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Effect of Foreign Exchange Rates Volatility on Financial Performance of Agricultural Sector in Kenya
No full textThe effect of how volatile exchange rates are and how this affects ability of firms to perform financially has been a subject of discussion among policy makers and scholars around the world. Most agricultural firms rely on exports to generate revenues that finance their operations. However, there has been volatility in exchange rates in Kenya as explained by political instability and the changes in other macro-economic variables including inflation and interest rate which has affected the agricultural sector. As such this study looks to answer the research question on how does volatility in foreign exchange rates influence financial performance of agricultural sector in Kenya? The study was anchored the purchasing power parity (PPP) theory, international fisher effect theory and the flow oriented model. The study design adopted was the cross sectional as well as descriptive and secondary data was collected from KNBS and CMA reports. The result findings from trend analysis indicated that the agriculture sector has had instability and fluctuation in financial performance as determined by ROA. The study noted that inflationary pressure was relatively higher in comparison to interests’ rates across the entire period that the study focused on. From correlation analysis the study noted that foreign exchange rate volatility had positive relationship with financial performance. The control variables (interest and inflation) also had direct and significant interaction with ability of the firm to perform financially. Regression analysis was conducted value of adjusted R square was 0.606; which was interpreted to mean that 60.6% variability in the ability of the firm to perform is explained by changes in exchange rates. It was concluded that volatility in exchange rate and the ability of the firm to perform financially are positively and significantly related. It was recommended that entities in the agriculture sector need to ensure that proper strategies of managing exposure to foreign exchange risk are adopted for instance the use of derivatives
Assessment of Household Food Consumption Changes and Demand in the Democratic Republic of Congo
No full textAll member countries of the United Nations are committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 2 “zero hunger”. Compared to other regions, Africa has seen little progress regarding the reduction malnutrition. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), there are millions of people suffering from extreme food insecurity and malnutrition. In recent years, DRC has experienced substantial economic growth, however, it is not accompanied by nutrition improvement. Economic growth is usually expected to enhance nutritional status. However, this has not been the case in DRC. DRC has huge potential, but unable to feed its population. The government of DRC and its partners usually focus on peace, stability and food aids to resolve the issue of food insecurity and malnutrition. Very little attention is directed towards improving the quality of food and nutritional diversify of food consumed by households. Moreover, DRC has no concrete agenda to improve food security and nutrition. Therefore, knowledge on the vulnerability of households regarding food insecurity, diet consumption, nutrient intake and food demand is key in the prioritisation of interventions. Thus, this study analysed the food budget share and the food composition and mapped the nutrient deficiencies as well as their changes between 2005 and 2012 for urban and rural areas for 26 provinces of DRC. To generate the evidence required to design and implement efficient food policies, the study estimated the demand elasticities for food and the Engels curves using the QUAIDS model and the Quadratic Engel curves respectively for urban and rural areas. This study utilized two rounds of National Household Surveys collected in 2005 and 2012. Results of the study suggest that households spend 75% of their budget on food, and about 80 per cent of that budget is spent on cereals, root and tubers as well as meat and fish. The overall nutrient intake analysis suggests hidden hunger all over the country, with a negative nutrient intake change. The estimated income elasticities suggested that most of the food groups were normal goods. In the urban areas, the own-price elasticities suggested that vegetables, milk, meat and fish, main staples and oil were price elastic while in the rural areas, pulses, vegetables,milk and oil were price elastic, whereas the main staples group were inelastic. The results of the cross-price elasticities in both urban and rural areas showed that all the food groups are complements to the main staples and substitutes to meat and fish.
Therefore, the study recommends policy that focus on increase in the income of households and infrastructural development within and between provinces while including nutrition aspects in the school curriculum. Furthermore, a price subsidy should be provided on all micro-nutrient food items for easy of affordability and consumption among households. Hence, a further study on the households’ food consumption and demand should be carried out on a provincial level
Utility of triage early warning scores in the care of critically ill surgical patients at kenyatta national hospital
No full textCritical illness is a life-threatening condition involving one or more organ systems resulting in significant morbidity or mortality. Often, it is preceded by a period of physiological deterioration. Such early signs of critical illness are frequently missed, leading to late recognition by clinicians with consequent worsening morbidity and mortality. In such patients, icu mortality has been estimated to be at 8-18%. Tools have been invented to capture such patients and prevent these outcomes by early intervention. Such tools include, modified early warning score, national early warning score; and triage early warning score.
The general wards at knh do not have a decision support tool to help identify and manage acutely deteriorating patients. Therefore, the ward care of patients with critical illness is suboptimal.
