Rights of The Child in The Right to The City : Exploring participatory practices of child engagement and the construction of their Sense of Place in Kibera, Kenya

Abstract: In this minor field study, we have employed a qualitative methodology to examine the role of  the non-governmental organisation Wale Wale in the operationalisation of supranational mandates to improve the rights and experiences of children in Kenya through participatory activities. In doing so, this study is able to combine the literature on Sense of Place and The Right to The City with Critical Development in novel ways. This has allowed us to examine the chasm between supranational and national mandates and local articulations using an interesting case study. Indeed, Wale Wale  demonstrates the difficulty of (i) implementing analogous supranational legislation, such as the Convention of The Rights of The Child (CRC), without practical or legally binding frameworks; (ii) that reactionary government frameworks are ineffective  in implementing supranational policy at the local scale when compared with proactive non-governmental organisations; (iii) that participatory democracy introduced in childhood has played a fundamental role in the empowerment of local residents in reclaiming space in the city and that (iv) understanding this case study is impossible without uniting the disparate literatures on Sense of Place and The Right to The City in understanding the role of local organisations in Critical Development Studies.