Turkana’s extractive promises in limbo

Turkana, in northern Kenya, has experienced an unsteady flow of development interventions. Development projects vary greatly in orientation – from health to infrastructure, agriculture to civic education – and by the implementing agents. Recently, oil companies have assumed the role of development agents, collaborating with the government on infrastructure development and corporate social responsibility initiatives. However, far from the promises made, projects are replete with delays, circularity, and abrupt standstills. In my case study, I will elaborate concrete promises lingering indefinitely, creating an interim state that eventually becomes an intransient ghost project: a ‘development limbo’. Rather than focusing on the clash of visions between different stakeholders or the repurposing of projects over time, this article will explore the gaps between the promises of transformative change and its truncated, uncertain delivery. Through the ‘ghosts’ of Project Oil Kenya, I will examine how, among local stakeholders, the promises of oil-driven development create a state of in-betweenness. This encompasses legacies of past interventions that may or may not be revived and imaginations and aspirations regarding those yet to come. By focusing on the notion of development limbo, I will assert the reappropriation of the remains of the pending Project Oil Kenya in Turkana’s extraction sites.