Gender Implications of Involuntary Resettlement on Displaced Families: The Case of Karimenu II Dam, Kiambu County, Kenya

Abstract

This paper investigated the gender implications of involuntary resettlement at Karimenu II Dam. The study employed the Impoverishment, Risks, and Reconstruction (IRR) model developed in the late 1990s by the World Bank and coined by Michael Cernea (2002). It provides a conceptual tool for identifying the inherent risks that may cause impoverishment through involuntary displacement and resettlement. He identified 8 risks of Involuntary Resettlement (IR) namely: landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalization, food insecurity, social disarticulation, increased morbidity & mortality, and loss of common access to common property and services. Andnet Gizachew refined it in 2015 to include other risks of IR that Cernea did not capture in his model, which are:

• Carelessness,
• Constrained community mobility,
• Loss of resilience,
• Constrained access to education, and
• Loss of aspects of human rights

This paper attempted to answer the following question:

What were the gender-specific outcomes of the IR at Karimenu II dam on the lives and livelihoods of the PAPS?