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LEAD METAL EXPOSURE TO RESIDENTS RESIDING IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF RESIDENTS IN NAKURU MUNICIPALITY, KENYA
Get PDFThe study was conducted with the aim of determining the level of lead exposure to residents living in slum areas, sewage areas and close to waste dumpsites of Nakuru Municipality using a sample of 120 individuals. Cross sectional study design, was adopted where a representative proportion of the population at different age groups was included in three sites, viz: dump site, slum areas and sewage prone areas. The level of lead exposure was determined by subjecting human hair samples to Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy tests after wet acid digestion using Nitric acid analytical grade. Result indicate that the incidence of presence of lead in samples were 0.45±0.106; 0.17±0.064 and 0.29±0.057 of 0-6, 6-17 and >17 years of age respectively. There was a significant difference (P≤0.05) among sites with majority of those sampled from dump site having 5 g/l and above. This study therefore concludes that, Nakuru being one of the fastest growing towns in East Africa faces a high level of Lead heavy metal contamination among residents, a fact that has not been documented as a necessity in accommodating the growing population, industrial, and commercial activity
Land Use Land Cover Changes and their Effects on Food Security: A Case Study of Kiambu County - Kenya
No full textIn the last four decades the emergence of new technologies and effects of rapid population growth around the globe have necessitated a tremendous shift by managers and planners on how to tackle land use and land cover (LULC) changes. Geospatial technologies have been used extensively in many areas of the world for generating valuable information on the forest cover, vegetation type, land use change detection and general environmental monitoring. Kiambu County is one of the most affected counties in Kenya by LULC changes due to its proximity to the capital city (Nairobi), good climate, fertile soils and improved infrastructure. This paper analyses the effects of LULC change on food security in Kiambu County and determines the main drivers of LULC changes using geospatial technologies. Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) satellite images together with other data-sets were used. Satellite images for the years; 1984, 1993, 2002 and 2013 were applied in the time-series analysis of LULC. Digital image analysis was carried out through supervised classification using ERDAS Imagine 2011 by defining the training sites on the respective images. The classes mapped were agricultural land, forests, built-area/urban, water body, wet land, grassland and bare land/rock area. The overall accuracy was in the range of 89.70% to 90.71%. The results obtained showed that Agricultural land reduced over the whole period of study from 39.69% to 15.75% which is an indication that the County is food insecure considering that the population also grew at similar rates. It is also evident that the built-area/urban increased tremendously over the same period, from 1.88% to 33.50%, showing high demand for houses. A decrease in grassland, Forest, water body and Bare-land/Rocky areas was also observed. The application of geospatial technologies to analyze LULC and related effects was clearly demonstrated
CONTRIBUTION OF SELECTED FAMILY FACTORS TO THE INFLUX OF STREET CHILDREN IN NAKURU MUNICIPALITY
Get PDFAn unprecedented rise in the number of street children in the last decade has raised concern in Kenya. Numerous and complex socio-economic factors have been attributed to the rising presence of children on the streets. Therefore, this study purposed to investigate the contribution of selected family factors on the influx of street children in Kenyan towns with special reference to Nakuru Municipality which has a population of about 3,800 street children with 800 of these in rehabilitation centers. This was a descriptive survey that used an ex post facto design. Nakuru Municipality has eight active rehabilitation centers for street children. Five rehabilitation centers were randomly sampled to provide a sample of 100 street children and 5 managers. Self- response questionnaires and an interview schedule were used to collect the required data. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the raw data. The main factors within the family such as family type, inability of parents to provide for their children, child abuse, parent’s drunkenness and poor parent- child relationship, have contributed a lot to the street children phenomenon. Family counseling can be used to assist the families of street children
VOLATILITY ESTIMATION OF STOCK PRICES USING GARCH METHOD
Get PDFEconomic decisions are modeled based on perceived distribution of the random variables in the future, assessment and measurement of the variance which has a significant impact on the future profit or losses of particular portfolio. The ability to accurately measure and predict the stock market volatility has a wide spread implications. Volatility plays a very significant role in many financial decisions.
The main purpose of this study is to examine the nature and the characteristics of stock market volatility of Kenyan stock markets and its stylized facts using GARCH models. Symmetric volatility model namly GARCH model was used to estimate volatility of stock returns. GARCH (1, 1) explains volatility of Kenyan stock markets and its stylized facts including volatility clustering, fat tails and mean reverting more satisfactorily.The results indicates the evidence of time varying stock return volatility over the sampled period of time.
