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Constraints And Solutions For Groundwater Development, Supply And Governance In Urban Areas In Kenya
No full textBased on a five-town case-study cohort in Kenya, a conceptual framework has been developed to enable the formulation of holistic and effective strategies that encompass the national aspirations and regional to global sustainability agendas, and which can be used to monitor progress in achieving set objectives. The approach is flexible, scalable and transferrable, so that it can be applied in different contexts and using different indicators, based upon the same construct. Insufficient technical knowledge of urban aquifers and their interplay with the wider social-ecological system constrains the development of holistic, effective and robust management systems to ensure their sustainability for intended uses. The objective was to consider governance and management solutions that could promote water security for urban towns in Kenya through the sustainable use of groundwater in the context of its complex hydrogeology, water access disparities, competing uses and future risks. The in force national and county water policies, strategies, and plans for the case study areas were critically reviewed. The status of aquifer knowledge, water access disparities, competing uses, and risks was evaluated from critical literature reviews and data compilation, fieldwork, and analysis of indicator datasets from the Kenya 2009 census. Key aquifers need urgent characterisation to reverse the current situation whereby development proceeds with insufficient aquifer knowledge. Private sector and public participation in management should be enhanced through decentralised management approaches. Water infrastructure and technologies should be fit-for-purpose in application and scale, and the pro-poor focus should be underpinned by appropriately focused management regimes
Perceptions of and Willingness to Pay for Hexanal Technology Among Smallholder Banana Farmers in Meru County, Kenya
No full textAbout 40-50% of horticultural produce meant for consumption is lost along the value chain in Sub-Saharan Africa due to post-harvest losses. This greatly reduces food availability and leads to increased food prices thereby increasing food insecurity in Africa. Promotion of technologies to reduce these post-harvest losses is therefore necessary in improving food security. Hexanal technology, which is an organic compound, has been identified as an important intervention as it is able to prolong shelf life of perishable farm produce such as bananas thereby providing farmers with more time to access markets and/or get better prices. In order to inform the commercialization decisions of the technology, it is important that farmers’ perceptions and willingness to pay (WTP) for the technology are studied. This thesis assessed farmers’ perceptions of and their willingness to pay for Hexanal technology to prolong fruits’ shelf life among banana farmers in Meru County. In addition, the study also assessed the socioeconomic and other factors conditioning farmers’ perceptions and their willingness to pay for the Hexanal technology.
Methodologically, data used for analysis was generated from a sample of 130 households from South Imenti Sub-county, Meru County. The sample was selected using purposive and systematic random sampling from a sampling frame obtained from banana farmer groups in the study area. Data was obtained through face-to-face interviews with the household heads or their spouses using semi-structured questionnaires. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted in order to reduce the many and correlated variables to distinct perceptions while the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) was employed to measure the WTP. Data was analyzed separately for farmers who were ‘aware’ and ‘not aware’ of the technology. From the PCA three components were extracted namely; ‘effectiveness’ which described the potential for Hexanal to reduce post-harvest losses as well as increasing incomes,
‘acceptability’ which explained social acceptance of the technology to the farmers and ‘environmental Safety’ of the technology.
Results indicate that both groups of farmers had positive perceptions on the Hexanal technology and its application. Farmers aware of the technology perceived it to be able to reduce post- harvest losses leading to increased incomes. They also noted that the technology was socially acceptable. However, farmers not aware of the technology perceived Hexanal as difficult to use as they emphasized that they would require the assistance of an extension officer. Perception scores were regressed against explanatory variables using Ordinary Least Squares between the sub-samples. Perceptions scores between the sub-samples were influenced by different sets of variables such as sex of household head, distance to input shop, age and annual household income among others. Results from the CVM approach show that farmers were willing to pay to use the Hexanal technology, the mean WTP value per 0.25L of Hexanal being Ksh 466.67 for farmers aware of the technology and Ksh.331.86 for farmers not aware of the technology. This is a clear indication that access to information on the use and benefits of Hexanal technology increases the amounts households are willing to pay for it in order to reduce their post-harvest losses. Results indicate that a higher initial bid, farmers with larger land size as well as farmers with positive perceptions on social acceptability of Hexanal had a higher WTP for Hexanal. The major key policy implication from the study is that, it is important that stakeholders invest more in dissemination of information on the technology to increase its awareness especially among farmers currently not aware of the technology. This will enhance positive perceptions about Hexanal that will increase its adoption. Future studies should focus on the cost benefit analysis of adopting Hexanal
Enforcement of Directors’ Duty to Promote Success of a Company: a Focus on the Banking Sector
No full textThere has recently been a wave of bank failures. This study attempts to analyze some of the reasons for the failures. Section 143 of the Kenyan Companies Act imposes on directors of companies, a “duty to promote the success of the company”. The section further sets out a list of key deliverables and various stakeholder groups whose interests the directors should consider. This study looks into the possibility of enforcing that duty to ensure that banks succeed. To answer these questions, this study carried out both desktop and fieldwork research. From the desktop research, there is a lot of speculation as to whether the law currently, is capable of delivering success for all stakeholder groups. This speculation is further infused with the responses from the field research, resulting in some critical insights. The results from this research indicate that the board of directors is critical in determining the success or failure of the company. Further, that companies that adopt best practices of corporate governance are more likely to succeed. The results also indicate that there are indeed challenges affecting the enforcement of the duty. These challenges arise from the ambiguity of the law and weaknesses in enforcement mechanisms. This study therefore gives guidance to directors of banks on how best to ensure that banks succeed even if they are not involved in the day-to-day running of the institution. This is in spite the fact that there are inherent weaknesses in the law. It is imperative that bank directors appreciate that theirs is a unique role, as compared to directors in other industries. It is also important for bank directors to ensure that the banks they steer adhere to the best practices of corporate governance, despite the short-term pressures
Profitability of commercial banks in kenya: does interest rate spread matter?
