“But we don't know, it could come back” temporalities and times of the Unbuilt Lamu Coal Power Plant

Abstract

Global infrastructure projects promise to transform economies, territories, and societies at pace and scale. However, many remain unbuilt and in states of (un)realization; not completely canceled but abandoned, delayed, or facing ongoing challenges in being delivered. Our intention in this paper is to think more about the different kinds of time that swirl around these unbuilt projects. We propose approaching the unbuilt through a three-part analytical approach. We use the case of an unrealized coal power plant project in Lamu, Kenya, part of the broader LAPSSET corridor, to articulate this. First, we draw attention to extended temporalities, the historically produced conditions that entangle the project in regimes of racial-capitalism, under-development and the production of the region as part of Kenya’s “neglected north”. Doing so, we argue, demonstrates how project time, understood as the various phases of planning, implementation and contestation, can be interrogated as dynamic, contested and uneven. Finally, out of these extended temporalities and project time, we foreground the uncertain time not just of the unbuilt project itself but the ways in which various actors, especially local communities, must navigate the lived experiences of these initiatives.