Barriers and Adaptations to Rural-urban Mobility: A Focus of the Milk Value Chain in Peri-urban Nairobi, Kenya

This Ifri Study, based on empirical data collected in Kiambu County, Kenya, between 2017 and 2021, explores how mobility — that goes beyond physical infrastructure —also faces social and political barriers. How does the use of matatus (mini-buses) by women milk vendors, instead of motorcycles deemed “unfeminine”, affect their mobility? How does the strict regulation of the dairy sector lead to more bribery and harassment, driving up transport costs? And how do issues of affordability lead to the exclusion of the poorest farmers? By circumventing these physical, social, and political obstacles, stakeholders in the milk value chain alter their trajectories and contribute to the transformation of peri-urban spaces. They also abandon certain routes and locations, which impacts the development of rural zones.