The Development Corridor Strategy and Its Influences on Economic Development and Growth in Kenya

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of Kenya's development corridor strategy on the country's economic growth and development. The development corridor concept is a strategic and economic framework designed to deliver Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) globally. Kenya's strategy includes projects like LAPSSET, SGR Corridor, KOTDA and Resort Cities. With Kenya's growth shifting from exports and investments to greater consumption, the development corridor strategy could boost trade relations and diversify exports, contributing to trade revival and growth locally, regionally and internationally. This paper is the first quantitative study exploring the potential impact of the development corridor strategy on Kenya’s economic development. It conducts two policy simulations to assess: (i) the impact on international transport services through transport infrastructure improvements, enhancing physical connectivity, and (ii) the impact on growth and development through the iceberg effect, capturing the potential of enhanced development and growth facilitation across the corridor regions. The study examines the trade and growth impact at national, regional and global levels, identifying gainers and losers. The findings suggest that development corridors are not just infrastructural projects driving sustainable economic growth as mainstream discourses claim. Instead, they are value-laden practices that create and sustain socio-political orders dominated by global capitalist expansion, various forms of extraction, state–private actor collaborations, and normative life ordering. This paper contributes to geographical scholarship on mega-infrastructures by showing how globally structured infrastructure politics advance capitalist expansion, impacting both urban and non-urban contexts, and shaping state geographies characterized by extractivism and contested territorialities.