Objectives
The broad objective was to establish the appropriateness of care level of critically ill surgical patients using the triage early warning score in knh. Specifically, the intentions were to: identify critically ill surgical patients using the triage early warning score tool in knh a&e, establish a relationship between the triage early warning score and outcome of critically ill surgical patients after 72 hours of follow up; and determine the specificity and sensitivity of the cut off values of the triage early warning scores at knh.
Methods
This was a prospective observational study involving 168 critically ill surgical patients who were followed up for 72 hours following recruitment. 4 hourly vitals, decisions regarding intervention, level of care and clinical outcomes were recorded. A relationship between the tews and clinical outcomes was established using logistic regression, while the specificity and the sensitivity of the cut-off score for the tews were established using the receivership operating characteristics curve.
Results
94 % of the cases presenting to knh were due to trauma, while 6% were non traumatic cases. The most common score was 5 and the highest score recorded was 11. After 72 hours of follow up, 4.23% (7) had unplanned icu admission and their average tews was 7.71, while 6.67% ( 11)
Patients had died and their average tews was 7.55. The odds ratio for bad outcome (death and unplanned icu admission) was 7.708 ( 95% ci 3.48-17.073). The tews was found to have good sensitivity at identifying patients at risk of adverse outcome, with cut off values of 6.5 and 7.5 for prediction of mortality and icu admission respectively.
Conclusion
Icu strain and the burden of trauma pose a significant challenge at knh. Based on our findings, the tews is a sensitive tool for predicting risk for unplanned icu admission and death. Timely identification and action for patients at risk of deterioration using the tews may reduce adverse events and outcomes. However, since the tews is a modification of the modified early warning score, it may over-triage patients, due to addition of the immobility component.a
Department of Psychiatry, University of Nairobi, ; bDepartment of Mental Health, School of Medicine,
Moi University, Eldoret, Keny
Choice Of Place Of Birth In The Era Of The Maternity Subsidy In Kenya
No full textAdverse maternal and neonatal outcomes disproportionately afflict low and middle-income
countries, which experience high-unmet need for safe and skilled attendance at birth. This study
sought to investigate how choices for place of birth are made in Kenya during the era of the national
maternal subsidy. The study employed data from the Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2014 and
involved data from women who experienced a birth around the era of the maternity subsidy. When
probit regression models were estimated, maternal age, the woman’s and partner’s education, paid
employment, higher household economic status, reduced parity, low county poverty headcount
rate, access to medical insurance, access to complementary reproductive services and the period
during the maternity subsidy were associated with increased likelihood to choose deliveries in
public and private health facilities. These findings imply that investments, which prevent early
pregnancies, reduce domestic and national poverty, increase education attainment, expand
autonomy of women and promote access of the continuum of reproductive health services can
optimize choice making in favor of institutional births during the era of the maternity subsidy
Strategic Management Practices And Emergency Responses By Kenya Red Cross
No full textThe environment where organisations operate is increasingly evolving, and this is forcing organisations to find coping strategies in order to survive and realise their vision and mission. Strategic management practices help organisations to manage people and resources towards achieving set goals and objectives. This objective of this study was determining the effect of strategic management practices on emergency responses by Kenya Red Cross. To achieve this objective, the study adopted a case study research design in enabling the researcher to conduct an in-depth investigation of Kenya Red Cross (KRC), through establishing the effect of strategic management practices on emergency responses. An interview guide was applied to collect primary data through interviewing 5 Heads of Departments: Finance and Accounts, Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Human Resource, Disaster Risk Management and Disaster Management. Primary data was collected with help of interview guide and analysis was done using content analysis. It was found that the commonly used strategic management practices by KRC were strategy formulation, strategic leadership, environmental scanning, monitoring and evaluation and strategy implementation. It was further discovered that effective use of strategic management practices by KRC enhanced efficiency towards responding to emergencies. The organisation was able to match employees’ skills and competencies to their tasks, share knowledge, organise resources, improve communication, forecasting eventualities and risks, this enabled KRC to respond efficiently to emergencies. The study proposes the need for KRC to allocate more resources and funds to invest in sophisticated technologies such as satellite images to detect changes in weather and identify areas that pose risks of emergencies. This will prompt preparedness, deployment of resources and personnel, communication and coordination of activities and people towards responding to emergencies. KRC should also engage its employees to a continuous training and development program to sharpen their skills and knowledge in responding to emergencies. Because of the limitation of time and resources, the researcher was forced to do a case study of KRC and thus, the findings obtained in this study are strictly limited to KRC, and cannot be applied directly or indirectly to generalize humanitarian sector in Kenya. It is necessary for future researchers to consider conducting a replica of this study to include all humanitarian organisations in Kenya, this will allow researchers to compare findings then a plausible conclusion will be draw
