On 1 October, we are pleased to welcome Dr Hussein Wario speaking at our tenth seminar on ‘Energy justice in pastoralist landscapes: Exploring the shifting politics of land, resources and renewable energy in northern Kenya.’
As global pressure mounts to rapidly scale up renewable energy, the previously developmentally disregarded geographies of pastoralist communities have become prime real estate for large-scale wind, solar and geothermal projects. But who truly wins and who loses in these green frontiers? This presentation uses a political ecology lens to interrogate the concept of “energy justice” (EJ) within pastoralist landscapes. We will explore how lower-carbon transitions risk repeating colonial-era patterns of land dispossession, resource enclosure, and marginalized representation for mobile herders. Drawing on recent field evidence, this talk highlight the importance of non-Western, place-based meanings of EJ, grounded in local land relations and of contested concepts of consent, including Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as critical in refining EJ principles and in shaping prospects for locally owned, just energy transitions.
Hussein Tadicha Wario is founder and current Executive Director of the Center for Research and Development in Drylands, a community centered non-profit organization that promotes policy oriented and people-centered action research to inform development policy, plans and programmes. He holds PhD in Agricultural Sciences with his main research focus being on the interactions between land, livestock and the people within the pastoral production systems, with specific focus on communal land governance, natural resource management, climate change and resilience building and participatory GIS mapping with pastoralists communities. He has over 15 years of experience in research and development across the drylands of East Africa, and currently leads multiple projects on rangeland and pastoralism in northern Kenya. He is committed to advancing sustainable livelihoods in the dryland communities and passionate about mentoring early career researchers in transdisciplinary, social–ecological research.
Convened by the International Livestock Research Institute, the Rift Valley Institute and the Dryland Observatory, the series is hosted by the British Institute in Eastern Africa.
Join us to exchange ideas, hear new perspectives and engage in friendly debate on the core issues shaping Africa’s drylands.
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