No full textBanks have witnessed a declining profitability, as characterized by their trend on the return on assets and return on equity. Between the years 2012 and 2018, the industry registered a fall on ROA by 1.9 percentage points from a high of 4.7% to a low of 2.8%. Equally the ROE decreased by 6.3 percentage points from a high of 30% to a low of 23.7%. The legislation on Banking Act 2016 introduced interest rate capping and have not borne the desired effect on stimulating access of credit to private sector. The study sought to empirically analyze the relationship on commercial banks profitability, interest rate spread and macroeconomic determinants in Kenya. The study used a one-step GMM estimation technique on panel data for the 30 commercial banks between years 2004 to 2018. The data used in the study was obtained from Central Bank of Kenya, World Development Indicators and Kenya National Beaureu of Statistics publications. The study results indicated that interest rate spread is positive and statistically significant at 1% level of significance on tier one and tier two bank’s profitability, but negatively affects profitability for the tier three banks. The lagged profitability was positive and statistically significant across all the tier banks. GDP was found to have positive but not statistically significant on tier one banks profitability but was negative and statistically significant to tier two banks profitability at 10% level of significance. Inflation had a positive relationship on the tier one banks. The study also established a positive relationship on real interest rates across all the tier banks performances. Money supply was observed to have a positive effect on profitability to all the tier banks. The study recommends that the government through CBK, should work on an efficient monetary policy to ensure the Central Bank Rate, which is a component of interest charged by commercial banks is always at its minimum. This will ensure commercial banks’ price their loans at reasonable rates after consideration on their risk and profit margins. On the other hand, it proposes formulation of bank management policies that will counter over reliance on interest rates margins and become more market oriented to spur a sustainable banks performance
Minority Language Maintenance in a Multilingual Setting: the Case of Gujarati in Nairobi, Kenya
No full textThis study endeavored to investigate the factors that have contributed to language maintenance among Gujarati speakers in Nairobi. The study was guided by three objectives which sought to identify the vitality factors that have contributed to maintenance of Gujarati in Nairobi; establish the speakers attitude towards Gujarati language, and lastly to investigate the language performance in the four language skills among the Gujarati in Nairobi. The study was guided by Giles et al (1977) ethnolinguistic vitality theory which provided a conceptual tool to analyze the factors affecting the vitality language. They proposed three variables which were status, demographic and institutional support. The target population was Gujarati community living in Nairobi. The data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. The findings were that the factors that have led to language maintenance among Gujarati speakers in Nairobi are home usage, geographical distribution (they mostly live in closed communities), marriage patterns, trade, positive attitude towards the language, and emotional attachment to the language as a sense of identity
Clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance at the wildlife-livestock-human interface in Nairobi: an epidemiological study.
No full textBACKGROUND:
Antimicrobial resistance is one of the great challenges facing global health security in the modern era. Wildlife, particularly those that use urban environments, are an important but understudied component of epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance. We investigated antimicrobial resistance overlap between sympatric wildlife, humans, livestock, and their shared environment across the developing city of Nairobi, Kenya. We use these data to examine the role of urban wildlife in the spread of clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance.
METHODS:
99 households across Nairobi were randomly selected on the basis of socioeconomic stratification. A detailed survey was administered to household occupants, and samples (n=2102) were collected from the faeces of 75 wildlife species inhabiting household compounds (ie, the household and its perimeter; n=849), 13 livestock species (n=656), and humans (n=333), and from the external environment (n=288). Escherichia coli, our sentinel organism, was cultured and a single isolate from each sample tested for sensitivity to 13 antibiotics. Diversity of antimicrobial resistant phenotypes was compared between urban wildlife, humans, livestock, and the environment, to investigate whether wildlife are a net source for antimicrobial resistance in Nairobi. Generalised linear mixed models were used to determine whether the prevalence of antimicrobial resistant phenotypes and multidrug-resistant E coli carriage in urban wildlife is linked to variation in ecological traits, such as foraging behaviour, and to determine household-level risk factors for sharing of antimicrobial resistance between humans, wildlife, and livestock.
