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Gender Differentials in Criminal Behaviour in Nigeria
Full text linkThe relationship between gender and crime is intense and persistent. Both women and men commit and are victims of crime, but their perspectives, understanding, and interpretation of the crime are likely to be different. While attempts have been made to explain the causes and horrible implications of crime in Nigerian society, not much has been done in terms of research to link gender with commission of crime. Thus, this paper examines the relationship between gender and crime in Nigeria. The paper enunciates the reasons for gender differential in crime and also uses the containment theory and the opportunity theory of female criminality to explain these differences. The Nigerian Prisons Service Statistics on all inmates across all the prisons in Nigeria was considered. Using the available data, the paper contends that women’s crime rates are far lower than men’s crime rates. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to reduce the crime rate of men, by them being closely supervised and discouraged from misbehaviour. Men should also be socialized heavily towards greater empathy
Determinants of insulin-related knowledge among healthcare providers at a county referral hospital in Kenya
Full text linkBackground: Insulin is a high alert medication with potential to cause hypoglycaemia if used incorrectly. Inadequate healthcare provider knowledge regarding insulin contributes to errors in its use that may cause patient harm. Objective: To identify the determinants of healthcare provider knowledge regarding insulin use in type 2 diabetes. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Thika Level V Hospital in March 2015. A 20-item questionnaire was used to assess insulin knowledge in pharmaceutical, nursing and medical staff working in the outpatient department and the medical wards. The outcomes of interest were the scores on types, prescribing, administration and monitoring of insulin. Descriptive and regression data analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 20. Results: The participants’ mean (±SD) age was 32.6±10.2 years. The mean (±SD) duration of clinical practice was 8.3±9.03 years. Nurses formed the largest (36, 40%) cadre in the study. Determinants of the overall score in the insulin knowledge test were professional cadre (p<0.0001), in-patient care (p=0.044) and reading of journals (p=0.005). Insulin pharmacology scores were correlated with younger age (21-30 years, (p=0.02), clinical experience of <5 years, (p=0.013), use of information from drug representatives (p=0.023) and being a pharmacist intern or medical officer (p=0.002). Good prescribing scores were found among the medical officers, consultants and the clinical pharmacist (p=0.035). Conclusion: Several factors account for the differences in insulin-related knowledge among the healthcare providers evaluated in this study. Interventions are required to address these variations and equip the health workers with knowledge on all areas related to insulin use. Such interventions should include development of a curriculum on certified diabetes education, improved access to journals, collaboration with pharmaceutical companies in provision of drug-related information, continuing medical education and staff duty rotation to ensure that the healthcare providers gain experience in in-patient diabetes care. Keywords: diabetes, healthcare provider, insulin-related knowledg
Effect of Magnesium Sulphate in Mothers suffering from Toxemia of Pregnancy and their Neonates
Full text linkBackground: Severe pre-eclampsia is one of the major causes of high maternal mortality rate in both developed and developing countries. The goals of management are to prevent progression to eclampsia thus preventing convulsions, to control the blood pressure and to prevent untoward effects in the foetus. The first-line option for the treatment and prevention of eclamptic seizures is magnesium sulphate. Objective: To determine the serum magnesium, urea and electrolyte levels in neonates of mothers treated with magnesium sulphate and compare the findings with the levels in non-exposed neonates. Methodology: A quasi experimental design was adopted where test subjects were neonates of mothers suffering from preeclampsia and severe eclampsia and were being treated with magnesium sulphate just before delivery at Pumwani Maternity hospital. The control group comprised neonates of hypertensive mothers without preeclampsia being treated using other drugs. Blood samples were obtained from the mother at onset of labor and from the neonates at birth and analyzed in the clinical chemistry laboratory of the University of Nairobi. Results: A total of 54 mothers and their neonates were enrolled with 27 in each arm of the study. The mean maternal serum magnesium in the test group was significantly higher than in the control group (p = 0.008). The mean neonatal serum magnesium in the test group was also significantly higher compared to the control group (p = 0.008). There were statistically significant differences in serum sodium (p = 0.015), urea (p = 0.043) and creatinine (p = 0.008) levels between the maternal test and control groups. There were significant differences in serum urea (p = 0.007) and chloride (p = 0.017) between the neonatal test and control groups. The calcium and potassium levels were elevated in the test group but not to significant levels. There was a positive correlation between maternal and neonatal serum magnesium levels in both groups stronger in the test group (r = 0.56, p = 0.003) as compared to the control group (r = 0.35, p = 0.087). Conclusion: Maternally administered magnesium sulphate raises urea and creatinine levels to significant levels in mothers. Calcium levels are also raised while in mothers not receiving magnesium sulphate they were slightly lower. In neonates the urea and chloride levels are elevated to significant levels while the calcium and potassium levels are not significantly elevated. We suggest monitoring of both in the immediate post-partum period. Keywords: Preeclampsia, eclampsia, magnesium sulphate, neonate, serum urea and electrolytes
An assessment of antimicrobial prescribing at a tertiary hospital in north-western Nigeria
