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Care-kenya’s Local Links Project: It’s Contribution to the Economic Empowerment of Women in Kibra, Nairobi County, Kenya
No full textSavings schemes for women play an important role. They are one of the economic empowerment tools for uplifting living standards of households. The study was conducted by exploring its general objective of investigating how CARE-Kenya Local Links Project contributed to the economic empowerment of women in Kibra, Nairobi County, Kenya. So as to attain the broader objective, the study looked at how participation in GS&L enhanced women economic empowerment. The focus was directed at women participating in savings and loans schemes from different groups saving different amounts. The objectives were to assess profiles of GS&L members, investigate the savings and loans scheme support of women, establish types of business operated by members and assess effect of business performance.
Quantitative data used interval sampling to select a sample of 16 women groups giving a lower limit of 5 respondents per group. Qualitative data targeted 4 key informants. Quantitative data was presented in tables then analyzed by use of SPSS while qualitative data used content analysis. The pre-test of research instruments was done to test the credibility of the instruments.
The study showed that majority of women took loans to boost their businesses, pay school fees for their children and meet other household expenses. The findings include: GS&L had promoted the culture of saving enabling group participants to provide avenues for accessing loan services at affordable rates. Women engaged in different businesses majority of them doing hairdressing business, selling of vegetables and tailoring. This helped in economic strengthening of the respondent’s households. There was increased business stock hence boosting of household income from self-employment activities, increased household assets and meeting of household education expenses which is part of Millennium Development Goals. Savings scheme had empowered women to a point where they could make independent decisions and solve problems on their own and also take collective decision making at group level. Women respondents were challenged with low business sales due to current economic crisis. The scheme had put in place mechanisms in the groups constitution to ensure timely loan repayment including: giving out of small manageable loans for ease of repayment especially 2 months to annual liquidation period normally done every December. Women had also been empowered to identify fast moving IGAs for quick loan repayment within specified period.
The study concluded that it was worthwhile to foster household economic strengthening through promotion of savings led and community managed models to enhance household income of women through economic empowerment. The research recommended the integration of GS&L in development activities, formalization of groups, link groups to other agencies for financial support. Market linkages of women businesses will help to increase business sales hence strengthen women economic capacities
Assessment Of Soil Erosion Dynamics Using Geospatial Technology Case Study Of Lake Baringo Catchment.
No full textLand degradation in form of soil erosion is a significant problem in arid and semi-arid region of Lake Baringo catchment. Soil erosion by water is one of the major contributors of reducing soil fertility, eutrophication and contamination of water resources experienced in the catchment. The goal of this research was to assess soil erosion in the area by combining object based image analysis to map erosion and spatial modelling to assess erosion risk. The development of remote sensing technology with regard to Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) gives new improved techniques to map erosion and associated features from high spatial resolution imagery. GEOBIA method was reviewed, developed and tested for its capability of mapping erosion. Assessment of the magnitude of the soil loss was incorporated as well through some form of modelling. Erosion modelling helped in pinpointing the vulnerable areas. Unit Stream Power-based Erosion Deposition Model (USPED) was used to capture the erosion and deposition process. The output of the GEOBIA which is the spatial patterns of erosion was combined with the output from the USPED erosion model which is a quantitative prediction of erosion risk to improve soil erosion assessment within the catchment.
