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Levels of Transparency and County Service Delivery in Kenya
Get PDFIn order to push development to the grassroots and ensure citizens contribute meaningfully to development, many African countries have adopted the devolved governance system. However, it has been observed that the devolution of political powers has not translated equally to envisioned overall development. In Kenya County governments have achieved various milestones towards development demonstrated through the infrastructure, social amenities, and standards of living. However, corruption has been increasing mainly due to a lack of transparency. This paper sought to examine the contribution of transparency levels in County government service delivery. The study adopted mixed method approach using survey and in-depth interviews concurrently. Stratified multi stage cluster sampling was deployed. Quantitative data was collected using questionnaires and qualitative data using interview schedules. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and a typological theory developed to explain the study results. The study findings showed that the level of transparency in the counties was low which affected service delivery. The study concluded that county governments should ensure that public participation and sharing of information is bidirectional to involve both users and management so as to improve service delivery
Organization’s Human Resource Practices: Determinants of Employees Retirement Preparedness in the Context of Kenya
Get PDFdoi: 10.11648/j.jhrm.201200803.16The premise that human resource (the people) is the most valuable of all organizational resources presupposes the
need for organizational strategies to secure the future of both the organization and employees. The role played by employer
organizations in employee separation planning is imperative in providing insight into the human resource practices geared
towards employees’ eventual retirement. However, separation decisions are ignored in theory and practice, and even the little
attempts made has inherent weaknesses. This has left employees’ retirement planning being a concern of individuals just about
to retire or otherwise plunging into retirement life without planning at all. Separation planning predicts higher levels of
individual’s postretirement adjustment across various occupational settings in both public and private sectors. There is
therefore need for judicious management of retirement transition by individual employees and employers through promotion of
sound human resource practices. The human resource practices should intentionally influence individual employee’s retirement
behaviours by triggering planning for the eventual separation and hence retirement preparedness. The purpose of this study
was to assess the effect of organization’s human resource practices and retirement preparedness among public secondary
school teachers’ in Kenya. The target population was 1,238 teachers aged 50 years and above, employed in public secondary
schools by the Teachers Service Commission in Kirinyaga and Murang’a Counties by 2017. A representative sample of 334
respondents was selected using multistage sampling technique. Data was collected using semi structured questionnaire and
interview guide. Logit regression was used to establish the relationships between variables in the study and to test hypotheses
at P ≤ 0.05 at 95% confidence level. The study found that human resource practices influence retirement preparedness
positively. The study therefore concluded that sound HR practices should be put in place by the employer organizations to offer
conducive environment that make employee separation planning and retirement preparedness possible. The study
recommended the government through its agencies and/or Commissions to enact frameworks that enforce, monitor and
evaluate diversified human resource practices for employer organizations to establish policies and guidelines that facilitate
employees’ engagement in programmes that ensure a continuous process of separation planning for successful retirement
preparedness
Fiscal Asymmetric Decentralization Conundrum: Influence of County Cash Management on Household Effects in Kenya
Get PDFThis study aims at determining the influence of county cash management on household effects in Kenya. This is a qualitative research that has utilized both primary and secondary data from county governments and the National Treasury respectively. The sample has been developed from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics list of households in Kenya. The result indicates that effective cash management would enhance household welfare, leakages and lack of prioritization among others notwithstanding. The study concludes that there is need to enhance oversight of the treasury management across governments. The capacity of treasury managers should also be improved to secure fiscal discipline
Antimalarial pyronaridine resistance may be associated with elevated MDR-1 gene expression profiles but not point mutation in Plasmodium berghei ANKA isolates
Get PDFDOI: 10.5897/AJBR2020.1097The selection of resistance is inevitable whenever chemotherapy is necessary for pathogen control. Notably, Plasmodium falciparum has developed multifaceted means to overcome the toxicity of nearly all antimalarial medicines. To bypass this challenge, not only should novel drugs be developed, but the resistance mechanisms to new and existing drugs need should be fully explored. Pyronaridine is a companion drug in Pyramax® , a blend of artesunate (ASN)-pyronaridine (PRD) which is the WHO prequalified alternative for malaria treatment in the African setting. However, half-life mismatch predisposes the PRD to swift emergence of resistance especially in high malaria transmission settings.