FINDINGS:
E coli were isolated from 485 samples collected from wildlife between Sept 6,2015, and Sept 28, 2016. Wildlife carried a low prevalence of E coli isolates susceptible to all antibiotics tested (45 [9%] of 485 samples) and a high prevalence of clinically relevant multidrug resistance (252 [52%] of 485 samples), which varied between taxa and by foraging traits. Multiple isolates were resistant to one agent from at least seven antimicrobial classes tested for, and a single isolate was resistant to all antibiotics tested for in the study. The phenotypic diversity of antimicrobial-resistant E coli in wildlife was lower than in livestock, humans, and the environment. Within household compounds, statistical models identified two interfaces for exchange of antimicrobial resistance: between both rodents, humans and their rubbish, and seed-eating birds, humans and their rubbish; and between seed-eating birds, cattle, and bovine manure.
INTERPRETATION:
Urban wildlife carry a high burden of clinically relevant antimicrobial-resistant E coli in Nairobi, exhibiting resistance to drugs considered crucial for human medicine by WHO. Identifiable traits of the wildlife contribute to this exposure; however, compared with humans, livestock, and the environment, low phenotypic diversity in wildlife is consistent with the hypothesis that wildlife are a net sink rather than source of clinically relevant resistance. Wildlife that interact closely with humans, livestock, and both human and livestock waste within households, are exposed to more antimicrobial resistant phenotypes, and could therefore act as conduits for the dissemination of clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance to the wider environment. These results provide novel insight into the broader epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in complex urban environments, characteristic of lower-middle-income countries.
FUNDING:
UK Medical Research Council and CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health
Assessment Of The Implications Of The Resource Based Conflicts Among The Karamoja Cluster Group Of The Eastern Africa Region.
No full textThis study is an ethnography which examines the resource based conflict among the Karamoja cluster group of Eastern Africa who are pastoralist by way of life and therefore share a common culture. The Karamoja people are found in four nation states of Eastern Africa; north- western Kenya, north eastern-Uganda, south western-Ethiopia and south eastern Sudan. Conflict over shares scarce resources especially water, grazing pasture, cattle rustling occurs mainly when there is drought hence everyone wants to access, control and exploit what is available leading to competition. The illegal ownership of gun is also a source of conflict in one way or the other because these people perceive that having the weapons assures one of protection especially during cattle rustling whereby the raided animals are then used in the payment of dowry or commercialized in exchange of money or guns since the more the guns one have in this community, the more prestigious he or she is. Finally the approaches used in the management of these conflicts include the use of traditional courts and other conventional approaches which the researcher observed that they are not effective in the long run due to weakened traditional mechanisms and lack of adherence by the community to what has been passed so that peace and security is achieved all round. The study used both secondary and primary data but explorative method was mostly applied because through it the researcher was in a position to find out how these people survive in the arid and semi-arid karamoja cluster and the issues affecting them to hence conflicts. Target groups were the pastoralists themselves, clan elders, non-governmental organizations and the academicians. Sample size and sampling involved use of the standard deviation formula by Mugenda for population of more than 10,000 people hence total 384 respondents. The method of sampling varied depending on the target group as a result both probability and non-probability approach was applied while tools for data collection were both open and closed ended questionnaires and focus group discussions. The study ends with discussing the findings, conclusion and recommendations
Strengthening Utilization of the Kenyan Hiv and Health Situation Room at the County Level
No full textIn 2015, the Kenya HIV and Health Situation Room, was launched with the help of the Joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
The Kenya HIV and Health Situation Room is an electronic decision support tool that was developed to integrate data from health programs at the national and county level. The tool synthesizes and presents data visually; giving data users a better understanding of data use therefore helping them make better informed data decisions. The tool also provides data users with access to different data sets from various data sources. The tool has already been implemented in 11 national governmental offices and all 47 counties. 30 national and 94 county level staff have already been trained. This tool was to be used at national and county levels in the country to inform critical decisions in HIV programming. However, following feedback by the NACC regional data officers, the HIV Situation Room was hardly used at the county level.
The project aim was to strengthen the use of the Kenya HIV and Health Situation Room at the county level. A situational analysis was conducted to determine why the Kenyan HIV and Health Situation Room was not being utilized at the county level. From the assessment study, an intervention was selected and implemented to help the CHMT members use the tool. The activities conducted were: sensitization of the CHMT members through engagement, awareness raising and a video with key messages in it. There was positive feedback on the impact of the sensitization activities that were done. The outcomes of the project were: 30 CHMT members sensitized about the HIV and Health Situation Room; 30 CHMT members using the HIV and Health Situation Room and sensitized CHMT members using the sensitization video in their forums and meetings to sensitize other staff about the HIV and Health Situation Room. The implementation plan was done according to the project objectives, work plan and budget
Fintech Collaboration And Perfomance Of Commercial Banks In Kenya.