Evaluation of Constructed Wetlands and Conventional Wastewater Treatment Systems in Selected Kenyan Tea Factories
No full textEnvironmental pollution due to discharge of untreated or poorly treated industrial wastewaters has become a major source of concern with respect to the safety of our environment. Wastewaters from processing of black tea contain harmful substances just like any other industrial effluent and therefore pre-treatment is necessary prior to release. The purpose of this study was to evaluate conventional and constructed wetlands wastewater treatment systems used in Kenya tea factories to establish the most effective system. Eberege tea factory which has a conventional effluent treatment plant and Chinga tea factory using constructed wetlands for effluent treatment were used to represent the two wastewater treatment systems. Test parameters of interest as per the National Environment Management Authority guidelines were: Biological Oxygen Demand, Total Suspended Solids, pH, fecal coliform, Chemical Oxygen Demand, color, organic nitrogen, flow, copper, zinc and surfactants. These parameters were analyzed in both treated and untreated effluent from the selected two factories using approved US EPA testing methods for wastewater analysis. The results obtained from the untreated effluent in both factories had high levels of >48.6mg/L BOD, >150.3mg/L COD and >29.3mg/L TSS while the treated effluent registered a major decrease of pollutants levels with readings of 15 hazen units while the treated effluent recorded 7.8 mg/L while the treated effluent levels were <2.8 mg/L with the constructed wetland registering the lowest values. Copper and zinc levels were below the detection limit in all untreated effluent samples with an exception of one sample which recorded zinc levels of 0.543mg/L but was effectively treated since the result of the treated effluent was <0.001mg/L. Surfactants were found to be below detection level in both untreated and treated effluent samples. Fecal coliform bacteria was also absent in all samples. The conventional wastewater treatment plant is recommended for tea factory wastewater treatment since it gave a clearer and the less toxic treated effluent compared to that from the constructed wetland. Further studies should major on designing upgraded treatment plants which combine both conventional and biological modes of treatment while eliminating the disadvantages that come with conventional plants especially the high cost of setting up and maintenance
Influence of Devolution Framework on alcoholic drinks Regulation in Kenya: a case of Lari Sub-County
No full textAlcoholic drinks misuse contributes to myriad of individual and societal problems: crime, poor health, social-economic challenges just to mention a few. The study sought to answer a question of influence of devolution framework on alcoholic drinks regulation in Kenya (A case of Lari Sub-County). Specifically, influence of public participation on regulation of alcoholic drinks in Lari Sub-County, influence of transparency and accountability on regulation of alcoholic drinks in Lari Sub-County and, influence of civic education on regulation of alcoholic drinks in Lari Sub-County. Researcher adopted descriptive survey research design; he combined random stratified sampling with multistage cluster sampling methods in the study. The researcher administered a uniform questionnaire to all the respondents to collect required data. The following are the major findings of the study: public participation had less influence on regulation of alcoholic drinks due to low public participation in Lari Sub-County. Transparency and accountability had less influence on regulation of alcoholic drinks due to low transparency and accountability of devolved government of Kiambu. Civic education had less influence on alcoholic drinks regulation due to low civic education conducted by devolved government of Kiambu. Major recommendations of the study were Devolved government should promote public participation on regulation of alcoholic drinks within the county by establishing a directorate of public participation to guide and coordinate public participation activities. Devolved government should address the challenges of transparency and accountability in alcoholic drinks regulation by institutionalizing strict financial control measures. Devolved government of should intensify civic education to enhance awareness on dangers of alcoholic drinks misuse. Further recommendation is need for future studies to embrace other research methods like qualitative methods and incorporate other factors that might have an influence on the regulation of alcoholic drinks in Kenya such as complexity of devolved government enforcement of alcoholic drinks laws and policies, as autonomous units through cooperation with the national government
The Effect of Recipient Site Bacterial Profile on the Percentage Take of Split Thickness Skin Graft at Kenyatta National Hospital
No full textBackground
Split thickness skin graft (STSG) is a common procedure but graft failure often occurs due to multiple factors. These factors includes infection, hematoma, poor surgical technique, and seroma formation among others. Recipient site microbiology prolife reflect the organism that eventually infect the graft causing failure. Studies on graft failure due to infection have not been done in Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).
Objective
The aim of the study was to assess the effect of the recipient site microbiological profile on the graft take for patients undergoing split thickness skin grafting in KNH.
Methods
This was a descriptive study among patients undergoing skin grafting in KNH. A total of 69 patients who underwent STSG were recruited in the study, the recipient site was assessed on day 5 and 10 and percentage graft take rate recorded. The wounds were biopsied at the time of the skin grafting and sent for microscopy culture and sensitivity. Outcomes variables that were assessed were percentage skin graft take, bacterial profile of the recipient site and the effect the bacterial profile had on the skin graft take. Data was entered into SPSS and analyzed for proportions, rates and bivariate analysis was done for association using Chi-square. Statistically significant was taken at p-value <0.05.