Full text linkBackground: Inappropriate antibiotic use is a public health problem worldwide. Misuse of these agents is one of the drivers of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is believed to be the next pandemic. Consequently, auditing antimicrobial prescription patterns can provide useful information on the scope and extent of this problem. Objective: The aim of this study was to describe outpatient antimicrobial drug prescribing at the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) unit of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria. Methodology: This was a descriptive drug utilization study carried out prospectively during a 2 week period in May 2015. Six objective World Health Organization (WHO) indicators were used to assess the rationality of antimicrobial prescribing at the site. Data collected on antimicrobials included type, route of administration, dose and dosing frequency as well as length of therapy. Average costs (both prescription and antibiotic) were obtained by dividing the total drug costs by the relevant number of drugs. Results: A total of 167 prescriptions were analyzed. The average number of drugs per encounter in the facility was 3.7. Fifty seven percent of antimicrobials were prescribed using their generic names, while the average duration of treatment was 8.9 days. Thirty seven prescriptions (22%) contained more than one prescribed antimicrobial, out of which 7 were potentially pharmacologically antagonistic. Only 21% of the prescriptions had indications in line with the National Standard Treatment Guidelines (STG’s). Average cost of prescribed antimicrobials was about NGN 2,238 (approximately US$11). Conclusion: Several problems associated with rational antimicrobial prescribing were identified. There is a definite need for suitable interventions to help improve antimicrobial drug prescribing at the site. Keywords: Anti-infective agents, Costs, Drug use review, National Health Insurance, Nigeri
INNOVATION THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS: A CRITICAL REVIEW OFTHE UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI ONLINE APPLICATION INFORMATION SYSTEM
Full text linkABSTRACT As a leading institution of higher learning in Africa, The University of Nairobi iscredited for producing top notch students in respective fields. The institution has assumed a leadrole in innovation on areas which improve service delivery to the students. This is a case studywhich explores on how the university aspires to maintain the top accolades by employing globalstandards in the running of its affairs. True to this aspiration is the innovative nature that theuniversity has attempted in revolutionizing the running of its programs. The institution hasheavily diversified its courses and aligned its programs to accommodate the diverserequirements of its stakeholders. Many colleges have been opened in various strategic locationsof the country to tap into the ever growing demand for knowledge. It is evident from the leadingscholars that the University of Nairobi has very little challenge locally. Looking at the keyplayers in most industries in Kenya, one will often realize that in most institutions in Kenya, topmanagement are alumni of the University of Nairobi. This is an attestation of the place theUniversity holds in the corporate space in Kenya. Despite these achievements, the Universitystill finds itself lagging behind in various areas some of which require corporate experience toexcel in. This study looks at the student’s online application process and interrogates how theuniversity has innovated the process of on-boarding students into the institution throughpartnerships. The study espouses the need to partner with specialized firms to achieve success ina chosen area. The study demonstrates that innovation can propel an institution above itscompetitors by enabling the institution achieve sustainable competitive advantage. TheUniversity of Nairobi has been struggling with manual enrollment process of new students. Sincecompetition for students’ has been stiff in Kenya following the remarkable spread of universitiesacross the region, the University of Nairobi has experienced diminishing enrollment numbers. Tocounter this challenge, the University sought to reorient its enrollment process so as to tap intothe unreached population. The implication of this study is to encourage partnerships as aspringboard to achieve innovation. The objective of this study was to establish how partnershipscan lead to innovation. The study is grounded in both innovation and partnership theories. Thestudy finds that innovation is not invention and that partnerships are catalysts for innovation asthey enable the partners to nurture their competencies, talents and perspectives to create asustainable competitive advantage over competition.Key words: Innovation, partnerships, automation, alliances, collaboration, OAIS
NATURE OF FRAUD AND ITS EFFECTS IN THE MEDICAL INSURANCE SECTOR IN KENYA
Full text linkABSTRACT Insurance fraud is a major challenge facing the insurance industry both in thedeveloping and developed world. This vice has no doubt existed wherever insurance policies areunderwritten and takes different forms depending on the economic time and coverages available.However, the validity of this claim has hardly been established empirically in Kenya. It is importantthat the insurance players in Kenya understand the nature and effects of insurance fraud and alsocome up with strategies to counter the same. The study objective was to investigate the nature offraud and its effects in the medical insurance sector in Kenya and also establish possible solutionsin countering the vice. The study adopted a descriptive research design where each of the twentyeight registered medical insurance providers and twenty Insurance companies underwritingmedical insurance in Kenya formed the sample frame of forty eight firms. A questionnaire was themain research instrument. The study findings revealed that majority of the firms sampled hadexperienced different levels of fraud in the recent past with the fraud form ranging from overstatedmedical bills, concealment of medical history of the patient, fraudulent identity / impersonation,document theft fraud as well as perpetration of the insurance premium fraud. The extent of fraudwas found to depend on the existence and extent of automation that the firms had adopted with highfraud levels being associated with low IT Usage and/or automation. The effects of fraud include:increase in the cost of medical insurance and tarnishing the image of the insurance industry.Solutions suggested in manageing the level of fraud include: subjecting medical bills to extensiveaudit to determine their validity as well as high levels of automation of the processes, making itmandatory for clients to produce their smart-cards in any medical facility before receiving services,and maintaining a database of all insured within the organizations’ network. Other strategiesinclude restriction of unauthorized employees in accessing client information, educating the staff touphold ethical practices and offering a better remuneration and friendlier work environment. Thisstudy contributes to a partial understanding of the reasons for medical covers being expensive andthe negative image of the insurance industry
Women Characters in the Novels of Ken Walibora: Victims or Winners?
