The Standard. Retrieved from https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/counties/article/2000196223/standard-gauge-railway-project-transforming-kenyan-lives.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/glo.98 | Journal eISSN: 2059-2949
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Language: English
Submitted on: Jan 20, 2025
Accepted on: May 21, 2025
Published on: Nov 12, 2025
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year
Keywords:
Agency,
Kenyan Standard Gauge Railway (SGR),
environmental discourses,
civil society,
development and conservation

© 2025 Johanna Bächle, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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