Analysis of the USPED model results showed that around 56.5% of the catchment area is affected by erosion. Only 0.8% of the catchment is stable and not affected by either erosion or deposition process. Deposition occurs in the remaining 42.7%. Major erosion hotspots were found to be areas surrounding Radat, Kaptim, Kipcherera and Molo sirwe. GEOBIA classification results indicate that the method was able to detect the eroded areas in high resolution Rapid Eye image with a high level of accuracy. The results of the classification were checked against ground reference data in the area, resulting in an overall classification accuracy of 78.5%.From a conservation perspective, 10.8% of the watershed needs immediate watershed management intervention. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that appropriate soil and water conservation measures should be implemented in these identified hotspots. This spatial information on the scale, severity level and exact coordinate location of badlands will give important insights to conservationists and stakeholders in planning and implementing mitigation measures
Influence Of Product Innovations and Technology On Growth Of Small And Medium Enterprises In Petroleum Industry In Nairobi County In Kenya
No full textThe main objective of this study was determining the influence of product innovation on the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with focus on the petroleum industry in Nairobi County in Kenya. Product innovation is vital source of sustainable competitive advantage for any firm especially in a dynamic business environment. This is because product innovation leads to continuous product improvements that make the firm to survive in face of competitors. Product innovation may be internal or external. The specific objective were to determine the contribution of internal product innovation on the growth and to determine the effect of external product innovation on the growth. The study was anchored on diffusion theory of innovation, resource based view, product life cycle and innovation theory. The study was descriptive employing survey methods. The population was all the 986 SMEs in Nairobi County that sell ptroleum products. The study targeted a sample of 119 participants but only 81 successfully participated leading to a response rate of 68.07 percent. Data were collected using a questionnaire. Analysis was done using descriptive statistics. Graphical presentations were also used. Linear regression analysis was used to model the relationship connecting product innovation and growth. The study established that SMEs were generally growing with internal product innovation as a positive contributor to the growth. The SMEs focused only on things they could sustain, they spend more on market leadership and on strategic alliances especially on new projects. They, however did not have their own unique products availed for customers and did not have the technology to enable them to detect early enough whether a new product is profitable. External product innovation did not contribute favourably to growth of the SMEs despite the SMEs having strong policies on collaboration with other firms. However, the SMEs were inadequate in acquiring new ideas from external sources, did not invest heavily in technology and did not participate in in pooled R&D/product development. The study recommends stronger implementation of both internal and external innovation to enhance the growth of SMEs in the petroleum industry
Utilization of croton seed as a possible animal feed: a review
No full textCroton is one of the largest genera in the Family Euphorbiaceae. Its species are distributed in a wide range of environmental and climatic conditions. The plants have for a long time been exploited for medicinal purposes but still hold the potential for nutritional purposes. The seeds of the plant have been exploited in oil extraction to produce biofuel but the residual seedcake has been less utilized. The use of croton seed and seedcake as feed has been in practice in Kenya and other countries but questions on its safety have been raised. Croton seeds are known to contain various phytochemicals and toxins such as crotin I, crotonic acid and tiglic acid that have deleterious health effects on animals. Notwithstanding the rich nutritional composition of the croton seeds, its safety concerns have limited their utilization as feeds. The croton seeds are rich in both essential fatty acids and protein whereas the residual seedcake is only rich in protein. However, the seedcake has toxic phytochemicals that include cardiac glycocides, alkaloids, phorbal esters and many others which are injurious to the animals and could result in death. Detoxification of the seedcakes poses a breakthrough for their use in poultry feeding. However, such techniques should not reduce the rich nutritional property of these seeds. This review focuses on the utilization of croton seedcake as a possible animal feed, documenting breakthroughs and limitations of the practic
Trade Liberalization And Export Survival In Kenya
No full textThis paper explores the effect of trade liberalization on export survival using product level SITC-5 digit panel data from 1980 to 2018. This study focuses on agricultural sectors, manufacturing sectors and Economic Integration Agreements (EIAs) as a proxy for trade liberalization. Employing discrete-time random effects logit regression model, this study showed that Kenya has short export durations with a failure rate of 64% in the first year and close to 90% in the fifth year. Economic Integration Agreements like EAC and COMESA confer more additional benefits for Kenya’s exports growth through survival advantages. For instance, exporting manufactured goods to COMESA along with agricultural exports to EAC serves Kenya with higher survival probabilities. However, trade agreements between Kenya and EU do not result to any increase in survival for any sector. Based on the findings, therefore Kenya’s export survival is better inspired by exporting to regional blocks that are geographically close. Therefore, policy makers should focus on deepening intra-African trade.