Full text linkAbstract Ken Walibora, one of the most well-known and promising authors in the new generation of Swahili writers in Kenya, may well be considered as a male-centric writer, since his novels published from 1996 to 2012 feature men as their main figures. However, in all his books women characters play roles of growing importance not only in the lives of the main personages, but also in the author’s views on the social situations described in his novels. Women in Walibora’s books are almost exclusively portrayed as victims of cruel and unfair patriarchal society but it is their state of victim that motivates them towards the effort to elevate themselves above their second rate condition. In Siku Njema (Nice day, 1996) the main character Kongowea is inspired for life by the character of his mother, a famous singer, as well as by his school friend Vumilia, whose human virtues shape his own character when in his journeys after his mother’s untimely death he meets a young girl Amina, driven by social calamities to the state of a prostitute, and later his dead friend’s bride, who is rejected by the society as a “virgin widow”. These young women, nevertheless manage to overcome the ostracism of patriarchal society and build their own lives. In Ndoto ya Almasi (Almasi’s dream, 2006) most of the women characters are victims of the social order, however, the hope is vested in the main woman character Chebosio, who, in spite of being impregnated by her own father-in-law, still manages to construct a living with the support of her husband. A new type of a woman character is drawn in Kidagaa Kimemwozea (His Small Fish has Caught a Rot, 2012) where Imani, a girl of a destitute background, rebels against the current social order, helping her sweetheart Amani to topple the dictatorial regime in an imaginary African country. This close bond between genders (female characters ‘salvaged’ or assisted by the male ones) appears as the author’s vision of the new type of gender relationship, which will help African women in reaching self-empowerment and equity
Portrayal of Women in Selected Songs of Kenyan Male Artistes
Full text linkAbstract This article analyses how Kenyan male artistes portray and appear to view women as evidenced in their songs about women. An application of social realism, Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, Derrida’s approach of alterity, and Lakoff’s theory of metaphor informs the analysis. Songs mark almost all spheres of life in Kenya. It is therefore, necessary to examine how the male artistes in the Kenyan society construct women in their songs. This can provide a window through which a better examination and understanding of the self and the other can be achieved by examining the gender discourse that prevails in the unconscious expressions of the artiste. This is because songs can be viewed as honest confessions of what usually remains concealed in the self, about the other. It is hereby observed that male artistes are always engaged in an internal dialogue that attempts to define women from masculine precincts. These masculine dialogues manifest themselves in songs where the subsumed addressee is a plurality of the self (the male artiste) and the other (the women subject). The song is therefore, an interchange of a gendering process that voices its inner tensions, arguments, fears, hopes, dilemmas and ambitions through the song. Key Words: Men, Women, Songs, Viewership, Metapho
African Male Writers’ Presentation of Women in African Literature
Full text linkThis article analyses the presentation of women characters by male writers such as Okot p’Bitek, Ngugi wa Thiongo and Francis Imbuga. It will look at the woman question both as a historical and a cultural phenomenon. Various women characters will be looked into so as to investigate how they were shaped by the colonial and imperialistic struggle. It is worth noting that except for Francis Imbuga’s Aminata at that point male writers were not presenting women characters of high status. For example, Lawino is not educated, Malaya is a prostitute, Wanja begins out as a young girl who is raped and who ends up to be a prostitute. Imbuga has used a female character who, contrary to those other female characters, is educated and who is a lawyer. I will analyse the characters in the order in which the respective works were published.
Effect Of National Annual Budget Reading On Equity Returns At The Nairobi Securities Exchange
Full text linkThe objective of this study was to investigate the effect of budget reading on equity returnsat Nairobi Securities Exchange. The study adopts descripting staristics design using eventmodel methodology to establish the correlation between the variables. Secondary data onstock performance around the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012and 2013 budget reading dates wascollected from the NSE database. Data analysis was done using SPSS program to generatethe descriptive statistics, and the study finds that the reading of national budget hassignificant effect on the stock returns at NSE duringthe event period, depending oninformation content. Analysis of the AAR, CAR and SCAR of the companies in the NSE-20share index, during the 5 day event period before and after the annual national budgetreading finds that other than year 2010 that recordsno statistical significance of SCAR, theSCAR p value for 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013 are allless than p = 0.05, suggesting that themarket returns for four years deviated significantlyfrom their means during the eventperiod of budget readings. Therefore, the study recommends that investors, investmentbanks, listed companies and the capital markets authority to consider the effect of nationalbudget reading on stock returns, to formulate policies that can cussion investors against theeffects of budget reading