Dr. Eric Mutisya Kioko

Position: Lecturer/ Research Fellow Department: Environmental Studies and Community Development Contact Address: P.O. Box 43844, 00100-Nairobi, Kenya. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Research Interests: African Futures; Peace & conflict; Environmental & Community sustainability; Political ecology; Environmental Crimes (#Forest crimes); Community conservancies; Community land rights; Large-scale infrastructures. Google Scholar | ORCID ID | Researchgate Download CV

ACADEMIC EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC DEGREES                                                                                                                 

• 2013 – 2016:  Ph.D. Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Cologne, Germany.Grade: “Magna cum laude” (1,0)
• 2010 – 2012:  MA: Culture and Environment in Africa, University of Cologne, Germany. Grade: “Sehr gut” (1,3)
• 2004 – 2008:  BA: Anthropology, University of Nairobi, Kenya. Grade: First class honors

INTERNATIONAL PROJECT FUNDING

• 2022 -2026: The Volkswagen Foundation, Germany; ‘Local Dynamics and Integration of UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Outstanding Universal Value: Evidence from Cultural Landscapes in Ethiopia and Kenya’. Role: Principal Investigator, Kenya.
• 2021-2024:   Danish Fellowship Centre grant, Denmark: “Governing Adaptation Finance for  Transformation (GAFT). A comparative study of climate change adaptation  implementation in Tanzania and Kenya”. Main partner – Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). Role: Principal Investigator, Kenya
• 2021-2024:   Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) grant, UK: “Connecting agropastoral  food culture research to livestock commercialisation policy”. Main partner, IDS, UK. Role: Lead Co-Investigator, Kenya
• 2020:  Argelander grant, Germany: “Contending with COVID-19 shock in selected African countries: Micro-level evidence from Kenya,Tanzania, Zambia and Namibia”Role: Lead Co-Investigator, Kenya
• 2018 - 2020: German Research Foundation (DFG) grant, Germany: “Future Rural Africa: Future- Making and Social-Ecological Transformation. Project A04; Role: Lead Co-Investigator,Kenya.  https://www.crc228.de/projects/project_a04/ 
• 2013 – 2016:  European Commission/Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions/The Innovative Training Networks grant, Germany: ‘Resilience in East African Landscapes (REAL); Role: Junior Research Fellow (PhD grant) . www.real-project.eu; http://www.real-project.eu/category/eric/         
• 2010-2012:   German Research Foundation (DFG) grant, Germany: “Resilience, Collapse, and Reorganization in Social-Ecological Systems of the African Savannas”. Role: MA grant. www.fg1501db.uni-koeln.de ; http://www.fg1501db.uni-koeln.de/index.php?navi=8&id=23        

PUBLICATIONS

• Kioko, E., Nzau, J. and Wafula, C (2026).  Mining sacred nature: Extractivism and constrained agency in Kenya's sacred forests. The Extractive Industries and Society, Volume 27,  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2026.101948

• Kioko E., Müller-Mahn D, and Chuhila M (2026). Green Futures and National Planning: Rhetoric and Reality in Rural East Africa. In, African Futures in the Making. James Currey (Boydell & Brewer). https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.33676924.8 (Open Access)

• Müller-Mahn, D. and Kioko E (2026). Unforgettable! – Teaching and Research in Africa. journal Geographical Review, Volume 2026, Issue 6, Pages 54-55. https://elibrary.utb.de/doi/abs/10.5555/51260600_13 

• Müller-Mahn, D, Kioko E and Aalders T (2026). Ghost projects and the ambiguity of infrastructure development. Third World Quarterly 47(1):1-7, https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2025.2610335
• Kioko E. M & W. Changwony (2025) Infrastructure-driven land appropriation, institutional change and conflict in a communal conservancy in Kenya.  Elsevier -World Development Journal. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107089
• Aalders, T & E. Kioko (2025). Infrastructure Sabotage as Future-Making: The Material and Immaterial Power of Constructive Destruction. Antipode. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.70042
• Rieber, A., E. Kioko & T. Aalders (2025). “The non-economy of anticipation in the construction phase of large dams”, Journal of Political Ecology 32(1): 6117. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.6117
• Mulwa, J., E. Kioko & M. Gravesen (2025). Aligning the management of nature-based solutions to locally led adaptation principles: A case study of sand dams in Makueni County, Kenya. Elsevier, Nature-Based Solutions, Volume 7, June 2025: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbsj.2025.100226
• Ekiru, J. & Kioko, E. M (2025). The Power of Peace: Peace Stories from Northern Kenya. Wasomi Africa, ISBN 978-9914-35-542-0
• Kioko E. M. (2024). History of Pastoralist Strategies and Resilience in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.1265 
• Omala M., E. Kioko & M. Gravesen (2024). Effective coordination of climate finance? Stakeholder perceptions, climate change policy implementation and the underlying political economy factors in Kenya. Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis.