Keywords: Agricultural sector, export survival, manufacturing sector, trade liberalization, trade agreements
Isolation And Propagation Of Lactic Acid Bacteria From Fermented Maize Flour For The Optimization Of The Fermentation Process
No full textProduction of traditional fermented foods especially lactic acid fermented foods has long been practiced for ages in Africa with a variety of products being produced. Lactic fermentation improves the digestibility of proteins and starch, bioavailability of micronutrients, palatability of porridges as well as imparting antimicrobial properties in them. Spontaneous fermentation of the maize flour products involves mixed culture microorganisms, of which only a given microbial community exists under specific conditions. This has resulted in variation in product quality and low standards with no known shelf-life with varied sensory attributes. The right environmental conditions have not been created for these organisms to thrive and proliferate for the fermentation process. Therefore, this study isolated and characterized fermentative bacteria to optimize the fermentation process to improve the uniformity in quality. The study was therefore specifically carried out to formulate and evaluate use of starter cultures and at the same time characterize lactic acid bacteria from traditionally fermented thick porridge (Mkarango) responsible for its sensory attributes. To prepare Mkarango, the composite flours were mixed in various ratios and the mixture was kneaded into a consistent paste and allowed to ferment at the ambient temperatures (15-250C) for about 2 days, the mixture was decanted and then roasted for 30 minutes. The physico-chemical characteristics was determined following standard procedures by AOAC procedures while Microbial profiles in terms of LAB, Enterobacteriaceae, Yeast and molds were evaluated through a ten-fold serial dilutions of fermented cereal flour samples at each day of fermentation. The population of Lactic acid bacteria and yeast was enumerated on plate count agar and Oxytetracycline Glucose Yeast Extract Agar respectively. Cultures of lactic acid bacteria (L. plantarum, and L. brevis and yeast culture (S. cerevisiae) isolated earlier from fermented Mkarango were used to formulate starter cultures which were either tested alone or in a mixture for their ability to ferment maize flour in order to produce Mkarango. Microbial
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quality and mineral contents of Mkarango was also determined following recommended standards
Results showed that pH, titratable acidity and tannin content of mkarango were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) influenced by the period of fermentation, the type of flour and the interaction of the two. The phytic acid content was only influenced significantly (p≤0.05) by the period of fermentation and ranged from 8.5 to 10.1 for the initial period but significantly reduced after the first and the second day. Increasing the period of fermentation considerably increased the titratable acidity to 0.397% from 0.1% while reducing the pH averagely from 5.6 to 5.34.The LAB, yeast and mould and total viable counts significantly increased with increased period of fermentation whereas the population Enterobacteriaceae reduced. The use of starter culture bacteria in combination with yeasts decreased steeping time of the maize flour and produced acceptable pH results and increased the quantity of the titratable acidity. The product with Yeast+ L. Plantarum+ L. brevis (1:2) and Milk+ L. Plantarum+ L. brevis (1:2) had the highest pH readings (5.12) while products with Milk+ L. Plantarum+ L. brevis (2:1) had the least pH readings (4.8). The population of yeast/molds, and LABs were the highest in all the samples while Enterobacteriaceae was the least. The sensory attributes varied for the different products and the overall acceptability was highest for product prepared from Milk +L. Plantarum + L. brevis (2:1) which scored 4.7 on the 5-point hedonic scale. The results show that the product samples were rich in trace minerals, zinc and iron contents which ranged from 2.7mg/100g to 3.9mg/100g and 2.7mg/100g to 16.9mg/100g respectively.
The use of starter culture bacteria in combination with yeasts decreased fermentation time of the maize flour and produced acceptable pH and increased the quantity of the titratable acidity thus creating an environment not conducive for enteric bacterial growth thereby increasing the safety
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and shelf life of the products. Based on the microbial activity exhibited by the isolates, the best starter organism for production of Mkarango consisted of mixed cultures of LAB and yeast. Quality of mkarango is influenced by more than one single culture. The effect of fermentative action on the nutritional and physical attributes of mkarango is dependent on the period of storage and the type of flour used
Big Data Intelligence Using Distributed Deep Neural Networks
Get PDFLarge amount of data is often required to train and deploy useful machine learning models in
industry. Smaller enterprises do not have the luxury of accessing enough data for machine
learning, For privacy sensitive fields such as banking, insurance and healthcare, aggregating data
to a data warehouse poses a challenge of data security and limited computational resources.
These challenges are critical when developing machine learning algorithms in industry. Several
attempts have been made to address the above challenges by using distributed learning
techniques such as federated learning over disparate data stores in order to circumvent the need
for centralised data aggregation.
This paper proposes an improved algorithm to securely train deep neural networks over several
data sources in a distributed way, in order to eliminate the need to centrally aggregate the data
and the need to share the data thus preserving privacy. The proposed method allows training of
deep neural networks using data from multiple de-linked nodes in a distributed environment and
to secure the representation shared during training. Only a representation of the trained models
(network architecture and weights) are shared.