In conclusion it follows that in a financial crisis; the negative returns shocks have higher volatility than positive returns shocks
Effects of Employee Incentives on Employee Performance in Private Universities in Kenya: A case of Kabarak University
Get PDFHuman resource management is the strategic approach to the management of an organizations most vital asset, the people who contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the organization. Employee incentives constitute some of the high performance work practices used by organizations to improve knowledge, skills, and abilities of current and potential employees, increase motivation and enhance retention of quality employees. Kabarak University has a number of employee incentives in place. However, there is scanty empirical study, to determine the influence of these incentives on employee performance. The study examined the relationship between specific employee incentives to employee performance in private Universities in Kenya. The study population was all the employees of Kabarak University, selected as respondents; thereby a census study was carried out .The study involved use of structured questionnaire to collect the data. Secondary data was extracted from the department of Human resource. The analysis of the collected data was done by use of Mann Whitney U test, factor analysis and Chi-square, and presented using descriptive statistics in frequency tables and charts. Financial and nonfinancial incentives are applied to a great extent to motivate the employees. Financial incentives that are perceived to have significant influence on employee motivation include: salary, insurance financing, retirement benefits, performance based rewards, holiday, overtime pay, and loan entitlement. Among the non-financial incentives with significant influence on performance were: creativity at work, organizational goals, challenging tasks, opportunity for personal development, autonomy and responsibility, teamwork, job security, professionally stimulating environment, opportunity to set performance goals, predictable work life, opportunity to lead, training and development and flexible policies. Recommendations include; the need for top management of organizations to design effective incentive schemes that comprise a mix of financial and non-financial incentives, with non-financial incentives being key, supplemented by financial incentives. The findings are vital for policy makers in human capital intensive organizations such as universities
Biology Education: A Teachers Perspective on the Challenges in the Delivery of Content and Performance in Biology: A Case of Bungoma District, Kenya
No full textBiology is a teaching and learning subject at secondary school level in Kenyan schools. Biology plays a key role in industrialization and other sectors of the economy. Biology is a practical subject, which equips students with concepts and skills that are useful in solving the day-to day problems of life. The study of biology aims at providing the learner with the necessary knowledge with which to control or change the environment for the benefit of an individual, family or community. However, the secondary school students’ performance in biology as a learning subject in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in Bungoma District has been quite low over the years. The public outcry and concern by parents, teachers, educationists and students about poor performance in science subjects and mathematics in national examinations is a clear indication that factors influencing student’s performance in these subjects need urgent investigation. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of teacher related factors on performance of secondary school students in biology. The Cross-sectional descriptive research design and the Ex post facto were employed in this study. Nine (9) secondary schools were randomly selected for study out of 139 schools in Bungoma district. Different categories of schools were used depending on the school set-up and these were (i) Single- gender boys boarding schools (ii) Single- gender girls boarding schools (iii) Single- gender girls day schools (iv) Co-educational boarding schools (v) Co-educational day schools (vi) Co-educational boarding / day schools. A total of three hundred and sixty (360) form three students were randomly selected for the study. A student questionnaire (SQ) and a teacher questionnaire (TQ) were used as the main instruments for data collection. Class mark lists were used as tracking records of performance in biology. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study established that boys perform better than girls in biology. Female teachers were found to have a higher level of science anxiety in the teaching of biology compared to the male teachers. It was established that most teachers still used the traditional lecture method in the teaching of biology and only a smaller percentage were using the new approaches. This study was expected to significantly contribute in the provision of information that could be used by teachers, parents, educationists and policy makers to improve on the teaching, learning and performance of students in biology
Relationship between Factors Contributing to Teachers’ Job Satisfaction and Academic Achievement among Secondary Schools in Homa-Bay County, Kenya
No full textThe study analyzed the relationship between factors contributing to teachers’ job satisfaction and academic performance among public secondary schools in Homa-Bay County. The study emanates from a background of dismal academic performance of secondary schools as alleged by Ministry of Education Report (2011) and constant complaints of working conditions by teachers. A sample of 32 secondary schools was randomly selected from the population of 300 public schools for the study. Data was collected by a Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and was analyzed by use of descriptive and inferential statistics.  The analysis of variance tests was done at 0.05alpha level of significance. Findings revealed that factors of job satisfaction were job security, work environment, nature of work, technical supervision, recognition, and further training opportunity. It was also found that academic performance is pegged on teachers’ job satisfaction. From the findings of this study the researcher recommends improving teachers’ job satisfaction and academic performance in Homa-Bay County; the government should improve salary and allowances of teachers, the result shows that most of the teachers still work in a deplorable conditions, the ministry of education should encourage strong parental and community support through parent teacher association and Board of Management,  These bodies should ensure that secondary schools are well equipped with necessary learning facilities for quality education and improved academic performance. It is hoped that the findings of this study may be useful to the Ministry of Education, personnel involved in decision making, policy formulation and implementation, and secondary school principals towards making sure that teachers are satisfied for schools to perform highly and towards realizing the vision 2030 in education sector
Tugen Men and Women’s Perception on FGM in Relation to their Participation in Household and Community Socioeconomic Development Activities in Baringo County.
Get PDFFemale Genital Mutilation (FGM) is the partial or total cutting away of the female genitalia, which has been practiced for centuries in parts of Africa and other regions of the world as one element of a rite of passage. An investigation of the Tugen men and women’s perception on FGM in relation to their participation in household and community socioeconomic development activities in Baringo County shaded light upon numerous obstacles to its elimination. There was a gap in the analysis of the factors contributing to persistence of FGM among Tugen women of Baringo County as it had not been empirically investigated. The purpose of this study was to establish Tugen Men and Women’s Perception on FGM in Relation to their Participation in Household and Community Socioeconomic Development Activities in Baringo County. The study adopted the ex post facto-causal comparative research design. The study was conducted in three divisions namely Kisanana, Mogotio and Esageri in Koibatek district in Baringo County. The selection of these divisions was based on the information provided by the District Health Management Team to the effect that these were the divisions where the practice of FGM was likely to be high. Purposive and quota sampling was used in selecting participants in the area of study. The research data was collected using questionnaires and an interview schedule. Piloting of the instruments was done at Marigat division in Marigat district in Baringo County to provide the required information on its reliability and establish the time taken to administer the instruments in order to make necessary modifications and adjustments before commencing data collection in the field. The questionnaires’ items were considered reliable after yielding a reliability coefficient of at least 0.70. The data collected were analyzed by use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17 for windows was used to analyze the data. The study generated information regarding the Tugen men and women perception of FGM among Tugen women of Baringo County. Marriage of circumcised or uncircumcised women greatly influenced men and women participation in household and community socioeconomic development activities in the Tugen community. Most men (67) 67% indicated they preferred to marry circumcised women because culturally they would become respected member of the community. The findings from the study might also help Ministry of Gender and Social services, Government of Kenya and local community leaders to take serious the fight against FGM practice and look for strategies to eliminate it