How to Confront the World Bank and Get Away with it: A Case Study of Kenya, 1980–87

Abstract

The relations between Kenya and the World Bank in the 1980s were riven with paradox. At the level of policy statements, the approach of both parties towards the removal of long-term constraints to growth seemed identical. Yet few country lending experiences have given the Bank so much cause for frustration. To understand why it is necessary to go back into the colonial period.

This is a shortened and revised version of chapter 16 of Mosley, Harrigan and Toye (1990). The research was conducted under Research Scheme R4329 of the Overseas Development Administration’s ESCOR Fund. The author acknowledges with warmest thanks the help of the following people: in Washington, Pamela Cox, David Hatendi, Kevin Cleaver, in Nairobi, Terry Ryan, Michael Westlake, James Otieno, Bo Karlstrom, Michael Mills, Richard Anson, Harris Mule; in Britain, Alex Duncan, Tony Killick.