The algorithm was evaluated on existing healthcare patients data and the performance of this
implementation was compared to that of a regular deep neural network trained on a single
centralised architecture. This algorithm will pave a way for distributed training of neural
networks on privacy sensitive applications where raw data may not be shared directly or
centrally aggregating this data in a data warehouse is not feasible.
Index Terms : Big Data, Distributed Computing, Deep Learnin
Assesment Of The National Intergrated Monitoring And Evaluation System In Kenya
Get PDFIn Kenya, there is the National Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation System (NIMES) that is meant to integrate M&E systems in the country. The integration entails not only bringing the M&E systems together but more so enabling them as a whole to support good decision making. However, the question is whether this integration is being done effectively or not. The study therefore seeks to respond to this question by carrying out an assessment of the NIMES.
The study employs the 12 components M&E strengthening tool proposed by the UNAID (2009) for assessing Monitoring and Evaluation Systems. The study employs the Delphi approach and purposive sample selection methods as it applies the 12 components M&E strengthening tool.
Results from the study indicate that Kenya’s NIMES is only fairly functioning given the several aspects that are missing or not being done. For example, supportive supervision and data auditing is hardly ever done, similarly evaluation and research agenda is not institutionalized and neither is it being frequently set.
The study recommends increased follow up on the going on at the secretariat housing NIMES to ensure adequate support to operationalize all the M&E components with priority to the components on Surveys and surveillance and on Supportive supervision which are the worst functioning components within NIMES. These two would have an impact on all the others.
Owing to various limitations in the study including inability to state clear significance levels of each component to NIMES and the general low statistical power of the study, it was recommended that other studies be carried out with higher inclinations to statistical power and assigning of significance of each component so as to allow informed prioritization of support to operationalization of the components
Evaluating the Adequacy of the Legal and Regulatory Framework of Mobile Money Transactions in Kenya
No full textAcanthamoeba- Associated Pseudomonas Species At Kenyatta National Hospital Intensive Care Unit, Kenya
No full textBackground: Free-living amoeba (FLA) such as Acanthamoeba spp. are ubiquitous unicellular eukaryotes that graze on bacteria, viruses, algae and are common contaminants in virtually all environments. However, amoeba resistant microorganisms (ARMs) evade amoebic killing and survive and multiply within FLA. Pseudomonas spp. is an ARM with known high antibiotic resistance, increased virulence, resistance to disinfectants and are etiologic agents of nosocomial infections. Co-existence of FLA and ARMs may perpetuate spread of pathogens across hospital environments that would be responsible for nosocomial infections and the antimicrobial resistance global surge today. Sensitization on the existence of ARMs and their potential impact on infection control and patient health is paramount.
Aim:To culture and isolate both Acanthamoeba spp. and bacteria as well as to detect Pseudomonas sp. genomic DNA within Acanthamoeba spp. isolates obtained from swabs collected from selected surfaces and equipment at Kenyatta National Hospital Intensive Care Unit (KNH ICU).
Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study done at KNH ICU. One hundred and fifty-three swabs were collected in duplicate (306 swabs). Acanthamoeba spp. cultures were performed on the first batch of 153 swabs while bacterial cultures were performed on the second batch of 153 swabs. Pseudomonas sp. genomic DNA was detected from Acanthamoeba spp. isolates using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique.
Results: The proportion of swabs with Acanthamoeba spp. isolates was 93.5% (143/153). Subcultures were done on 62.7% (96/153) primary Acanthamoeba spp. isolates and only 22.9% (22/96) were positive. PCR was conducted on all the 22 positive Acanthamoeba spp. subcultures and Pseudomonas sp. genomic DNA was detected in almost half (45.5%) of the tested subcultures. Of the total bacterial isolates, the proportion of Pseudomonas spp. was 10.7% (18/168).
Conclusion: To the best our knowledge Acanthamoeba spp. was for the first time in Kenya isolated upon culture and Pseudomonas sp. endosymbiotic relationship with the isolated Acanthamoeba spp. confirmed as a potential contributor to nosocomial infections and bacterial antimicrobial resistance burden at KNH ICU.a
Department of Psychiatry, University of Nairobi, ; bDepartment of Mental Health, School of Medicine,
Moi University, Eldoret, Keny