Paper short abstract:

Through an anthropological lens, I seek to explore the oil nexus by focusing on an empirical case study of the extraction fringes in Turkana, Kenya. I will focus on the imagination of a 'better future' and the moral implication of the promise of revenue distribution within a development 'limbo'.

Paper long abstract:

On March 2012 the oil discovery by the Irish drilling company Tullow in Turkana County, Kenya, has been celebrated as a future booster to economic growth and development of the politically marginalized Kenyan northern frontiers. In order to benefit from the oil as fast as possible, the Government and investors went fast-tracking oil operations in the region. A number of treaties and laws were released, inter alia the 2018 revenue-sharing agreement that proclaims the redistribution of five percent of the revenues to the local community. The promise of a 'rightful share' (Ferguson 2015) is vital for the understanding of subsequent development in the region. The claim for access to the wealth is a request for new politics of distribution, which challenges conventional dependency and refers to the legitimate participation in the process of development.

Yet, an accumulation of trials in January 2020 led to the suspension of operations and a reevaluation of the viability of the project by the leading extraction company. Thus, the absence of foreign employees, the closing of offices and a lack of transparency result in a development 'limbo', which is a vibrant atmosphere of uncertainty. Consequently, fast changing social realities informed by various worldviews fundamentally affect imaginations of a 'better future' and self-accomplishment. With my case study of a village in the proximity of the oil wells, I analyze the dynamic process of reevaluation and reappropriation of the transformed space and discuss the (re)negotiation of access to wealth, respectability, authority, honor and prestige.