• Kuiper G., Kioko E., & Bollig M. (2024). Agricultural Intensification, Environmental Conservation, Conflict and Co-existence at Lake Naivasha, Kenya. Brill. ISBN: 978-90-04-69542-9.

• Kuiper, G., E. Kioko & M. Bollig (2024). Lake Naivasha, Kenya, in the Capitalocene: In: Kuiper, Kioko and Bollig (eds). Agricultural Intensification, Environmental Conservation, Conflict and Co-existence at Lake Naivasha, Kenya. Brill: DOI: 10.1163/9789004695429_01

• Kioko E. & S. Wanjala (2024). Megaprojects and the Transformation of Lake Naivasha Basin: Aspirations, Uncertainties and Social-Ecological Implications. In: Kuiper, Kioko and Bollig (eds). Agricultural Intensification, Environmental Conservation, Conflict and Co-existence at Lake Naivasha, Kenya. Brill: DOI: 10.1163/9789004695429_016

• Müller-Koné M. and E. Kioko (2024). Frontier Dynamics: Cross-Cutting Ties, Conflict and Contestation on Agricultural and Conservation Hinterlands of Lake Naivasha. Kuiper, Kioko and Bollig (eds). Agricultural Intensification, Environmental Conservation, Conflict and Coexistence at Lake Naivasha, Kenya. Brill. DOI: 10.1163/9789004695429_012

• Kioko E. et al. (2024). COVID-19 and the Cut-Flower Industry in Naivasha: Risk, Uncertainty and Preparing for the Future. In: Kuiper, Kioko and Bollig (eds). Agricultural Intensification, Environmental Conservation, Conflict and Co-existence at Lake Naivasha, Kenya. Brill. DOI: 10.1163/9789004695429_015

