K enya, Neoliberalism and Women's Protest

In 1980 Kenya became one of the first two countries, along with Turkey, to receive support from the World Bank for broad macroeconomic Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) to address structural weaknesses in its economy. The dictates of SAPs called on workers and peasants to tighten their belts and to contribute to their own development – euphemisms which meant digging deep into their pockets to survive. SAPs involved cuts in education and health expenditure by governments, which negatively affected the provision of these services, for example, charging people “user fees” at health facilities. The reforms entailed downsizing in state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) (also called parastatals) and retrenchments in the public sector. Trade liberalization was also a critical component of SAPs, leading to stiff competition from imports for former protected industries. This resulted in the closure of factories and redundancies. The argument was that neoliberal policies would bring about economic growth. Trade openness would result in economic competitiveness and hence increased profits. Yet the effects of SAPs were such that they outweighed these economic nobilities.