The inclusion predicament: Questioning the neoliberal co-optation of disability in Kenya's peacebuilding programs

Abstract

The premise of this paper is to examine how neoliberal co-opting of disability inclusion takes place in the peacebuilding framework in Kenya, which challenges the prevalent belief that any gap in policy performance is due to a lack of technical or resource limitations. The critical discourse, which includes the analysis of policy documents, institutional reports, and academic literature, shows the inquiry on how the process of market-oriented rationalities progressively alters rights-based inclusion into technocratic management practices. The results suggest that there are five interrelated co-optive mechanisms: technocratic reductionism, which favors performative metrics over meaningful engagement. These are noted to include market-logic reframing, which justifies inclusion by using economic and not rights-based reasons; performance compliance, which stresses visible accommodations instead of power redistribution; individualization, where the responsibility to change is transferred to individuals and not to the collective structure; and program fragmentation, where short-term success are pursued over long-term transformation. The research finds that the existing peacebuilding systems lead to an "inclusion predicament" in which disability inclusion is institutionalized and systematically eviscerated of its transformative capacity. A number of recommendations are made. These include creating alternative accountability systems that consider substantive accountability over performative compliance, redesigning results-based management systems, and integrating the principles of disability justice into the practice of peacebuilding. The study will also contribute to monitoring and evaluation by illustrating the way existing measures promote quantifiable results over qualitative change, thus requiring a major re-evaluation of the measurement and valuing of inclusion.