Julian Götsch, a doctoral researcher in project A04 "Global Developments in Health Care Systems" of the CRC 1342, spent four weeks in Nairobi as part of his research on the colonial legacy in healthcare policy in Kenya and Nigeria. While most healthcare scholarship focuses on either the colonial or postcolonial periods, this research seeks to bridge both eras and investigate the long-term influence of colonialism on healthcare policy. Among other methods, process tracing is employed to track historical developments in detail and to uncover the causal mechanisms underlying the colonial legacy. This approach relies on the extensive collection of historical data and the triangulation of diverse sources.
To support this work, Julian Götsch traveled to Nairobi from late April to late May 2025 to conduct archival research and expert interviews. The Kenyan National Archives, located in Nairobi’s Central Business District, proved particularly valuable. The archive holds approximately 600 million documents spanning Kenya's history from the early colonial period to the present. With the support of the archive's staff, Julian Götsch was able to access materials that provided detailed insights into the evolution of healthcare policy both during and after colonial rule. Policy papers, correspondence, reports, meeting minutes, and other documents revealed patterns of continuity and change in healthcare policy around the time of independence. These records also helped identify the causal mechanisms behind the path dependencies established by colonial policies, as well as the continuing influence of colonial officials in the early years of independence.
Insights gained from the Kenyan National Archives were enriched through interviews with two experts in healthcare policy in Kenya: Dr. Anne Wamau, Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Nairobi, and Prof. Joseph Wangombe, Emeritus Professor at the Department of Public and Global Health, University of Nairobi. These interviews provided valuable perspectives on historical policy developments but also addressed ethical concerns about the extraction of knowledge and data by researchers from the Global North. Potential avenues for future collaboration were also discussed.
Contact:
Julian Götsch
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 5
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58540
E-Mail: goetschj@uni-bremen.de