• Kioko, E. M. (2024). "History of Pastoralist Strategies and Resilience in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia." In the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. Oxford University Press. Article published [forthcoming].doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.ORE_AFH-01265.R1
• Kioko E. M. and Aaalders (2023). The Decolonization of African Futures. Geographische Rundschau.
• Kioko E. M. & Kinyanjui, M (2023). Commodifying East Africa’s Sandalwood: Organised crime and community participation in transnational smuggling of endangered species. In: Bollig et al (eds), Conservation, Markets & the Environment in Southern and Eastern Africa: Commodifying the ‘Wild’. James Currey. Full Text.
• Bellwood-Howard, I., Taylor, P., Niang, A., Bukari, K., Kioko, E., Wangai, P.W., Sountoura, L., Eran’Ogwa, B., Yamusah, M. (2023). Les arts dans le dialogue et la communication surl’ environnement en Afrique de l’Ouest et de l’Est. IDS Working Paper 593, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, DOI:https://doi.org/10.19088/IDS.2023.037
• Eran’Ogwa, B., Olwanda, R., Cheptarus, G., Cheptoo, N., Kioko, E., Wangai, P., Baaru. M., Bukari, K., Bellwood-Howard, I. (2023). Milk Markets in Agropastoral Areas of Africa. https://doi.org/10.19088/IDS.2023.018
• Bellwood-Howard, I., Bukari, K. N., Cheptarus, G., Cheptoo, N., Eran’Ogwa, B., Jerogony, L., Keroi,F., Kibowit, T., Kioko, E., Wangai, P. W. (2023). Milk Markets in Agropastoralist Areas of Africa–A Photoset. https://doi.org/10.19088/IDS.2023.016
• Changwony, Kioko, and Wangai (2023). Mega Projects and De-commonization: Infrastructure, Land Tenure and Local Institutions Change in a Communal Conservancy in Isiolo, Kenya. Journal of Science, Creativity and Innovation. https://doi.org/10.58721/jsic.v1i1.247
• Kioko, E. (2022). Forest Crime in Africa: Actors, Markets, and Complexities, in Clemens Greiner, Stephen van Wollpute, and Michael Bollig (eds), African Futures, Brill, pp. 125-140. DOI
• Müller-Mahn, D. and Kioko E. (2022). COVID 19, Disrupted Futures and Challenges for African Studies, in Clemens Greiner, Stephen van Wollpute, and Michael Bollig (eds), African Futures,Brill, pp. 28-35. DOI
• Ng’ang’a, Kioko, Wairuri & Ngare (2022). The ‘Bald’ Ecosystem: Indigenous Resource Governance and Restoration of Kivaa Forest, Kenya. East African Journal of Environment and Natural Resources, Volume 5, Issue2. DOI
• Nweke-Eze and Kioko E. M. (2021) ‘But we cannot do it all’: Investors’ sustainability dilemmas and strategic selectivity in the development of Kenya’s geothermal energy plants in Olkaria, Sustainable Development in Africa, DOI.
• Müller-Mahn, D., Mkutu, K., Kioko, E. (2021) Mega-projects – mega-failures? Politics of aspiration and the transformation of rural Kenya. Springer, The European Journal of Development Research, DOI.
• Muller-Mahn, D. and Kioko, E. M. (2021). Rethinking African Futures after COVID-19. Sage: Africa Spectrum, DOI.
• Okumu W. and Kioko E. M. (2021). Ungoverned Spaces and Informalization of Violence. The Case of Kenya Police Reservists (KPRs) in Baragoi, In: Sabine Klocke-Daffa and Arne Steinforth (eds). Challenging Authorities, Springer, DOI
• Schmidt, M, Kioko, E, Atieno O., & Stephan, C (2020): “There is a Lot of Pressure on Me. It's Like the Distance Between Heaven and Earth” - Landscapes of Debt, Poverty-in-People and Social Atomization in Covid-19 Nairobi. Developing Economics. A Critical Perspective on Development Economics.
• Schmidt, M, Kioko, E, Musa, K. J & Stephan, C (2020): 'Life On These Stones Is Very Hard' - House Helps in Covid-19 Nairobi. Developing Economics. A Critical Perspective on Development Economics. Full Text.
• Kioko, E. M. and Gravesen M. (2019). Cooperation in the midst of conflict: cattle raids and land deals in Laikipia and Narok, Kenya. Cambridge University Press/Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute, Vol 89, Issue 3, pp. 562-585. DOI
• Kioko, E. M. & Okumu W. (2018). Appeasing the land: local peace committees and comanagement of conflicts in rural Kenya. AFSOl Journal, Vol. 2, Issue 1. pp 80-112. http://ipssorg/y-file-store/vol.2(i)_afsol_journal_(1).pdf  
• Kioko, E. M. (2017), Conflict Resolution and Crime Surveillance in Kenya: Local Peace Committees and Nyumba Kumi, in: Africa Spectrum, Vol 52, Issue 1, pp. 3–32. DOI
• Kioko, E. M. (2017). Culture and conservation: environmental stewardship in rapidly changing African environments, Mazingira Yetu Magazine, 13th Issue: Full Text.
• Kioko, E. M. (2016). Turning conflict into coexistence: cross-cutting ties and institutions in the agropastoral borderlands of Lake Naivasha basin, Kenya. PhD Thesis, Universität zu Köln.http://kups.ub.uni-de/id/eprint/7064
• Kioko, E. M. (2016). Forgotten peace in resource use. In: People and Land, a publication by the Resilience in East Africa Landscapes Research Group. ISBN: 978-0-9573771-5-8 [Titel anhand dieser ISBN in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] . real-project.eu
• Kioko, E. M. & Bollig, M. (2015). Cross-cutting Ties and Coexistence: Intermarriage, Land Rentals, and Changing Land Use Patterns among Maasai and Kikuyu of Maiella and Enoosupukia, Lake Naivasha Basin, Kenya. Rural Landscapes: Society, Environment, History, Vol 2 (1), Issue 1, pp. 1-16, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.16993/rl.ad
• Kioko, E. M. (2015). Regional Varieties and “Ethnic” Registers of Sheng, In Nico Nassenstein and Andrea Hollington (eds.) Youth Languages Practices in Africa and Beyond. Mouton de Gruyter. Berlin, pp. 119-148. Full Text.
• Kioko, E. M. (2013). Poverty and Livelihood Strategies at Lake Naivasha, Kenya: A Case Study of Kasarani Village. Köln, Hundt Druck GmbH, [ISSN 2194-1556]. Full Text.

MEMBERSHIP TO PROFESSIONAL BODIES

1. Since Jan 2025: Editorial Member of the the Journal of East African Studies published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis

2. Since 2023 (Oct): Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of East African Studies published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis

3. Since 2017: Member of the Africa Good Governance Network (AGGN), founded by the
   DAAD with support from the Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung

4. Since 2010: i) Member of the Global South Studies Centre; http://gssc.uni-koeln.de/;
   ii) Cologne African Studies Centre (CASC)
   http://casc.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/casc.html:
   iii) Ethnologie, University of Cologne;
   http://ethnologie.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/index0.html?&L=1

CONFERENCES, COURSES AND WORKSHOPS

• 30 Sept - 02 Oct 2024: Bayreuth University, Germany
  Conference: Association for African Studies in Germany (VAD) Panel proposal (Asebe Regasse & Eric Kioko): Africa’s Emerging Frontiers of Resource Extraction

• 31 May - 3 June 2023: University of Cologne, Germany
  Conference: African Futures: ECAS 2023Panel (MüllerMahn & Kioko): Ghost projects - ruined futures and the
  promises of development: https://ecasconference.org/2023/programme#12632

• 26th – 28th June 2013: Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen
  University Conference: Natural Resource Management and Conflict in
  Africa
  Paper: “Infrastructure-driven economies of anticipation: land
  appropriation, local institutional change and conflict in a Kenyan
  conservancy” – Submitted to World Development Journal
  https://www.diis.dk/en/projects/natural-resource-management-and-conflict-in-africa