The study examines the development of wildlife conservation policy and practice in Kenya from 1895 to 1975. Started by the colonial state as part of its resource control programme, wildlife conservation in Kenya gradually became an important aspect of the country's economy chiefly because of its significance as the basis of a vibrant tourist industry. The conservation programme was also important to conservationists who viewed Kenya's wildlife as a heritage to humanity. Similarly, local communities, which were affected in various ways by wildlife conservation policies, had their own perceptions of the programme. All this led to the proliferation of groups whose interests were potentially conflicting. Wildlife conservation in Kenya during the period under examination was thus characterised by various struggles between interest groups such as conservationists, the state, and local communities. The struggles centred around such issues as the costs and benefits of conservation and were manifested through anti-conservation activities like the poaching of wild animals by dissatisfied groups. These struggles changed over time in line with social, economic, political, and ecological developments. International events/processes (such as the two world wars, economic booms/depressions, and decolonisation) triggered local processes which influenced conservationism either positively or negatively. Wildlife conservation in Kenya during the period under study was dynamic. The thesis challenges the myth of a monolithic 'colonial' wildlife policy often implied in many studies on the subject. The thesis also lays emphasis on the ecological basis of wildlife conservation while recognising the impact of social, political, and economic developments on the evolution of wildlife conservation policy and practice in Kenya. The country's 'geography' not only provided the foundation for conservation but also influenced the programme over time. Droughts, floods, army worm infestations, and other 'natural' occurrences interacted with social and economic changes, such as population growth and the development of capitalism, to shape conservation policy. The conservation programme was thus influenced by a complex interaction of a variety of factors.

The burgeoning scholarship on African youth indicates that young people are experiencing difficulties in attaining social adulthood and spend extended time in waithood - a period of economic and job insecurities that is becoming a permanent marker of their youth, affecting their life trajectories and future aspirations (Honwana, 2012; Locke & te Lintelo, 2012). Youth waithood involves navigating precarious conditions arising under neoliberalism and its economic liberalization reforms, and developing new subjectivities resulting from the acquisition of extra skills set, maintaining social networks, and engaging in new political formations (Jeffrey, 2008). Informed by concepts of neoliberal subjectivities, opportunity spaces, and Bourdieu's forms of capital, I conducted qualitative research with university students in six public universities, and with educated young farmers in Western, Eastern, and Central regions of Kenya. I investigated how Kenyan youth navigate waithood by occupying new opportunity spaces opened up by student environmentalism and agricultural entrepreneurialism - two areas that have been reconfigured by global discourses of environmental change, green jobs, and agricultural transformation. My findings show that the occupational aspirations of educated youth were changing to include navigation strategies of portfolio occupations, tarmacking, and side-hustling. Within the new opportunity spaces, these youth realized neoliberal subjectivities that enabled them to garner capitals through self-making, entrepreneurialism, and reworking of elite distinctions. Student environmentalists' navigation strategies included acquiring environmental knowledge and work experiences; joining networks of environmental professionals; and participating in environmental anti-politics. Educated young farmers embraced ideologies of portfolio occupations and green livelihoods. They also relied on the reconfigurations of gendered identities and the rural-urban divide, competitive individualism, and associational life to rework their occupational aspirations and maintain elite distinctions in society. In sum, negotiating youth waithood is a complex, intertwined, and uncertain process involving flexibilities and chance opportunities to access, maintain, and utilize capitals. The emergent subjectivities remain insecure, unstable and do not necessarily guarantee exiting waithood.