Results
The location of the wound was majorly in the lower limbs 45 (65%) with a wound size median value of 26.5% (IQR: 9 - 33) for percentage burn. The median percentage graft takes of the wound at day 5 and 10 was 60%. Majority 92% of the wounds biopsied cultured organisms, the majority were; Pseudomonas Aeroginosa 12 (17.39%). Pseudomonas aeroginosa affected graft survival with a percentage take of less than 20%.
Conclusion
The median percentage take of skin graft wounds is 60% with majority of wounds grafted in KNH are post burn wounds. Graft take did occur in wounds that did culture organisms but presence of some specific organism were a negative predictor of graft take this include pseudomas aeroginosa, proteus spps and streprococcus pyogens.a
Department of Psychiatry, University of Nairobi, ; bDepartment of Mental Health, School of Medicine,
Moi University, Eldoret, Keny
Tax Reforms And Foreign Direct Investments In Kenya
No full textThis study sought to establish the relationship between tax reforms and foreign direct
investment in Kenya. Descriptive research design was applied in the study. The
primary and secondary data was utilized. Primary data was collected via structured
questionnaire while data on foreign direct investment was collected from Ministry of
Industrialization website. Secondary data covered the period between 2014 and 2018.
The study used the both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Finally
analyzed data was depicted descriptively through graphs, tables, mean and standard
deviation. Inferential statistics was presented by multiple regressions. Statistical
Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used for data analysis. Also, Pearson
regression was used for showing the relationship between variables. The findings
revealed that R-Square was 0.819. This means that 81.9% of the variation in the
model used to explain FDI was as a results of the independent variables ITMS,
payment of taxes through mobile money, tax mechanisms and electronic cargo. This
also suggests that 18.1% of the variation in FDI is explained by other factors not
captured in the study and due to error terms. Further, the findings show that the model
level of significance is 0.000 which is less than the p value 0.05. Thus, the model is
statistically significant in predicting how ITMS, payment of taxes through mobile
money, tax mechanisms and electronic cargo affect FDI in Kenya. The study through
regression analysis concluded that that integrated tax management system (ITMS),
payments of taxes via mobile money, electronic cargo tracking system (ECTS) and
tax enforcement mechanisms had an effect on FDI had a positive impact on the FDI in
Kenya. However, it was also noted that all the variables influenced FDI with different
magnitudes with electronic cargo having the highest impact on FDI and ITMS having
the least influence on ITMS. Foreign direct Investment is critical in the growth of any
country’s economy. The study therefore recommends that the government should be
keen in monitoring all factors that influence FDI. This is because foreign investor
response is critically shaped by the tax provisions faced by the foreign investor in his
home country, and by the effects of tax reform on pre-tax asset return. Thus, this
informs the need for dynamism in Kenya tax system in order to fit into the changing
international economies
Modelling Socio-Economic and Demographic Determinants of Financial Inclusion Among RuralWomen in Kenya
No full textIn this study, we consider determinants of nancial inclusion among rural women in Kenya
as a special interest group. More precisely, we model socio-economic determinants of
nancial inclusion among these rural women. In particular, we employ a multiple logistic
regression model on the data from Financial Inclusion Insights (FII) 2017 survey. It is found
that mobile phone ownership, identi cation documents, age, economic status, education,
informal society membership and employment status are some of the social elements that
explain nancial inclusion. Ownership of a mobile for instance tremendously increases
the chances of a rural woman being nancially included. Those who owned a phone were
14 times more likely to be nancially included (p-value= <2e-16). The rural women in
possession of identi cation documents were 5 times more likely to be nancially included
(p-value= 8.41e-11) while age showed a positive relationship with the outcome variable to
the extent that nancial inclusion increases with an additional unit of age (p value= 1.84
e-5) until it reaches an optimal age beyond which it begins to decrease (as substantiated by
a negative coe cient of the age squared variable. Regarding economic status, those from
households below poverty levels were found to be less likely to be included compared to
those above poverty level. On education, a rural female with higher education’s probability
of being nancially included increases by 151 percent compared to those with no formal
education. On the other hand, those with secondary education were twice more likely to be
nancially included than the reference group. Interestingly, those with primary education
were less likely to be nancially included compared to the ‘no formal education’ category.
Being a member of an informal group like a chama, merry-go-round and VSLA increases
the likelihood of a rural woman being nancially included. For instance, rural women
members of the informal societies were twice likely to be nancially included. Finally,
unemployed rural women, those seeking jobs, housewives, student, retired or the disabled
were all less likely to be nancially included comparatively. Speci cally, housewives or
students showed signi cant results for nancial exclusion