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Illegitimate contradictions: The construction of centralisation, exclusion and marginalisation in the Kenyan State
Full text linkPower is fickle, they say. Its wielders, therefore, wield it fleetingly. It
is both potent and fragile. How can something so abstract and intangible
be responsible for so much tangibility, such real world effects? The
choices flowing from power wielding create categories of being and
knowledge. These ontologies and epistemologies define the existence
of individuals, their communities, their nostalgic past and the haz
Decentralisation and inclusion in Kenya From pre-colonial times to the first decade of devolution
Full text linkMahmood Mamdani’s Citizen and subject is a good starting point for conceptualising power and marginalisation in Africa generally and even Kenya specifically. This framework appreciates that the colonial
project was both illegitimate and contradictory from the very beginning.
It was illegitimate because it was imposed on the native populations. It
was contradictory in the sense that its objects and means were bad even
for its own existence. The challenge that faced the colonialists was how,
as a foreign minority race, they could rule over native majority races but
yet still extract resources and labour not just for the settler community
but also for their economies back in Europe. The result was always a
bifurcated state in which a small racial minority enjoyed privileged
‘citizenship’ status while the majority was mistreated as ‘subjects’.
1Colonial history in Africa generally and Kenya especially is one
of state-sanctioned usurpations against the natives. Colonial policies of
apartheid relegated native Africans to the reserves where marginalisation,
discrimination and other violations of human rights were prevalent.
Although the colonial project in Africa commenced after the French
and American revolutions, the colonialists only applied the rights
associated with these uprisings to the white minorities, the citizens. This
privileged group, which, in Kenya’s context, inhabited fertile highlands
and better-furnished urban areas, enjoyed the freedoms of assembly,
association, expression, among others, and were gradually entitled to representation in the legislative bodies.
On the other hand, the native
Africans were not entitled to the above-mentioned rights. As subjects,
the native Africans did not bear even critical rights like participation and
representation until towards the end of the colonial epoch. Moreover,
displacements, landlessness, police brutality, and poor infrastructure,
among others, were some of the main highlights of life in the native
reserves. Colonial power in the native reserves was, plainly speaking,
authoritarian. Instead of rights, the colonial powers governed Africans
through a modified system of customary law whose administrators, the
chiefs, were under their total control and instruction.
African customs
only applied where they did not threaten colonial power and western
civilisation. Native customs were modified to align with colonial values
like patriarchy and the extractive objectives of the colonial state and its
morality. Colonial policy and morality enhanced the marginalisation of
women, youth, persons with disabilities (PWDs), rural populations and
other minority groups
Decentralisation and inclusion in Kenya From pre-colonial times to the first decade of devolution
Full text linkKenya is run by a devolved system of government. This system was
reached through historical processes by which the State itself evolved
to become what it is today. An understanding of the origin, structure
and effectiveness or otherwise of the extant devolved system demands
some history. The purpose of this chapter is to restate this history while
reflecting on the implication of the various historical happenings on the
question of marginalisation, which is at the core of the research in this
publication.
The chapter explores the theme of decentralisation of government
in Kenya since the colonial days. In so doing, the chapter captures
the various phases through which Kenya’s governance structure has
evolved; The pre-colonial society, the colonial State, and the postcolonial
State.
In each of these epochs, the chapter sets out the key historical,
normative, policy, structural and administrative developments. The
chapter also examines the dominant ideologies that informed the
identified developments. It concomitantly reflects on the question of
marginalisation as dealt with alongside these key developments, and
addresses the historical socio-economic neglect of segments of the
Kenyan society over time. The chapter also lays bare the appurtenant
struggles
Decentralisation and inclusion in Kenya From pre-colonial times to the first decade of devolution
Full text linkTwo variables preoccupy this entire study – decentralisation and
inclusion. We hypothesise that there is a positive relationship between
decentralisation and the inclusion of various groups; that the more we
decentralise the more we attain inclusion. That the converse is also true:
the more we centralise the more we marginalise.
The conceptual basis for the historical relationship between
decentralisation and inclusion in Kenya was addressed in Chapter 2 of
this study. Chapter 3 discussed the first variable (decentralisation) in
historical perspective, while Chapter 4 reviewed the second variable
(inclusion) also historically. All the chapters above cover the trajectory
of the respective variables from pre-colonial times to the first decade of
devolution under the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 (2010 Constitution).
