Mwangi Mwaura

Encounter, Disposal, Arson and Transcendence: Geographies of Second-hand Clothes in the UK and in Gikomba Market, Nairobi

Mwangi’s Doctoral research explores the encounters created through second-hand clothes as they travel from the Global North to the Global South. He sees these encounters as full of friction but also as enablers of different livelihoods. His project is in the UK and Nairobi, Kenya. In the UK, Mwangi is exploring the sorting, classification, and other valuation processes that second-hand clothes undergo before exportation. He views this exploration as one that enables us to critically understand the creation of disposable geographies and bodies in a geographical other, that the commodity can be discarded to. In Nairobi, Mwangi is interested in the history of Gikomba market, popularly known as the mitumba (second-hand clothes) market. The market’s history of constant fires, from colonial rule to now, dramatises a geography of disposability both at the local and international scale. Life in the market, however, transcends this urban governance and global racial capitalist disposability, for vibrant creative livelihoods are created from revaluation and trading in second-hand clothes. Mwangi is exploring these livelihoods in their fullness through ethnography, creative visual, audio and mapping methods.

Prior to the DPhil, Mwangi completed an MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance at the University of Oxford and a BA in International Relations and Diplomacy at Pioneer International University in Nairobi, Kenya. During and after his BA, Mwangi worked as a graduate researcher with the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) and the Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies (CHRIPS). During this period, Mwangi developed his multi- and inter-disciplinary interests from and by working on projects exploring urban Digital Technologies, Sanitation Infrastructures, and theoretically engaging with Southern Urbanism Debates.

Awards

• Murray Speight Research Fund grant by Rhodes Trust, 2025
• Fieldwork Support Grant by Institut français de recherche Afrique (IFRA), 2025
• Rhodes Scholarship, 2023
• Global top 15 students' essays for the Peter Drucker Challenge, 2021

Journal Publications (peer-reviewed)

• Mwaura, M., & Lawhon, M. (2024). Infrastructure in formation: the politics and practices of making progress with infrastructure. Urban Geography, 1–21.
• Lawhon, M., & Mwaura, M. (2024). African cities in conversation: who are we listening and talking to? Urban Geography, 45(4), 528–534.
• Mwaura, M. & Lawhon, M. (2023). A Bio-Toilet for the future? Roadside Journal
• Guma, P . K., Mwaura, M., Njagi, E. W., & Akallah, J. A. (2023). Urban way of life as survival: navigating everyday life in a pluriversal global south. City, 27(3–4), 275–293.
• Guma, P . K. & Mwaura, M. (2021). Infrastructural configurations of mobile telephony in urban Africa: Vignettes from Buru Buru, Nairobi. Journal of Eastern African Studies.

Book Chapter

• Wairuri, K. & Mwaura, M. (Forthcoming Book chapter). “It's not a safe haven or la la land:” Queer refugees survival of state policing in Nairobi.

Policy Briefs

• Kimari, B. & Mwaura, M. (2022). Addressing social exclusion and barriers to participation in youth empowerment programmes. Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies.
• Ramadhan, R & Mwaura, M. (2021). Private security in preventing and countering violent extremism in Kenya. Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies.

Research Reports

• Kimari, B & Mwaura, M. (2022). Spotlight on security and Kenya’s electoral environment: February to August 2022. Report no. 3. Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies.
• Kimari, B & Mwaura, M. (2022). Spotlight on security and Kenya’s electoral environment: April 2021 to January 2022. Report no. 2. Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies.
• Ramadhan, R & Mwaura, M. (2021). Trends of Violent Extremist Attacks and Arrests in Kenya, January – December 2021. Report no. 5. Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies.

Media Commentaries, Essays and Blogs

• Mwaura M. (Nov 2022). Demolition colonialism in Nairobi. Review of Africa Political Economy (ROAPE).
• Mwaura, M. (Aug, 2022). Designing infrastructure incrementalism through incompleteness. Situated Urban Political Ecology (SUPE) collective.
• Mwaura, M. (21st Nov 2021). Private guards need more than guns to secure our country. In The Standard newspaper.
• Mwaura, M. (21st Oct 2021). KYEOP: good idea but not all inclusive. In the Star Newspaper.
• Mwaura, L. M. (2021). Managing for the yet-to-come: Yesterday’s and today’s Ancestors. Global top 15 entry for Peter Drucker Challenge 2021.
• Mwaura, L. M. (April 20, 2021). The Hustlers of Nairobi. Africa is a Country.