Fever pitch: Coloniality and contention within community health’s yellow fever response in Kenya
In January 2022, a number of Yellow Fever cases were identified in Kenya’s Isiolo County for the first time, triggering a national-level response centred on vaccinating residents. 181,000 people were vaccinated in July, around 72% of the eligible population. In the face of this ostensible success, t...
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Taylor & Francis Group
2025-12-01
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| Series: | Global Public Health |
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| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/17441692.2025.2519659 |
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| author | Kathy Dodworth Brenda N. Mukungu |
| author_facet | Kathy Dodworth Brenda N. Mukungu |
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| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In January 2022, a number of Yellow Fever cases were identified in Kenya’s Isiolo County for the first time, triggering a national-level response centred on vaccinating residents. 181,000 people were vaccinated in July, around 72% of the eligible population. In the face of this ostensible success, this article explores the continuing coloniality, that is, long-standing patterns of domination, operating within disease control in Kenya’s northeast, whereby punitive encounters with the state loom large. Despite health matters being devolved, top-down implementation from nationally-controlled actors exacerbated local distrust, resulting in contention around the roll-out and of the authorities behind it. This article, drawing on ethnography supplemented by in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussions over 12 months 2022-2023, centres the experiences of Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) over the ten-day campaign. We adopt a Fanonian lens to interpret our findings, historicizing the contention CHVs faced from their communities, in a region where governmental approaches oscillate between neglect and heavy-handed remedial action. We operationalise Fanon’s ‘psychoexistential complex’, whereby CHVs internalise the conflict between their roles of community representative and state-enforcer, exacerbated by their precarity and invisibility to others. We conclude with a call for CHVs’ place to be protected, capacitated and seen within outbreak response. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-406daf30a50b448cb67d86d571b4d70c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1744-1692 1744-1706 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Global Public Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-406daf30a50b448cb67d86d571b4d70c2025-08-20T03:47:17ZengTaylor & Francis GroupGlobal Public Health1744-16921744-17062025-12-0120110.1080/17441692.2025.2519659Fever pitch: Coloniality and contention within community health’s yellow fever response in KenyaKathy Dodworth0Brenda N. Mukungu1Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UKIndependent Scholar, Nairobi, KenyaIn January 2022, a number of Yellow Fever cases were identified in Kenya’s Isiolo County for the first time, triggering a national-level response centred on vaccinating residents. 181,000 people were vaccinated in July, around 72% of the eligible population. In the face of this ostensible success, this article explores the continuing coloniality, that is, long-standing patterns of domination, operating within disease control in Kenya’s northeast, whereby punitive encounters with the state loom large. Despite health matters being devolved, top-down implementation from nationally-controlled actors exacerbated local distrust, resulting in contention around the roll-out and of the authorities behind it. This article, drawing on ethnography supplemented by in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussions over 12 months 2022-2023, centres the experiences of Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) over the ten-day campaign. We adopt a Fanonian lens to interpret our findings, historicizing the contention CHVs faced from their communities, in a region where governmental approaches oscillate between neglect and heavy-handed remedial action. We operationalise Fanon’s ‘psychoexistential complex’, whereby CHVs internalise the conflict between their roles of community representative and state-enforcer, exacerbated by their precarity and invisibility to others. We conclude with a call for CHVs’ place to be protected, capacitated and seen within outbreak response.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/17441692.2025.2519659Yellow fevervaccinationsKenyacommunity healthcolonialitySDG 3: Good health and well-being |
| spellingShingle | Kathy Dodworth Brenda N. Mukungu Fever pitch: Coloniality and contention within community health’s yellow fever response in Kenya Global Public Health Yellow fever vaccinations Kenya community health coloniality SDG 3: Good health and well-being |
| title | Fever pitch: Coloniality and contention within community health’s yellow fever response in Kenya |
| title_full | Fever pitch: Coloniality and contention within community health’s yellow fever response in Kenya |
| title_fullStr | Fever pitch: Coloniality and contention within community health’s yellow fever response in Kenya |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fever pitch: Coloniality and contention within community health’s yellow fever response in Kenya |
| title_short | Fever pitch: Coloniality and contention within community health’s yellow fever response in Kenya |
| title_sort | fever pitch coloniality and contention within community health s yellow fever response in kenya |
| topic | Yellow fever vaccinations Kenya community health coloniality SDG 3: Good health and well-being |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/17441692.2025.2519659 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kathydodworth feverpitchcolonialityandcontentionwithincommunityhealthsyellowfeverresponseinkenya AT brendanmukungu feverpitchcolonialityandcontentionwithincommunityhealthsyellowfeverresponseinkenya |