However, there are no well-characterized PRD-resistant parasite lines. Previously, stable PRD- resistant P. berghei ANKA lines were selected by in vivo drug pressure and preliminary results showed crossresistance with quinolines, therefore, hypothetically the activity of PRD and chloroquine or other quinolines may be comparable, hence, the resistance mechanisms may be parallel. Consequently, genetic polymorphisms and expression profiles of PbMDR-1 that could be associated with pyronaridine
resistance were examined by PCR amplification, sequencing and transcript quantification by RT-qPCR. The transcripts level increased during resistance selection while translated PbMDR-1 sequence alignment of PRD-sensitive and PRD-resistant was the same, the expression may be linked to PRD resistance but not mutations
Status of Integration of ICT in Internal Communication in Public Secondary Schools in Kenya: A Comparative Study of Boarding and Day Secondary Schools in the South Rift Region, Kenya
No full textIntegration of ICT in Internal Communication in Public
Secondary Schools in KenyaThe increasing complexity of the world in the contemporary times requires schools to embrace use of technology in performing their functions. In response to the globalization and internationalization of education, schools are earnestly striving to integrate information communication technology (ICT) and digitalization in executing their myriad functions especially communication. ICT is one of the most fundamental 21st century skill. However, despite the heavy investment and fundamental value of ICT in infusing efficiency and effectiveness in managing institutional enterprises, its integration in communication has been limited in a vast majority of public secondary schools in the South Rift Region in Kenya. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the integration of ICT in internal communication in public secondary schools in the South Rift Region in Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives, which were to; assess the application of ICT in internal communication in public secondary schools and compare the ICT application in internal communication in public secondary schools in the South Rift Region in Kenya. The target population for the study comprised of all the 141 teachers in public secondary schools in the South Rift Region of Kenya enrolled in the Strengthening of Mathematics and Science in Secondary Education (SMASSE) program. The study employed the census technique since the target population was small hence manageable. Data was collected using the questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. It was hypothesized that there was no statistically significant difference in ICT application in communication in boarding, day and boarding and the purely day public secondary schools. To test this hypothesis, one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was computed, which yielded p-value = .000 which was less than the alpha value α > 0.05 indicating that the differences in ICT application in communication in the three categories of school was statistically significant. Thus the null hypothesis was rejected. It was concluded that the ICT application in boarding, day and boarding, and the purely day secondary schools was significantly different. The study further established that public secondary schools in the South Rift Region only marginally applied ICT in their official communication. The study revealed that boarding secondary schools had higher ICT applications in communication, followed by day and boarding secondary schools while the purely day secondary schools had the lowest. It is concluded that schools in the south rift region in Kenya have a low level of ICT application. From the study, we recommend the need to promote ICT application in all school categories especially the day secondary schools. This implies the need to conduct sensitization to all stakeholders in education with the objective of strengthening the provision of ICT infrastructure and training of personnel for schools
GIS Analysis of Physical Accessibility to Food Markets in Tharaka Region of Kenya
Get PDFIn semi-arid rural Kenya, most households travel long distances to access food markets. This has negative effects on
food consumption and the use of market facilities. Over70 % of farmers in Tharaka Constituency lack access to formal
markets often relying on contracted middlemen who buy at farm gate for traders in major urban centres. Studies on intravariation in accessibility to market services remains scanty, yet market purchases account for most food consumed across
urban and rural areas. Distance defines accessibility and performance of market facilities in most areas where food
insecurity and malnutrition are common. This study used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to measure physical
accessibility to open air markets within semi-arid Tharaka, a constituency where vulnerability to acute food shortage is
comparatively high. Normative, administrative and geospatial datasets were used in the analysis. Results showed that
geographic accessibility to local market centres vary spatially across the villages. In terms of market accessibility, 40.4%
