Three Core Areas of Analysis
Power dynamics, political transitions, and security developments across East and Southern Africa — examining how regional actors interact and compete.
Public debt, taxation policy, and macroeconomic governance — assessing the fiscal pressures facing states and their implications for stability.
State-led development strategies, trade integration, and economic transformation — how policy choices shape long-term development trajectories.
Recent & Important Work
The Shirika Question: Kenya's Refugee Policy, Security Dilemma, and the Future of Kakuma and Dadaab
Kenya is the 13th largest refugee hosting country in the world, home to nearly a million refugees, most of them confined to Dadaab and Kakuma, two of the largest camps on earth, for up to three decades. For thirty years, Kenya's refugee policy has oscillated between hospitality and hostility, deploying security rhetoric to justify closure threats while remaining one of Africa's most generous hosts by volume. The Shirika Plan, launched in March 2025, promises to end that contradiction, transforming camps into municipalities, integrating refugees into the national economy, and shifting from aid dependency to self-reliance. Whether it delivers what every previous reform could not is the question this brief examines.
Hope Mutiso is a political economy researcher focusing on governance, geopolitics, and macroeconomic dynamics in East and Southern Africa. Her work examines how political institutions, fiscal policy, and regional power dynamics shape economic stability and development across the region.