A Case Study in Kenya: Community Agency and the Decolonisation of West African Research Initiatives (2021-2026)

This case study examines the critical, yet often overlooked, role of local Kenyan communities in shaping and implementing a major West African research initiative within African Studies. It addresses the persistent epistemic marginalisation whereby externally conceived projects frequently bypass the agency and knowledge systems of the communities they study. Focusing on a specific collaborative research programme in Kenya involving partners from West Africa and Europe (2021–2026), the methodology employs rigorous qualitative analysis, including triangulated data from project archives, semi-structured interviews with community elders, local researchers, and project leads, and sustained participatory observation. The findings demonstrate that structured, formalised agency—specifically through local community advisory councils—proved instrumental in decolonising research practices. These councils effected substantive changes, including the integration of indigenous knowledge frameworks, the prioritisation of locally-identified research questions, and the genuine co-creation of outputs. The study contends that meaningful community agency is not merely an ethical imperative but a methodological prerequisite for producing rigorous and contextually relevant African scholarship. Its significance lies in outlining a replicable model for epistemic justice, wherein African communities transition from research subjects to co-architects of knowledge. This process challenges enduring colonial paradigms in academic praxis and recentres African voices in the study of the continent.