of the total population live in areas with high inaccessibility risks while 36.1% are found in places with low
inaccessibility risks and only 23.5% of the population exists in areas with moderate inaccessibility risks. This means a
large proportion of deprived population live in villages within high to very high inaccessibility risk areas. This spatial
inequity has implications on household food security and explains the chronic problems of hunger and malnutrition
experienced in the area. Therefore, markets within high inaccessibility risk areas should be upgraded and infrastructure
thereof improved to enable food mobility across these areas
Synergistic effects of long-term herbivory and previous fire on fine-scale heterogeneity of prescribed grassland burns
No full textdoi:
10.1002/ECY.3270Grassland and savanna ecosystems, important for both livelihoods and biodiversity conservation, are strongly affected by ecosystem drivers such as herbivory, fire, and drought. Interactions among fire, herbivores and vegetation produce complex feedbacks in these ecosystems, but these have rarely been studied in the context of fuel continuity and resultant fire heterogeneity. We carried out 36 controlled burns within replicated experimental plots that had allowed differential access by wild and domestic large herbivores since 1995 in a savanna ecosystem in Kenya. Half of these were reburns of plots
burned five years previously. We show here that the fine-scale spatial heterogeneity of fire was greater in plots a) previously burned, b) accessible to large herbivores, and especially c) these two in combination. An additional embedded experiment demonstrated that even small experimental burnfree patches can have strong positive effects on tree saplings, which experienced less damage during controlled burns and quicker post-fire recovery. This work highlights the importance of simultaneously examining the interactions between fire and herbivory on fuel heterogeneity, which can have important impacts on the growth of woody saplings in savanna grasslands
Relationship between leadership practices and labour turnover among private schools in Rongai Sub-County, Nakuru-Kenya
Get PDFThe study sought to determine the relationship between leadership practices and labor turnover in private primary schools in Kenya with a specific focus on Rongai Sub-County in Nakuru County, Kenya. The theoretical framework of this study was derived from the Two-Factor Theory and Organization Support Theory. The study used a descriptive survey design and targeted a population of 680 employees of 34 private primary schools in the study area. A sample of 204 employees was picked
using the simple random sampling method. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data from teachers while interview guides were used to collect qualitative data from headteachers and their deputies. Descriptive statistics were computed for each study variable while the Pearson correlation method was used to test the effect of the leadership practices on labor turnover. Qualitative data collected through the interviews were analyzed using the thematic content analysis technique. Results
revealed that there is a high labor turnover in the private primary schools in Rongai with a rating of 71.2%. Results also showed that there were less than optimal leadership practices in schools with a rating of 50.8%. Labor turnover in the schools was negatively and significantly associated with leadership practices (r=-.523, p=.000). The study recommends that private primary schools ensure that teachers are actively involved in making key decisions and management of school activities in order to reduce labor turnover
Influence of Innovation Ecosystem on Knowledge Entrepreneurship and Innovation Performance of Manufacturing Firms in Kenya
Get PDFHuman Capital Development and Services Delivery of Public Health Facilities
Get PDFHealthcare provision stipulated by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a relatively new concept in many developing countries SubSaharan Africa part of Asia. Therefore, this study examined the influence of human capital development on the service delivery of devolved County Health Facilities. The path coefficients were positive and significant at 0.05 level of significance. The path coefficient beta value was β = 0.50. These findings indicate that for every 1-unit increase in human capital development, service delivery is predicted to increase by 0.5 in public county health facilities in Kenya. The study concluded that measures contributed to the positive relationship between human capital development and service delivery in these facilities. As the hospitals lacked funding of further training for their staff and also failed to pay competitive salaries and allowances, the study recommends that for improved service delivery within these facilities, promotions should be on performance, as well remuneration. Most employees will work hard when they know that they get rewards for it. The hospitals should also promote staff and offer scholarships for training to the high performing staf