No full textAs Fintech innovations continue to alter the landscape in the banking sector, banks in Kenya are forming collaborations that are envisioned to shape delivery of services. This study investigates the influence of Bank-Fintech collaborations on a bank’s efficiency using the data envelopment model with input-orientation based on the intermediation dimension. Efficiency scores are decomposed as technical efficiency. Secondary data for the period 2009-2018 is extracted from banks sampled from total population of 44 banks in Kenya. Technical efficiency is calculated based on Pre Fintech and Post Fintech times based on four Intermediation Models anchored on Deposits, Loans, Interest Income and Interests Expense as inputs and Output
Assessment Of Care For Ambulant Adult Patients On Maintenance Chronic Haemodialysis At The Kenyatta National Hospital
No full textBackground information
The burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is on the rise locally and globally. The care for patients with CKD is multifaceted and multidisciplinary. The aim of the study was to explore the actual extent of care given to the patients on chronic maintenance haemodialysis (HD) at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).
Study methodology
The study design was cross-sectional descriptive carried out between June and July 2018 among the patients on chronic maintenance HD at KNH. Primarily, the study was to establish the actual extent of care for these patients. Specific objectives were to document the morbidities as the underlying cause(s) of CKD and the level of preparedness for kidney replacement therapy (KRT) by the time the patients were initiated on HD. In addition, the study was to establish the duration the patients had been on chronic HD. Finally, the study was to establish the status of management of the documented underlying conditions which resulted in end stage kidney disease (ESKD) and assess the status of management of anaemia, mineral and bone disorder among these patients.
Results
There were 91 patients on chronic maintenance HD in KNH between June and July 2018. Among the eligible patients, 82 were enrolled. Males were 50% (41) males. The mean age was 45.39 ±15.96 years (p value <0.001, 95%, CI 41.80-48.90). Hypertension and diabetes mellitus (DM) were the leading co-morbidities at 62.2% and 23.2% respectively (p value <0.001). Majority of the patients were referred from these clinics. The followed up duration had median of 11 months, maximum duration of 552 months and minimum duration of less than 1 month (p value <0.001, 95%, CI 23.57-59.60 ). Despite the contact with health providers prior to development of ESKD, 74.4% of the patients were initiated on HD as emergency (p value 0.001) and 29.3% knew of HD as the only modality of KRT (p value <0.001). Acute central venous catheters were used by 85.30% of the patients as the vascular access for initiation of HD. Long stay cuffed tunneled catheters were used in 13.40% while arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) use was in 1.2% of the patients (p value <0.001). Counseling and other supportive services such as health education and nutritional counseling were not optimal. At least 20% of patients gave responses indicating deficiency of information or knowledge in these domains. More than 40% of the patients had not been counseled about
kidney transplantation. More than 80% of the patients were on intravenous (IV) iron supplementation, 82.90% on erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESA) and 75.6% had been transfused with blood since they initiated on HD (p value <0.001). Despite the use of ESA and IV iron, anemia was common. The average haemoglobin (HB) was 8.60 ± 1.92 g/dL (p value < 0.001, 95%, CI 8.23-9.07). Mean serum calcium was 2.14±0.37 mmol/L and phosphate of 1.40 ± 0.55 mmol/L. Only 24.0% of the patients were on calcium supplementation and none was on phosphate lowering therapies. Eighty eight percent of the patients were on twice weekly intermittent HD. The mean interdialytic weight gain (IDWG) was between 3.09-3.92% ± 2.48-3.03 % during the 4 HD sessions preceding the study. (p value <0.001, 95%, CI 2.48-4.46). The mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) during four HD sessions preceding the study were 140 - 148 ±24.39-26.61 mmHg (p value <0.001, 95%, CI 138-151).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the study shows our HD patients are young with the commonest causes of CKD being hypertension and DM. Due to development of ESKD in non-diabetic patients at young age, it is plausible to suspect glomerulonephritides as the underlying cause of hypertension and subsequent ESKD. Diabetes mellitus is also contributing a sizeable burden of ESKD in our population. Even patients with long duration of follow up in outpatients’ clinics are not well prepared for KRT. Majority initiate HD as emergency with acute vascular accesses. Management of anaemia, mineral and bone disorder are suboptimal. Counseling, nutrition education and transplantation uptake are low.a
Department of Psychiatry, University of Nairobi, ; bDepartment of Mental Health, School of Medicine,
Moi University, Eldoret, Keny