domestic production and regional markets in northern Kenya

This article examines domestic production/regional market linkages in the Il Chamus (Njemps) area of Baringo District, Kenya. The analysis supplements the spatial/market bias of regional analysis with a greater focus on production, addressing linkages at the homestead, neighborhood, and regional levels. The study argues that the dendritic structure of Baringo's market, which can be traced to the colonial period, inhibits strong linkages between production and marketing. Data are presented from two neighborhoods, Kailerr and Meisori, showing that the critical variable—access to labor—in the local economy is not explained by market relations, and that to understand it by relying on regional analysis is difficult. Because the dendritic market structure so poorly integrates local production, social and historical variables prove to be better indicators of local market response than are economic factors. The article concludes that regional analysis is more suitable as a framework for measuring the discrepancies of particular cases than as a predictive theory of social and economic change. [regional analysis, markets, organization of production, state, East Africa]