What emerges clearly from the expositions are the struggles for
decentralisation and inclusion by those on the outside, and efforts to
congest more powers at the centre and to exclude the others by those
on the inside. However, the clamour for decentralisation and inclusion
won a major battlefront when the 2010 Constitution, which entrenched
devolution as one of the overarching principles, was promulgated
CLIENT SIDE MULTI-LINGUAL MODEL FOR ENHANCING PERFORMANCE IN SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE SPAM DETECTION
Full text linkMillions of money are lost by mobile phone users every year due to short message service
spam, a social engineering skill attempting to obtain sensitive information such as passwords,
personal identification numbers and other private data by posing as a trustworthy entity through
short message service. Most spammers are constantly developing new sophisticated methods,
rendering previous techniques obsolete. A thoughtful deficiency in most sms spam detection
methods is lack of satisfying accuracy, reliability, low performance and comprehensibility
especially when individual classifiers are used, these remains important aspects to be
considered for an optimal model development. Sms spam detection using machine learning
techniques is a new approach especially in ubiquitous computing devices such as mobile
phones, moreover the design of short message spam detection techniques in a mobile platform
is challenging task due to the non-stationary distribution of the data and the multi-lingual nature
of text messages from users. It is in this background that the research proposes a multi-stage
ensemble hybrid client side multilingual sms spam detection model for a mobile environment
using machine learning techniques. It involves enhanced use of pre-processing techniques,
content based feature engineering techniques, multilingual natural language processing, data
training and testing. A hybrid ensemble machine learning method is used to combine the
classifiers based on a combination algorithm. The contributors of multi-lingual messages data
include a combination of secondary data from University of California Irvine public repository
and primary data from local users and sampled local repositories in Kenya. Machine learning
and data mining experiments are conducted using Java based Waikato environment for
knowledge analysis. The results and discussions are analyzed and presented in form of
descriptive statistics. The effectiveness of the proposed model is empirically validated using
ensemble classification methods that gave an overall classification accuracy of 98.2606%. The
results from this study demonstrates that the proposed ensemble model improves the overall
performance by increasing the accuracy and reducing false positives
EFFECT OF EMPLOYEE VOICE STRATEGIES ON JOB SATISFACTION AMONG THE MEDICAL STAFF IN PUBLIC HEALTH FACILITIES IN COUNTY GOVERNMENT OFBOMET, KENYA
Full text linkThe public health facilities in Kenya provide diverse health services to its citizens
throughout the country. Public health employees across the country have exhibited some
dissatisfaction in the recent past which has led to poor service delivery as well as strikes.
This is as a result of delays in salaries, poor remuneration, poor working conditions, lack
of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and non-inclusion of employees in airing their
views. These issues and others are indicative of having demotivated and unsatisfied
employees. This study therefore purposed to establish the effect of employee voice
strategies on job satisfaction among the medical staff in public health facilities in County
government of Bomet. Specifically, the study sought to examine whether attitude
survey, upward communication, employee participation and suggestion schemes have an
effect on job satisfaction of employees in public health facilities in County government
of Bomet. The study was guided by Herzberg two-factor theory and anxiety uncertain
theory.A cross sectional descriptive research design was used. The study targeted 205
medical staff drawn from three public health facilities in County government of Bomet.
Stratified random sampling technique was used. A sample size of 136 medical staff was
used in the study. A questionnaire was used for data collection. Pilot study was
undertaken in Kericho referral hospital. Validity and reliability was carried out using
Cronbach alpha coefficient. The validity of the study was checked using content validity
through expert judgement. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the study constructs
using frequencies, percentages, and means. The study undertook a correlational analysis.
The results of the study indicated that all the independent variables had a statistically
significant association with the job satisfaction. The study found that the attitude survey
had a statistically significant influence on job satisfaction levels. The study concluded
that the attitude survey had a statistically significant influence on the job satisfaction
levels. The study further found that the unstandardized regression beta stood at 0.597
which indicated that a unit increase in attitude survey would lead to 0.597 change in the
job satisfaction. The researcher found that the upward communication had a statistically
significant influence on the job satisfaction aspects. The researcher further observed that
the regression coefficient that was achieved for the influence of the upward
communication on the job satisfaction was 0.404. This indicated that a unit change in the
upward communication would be associated with 0.404 change in the job satisfaction.
The study found that employee participation within the Bomet hospitals had a
statistically significant influence on job satisfaction in the county. The study further
found that the regression coefficient stood at 0.546 which implied that a unit change in
the employee participation would lead to 0.546 change in the job satisfaction. The study
found that the suggestion schemes had a statistically significant influence on the job
satisfaction levels. The unstandardized regression coefficient that were observed stood at
0.652 which implied that a unit change in the suggestion schemes led to 0.652 change in
the job satisfaction. The study recommends that the healthcare management should focus
on the attitude survey, upward communication, and suggestion schemes in order to
improve on the job satisfaction amongst the worker
Effect of Internet Banking on Financial Performance of Commercial Banks Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange
Full text linkThe financial challenges faced by commercial banks in Kenya albeit the increased adoption of
electronic banking as well as scanty pertinent empirical evidence, have necessitated this study which sought to
establish the influence of e-banking on financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya. Specifically, the
study examined the effect internet banking on financial performance of listed commercial banks in Kenya. The
study was guided by the innovation diffusion, and economic value added theories. An explanatory research
design was adopted. The 11 commercial banks listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange as at December 31st
,
2020 constituted the accessible population. Purposive sampling technique was employed to obtain a sample of
11 listed banks from the 42 licensed banks in Kenya. The study used secondarydata which were panel in nature
covering a period from 2014 to 2020. The pertinent data were collected using a structured data collection sheet
through desk research. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to analyze data using both
descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of the analyses were presented in form of tables. According to
the study findings internet banking (p = 0.016) had statistically significant correlation with return on equity (the
indicator of financial performance used in this study) at p-value = 0.05. The results of simple linear regression
analysis indicated that, at p-value = 0.05, the effect of internet banking on financial performance was
statistically significant (t = -3.561; p = 0.016). It was concluded that internet banking was an important
dimension of electronic banking with regard to financial performance of listed commercial banks. It is
recommended that commercial banks should be more comprehensive in their reporting on internet banking
nvestigating the Role of Local Community in Preventing Teenage Girls’ Pregnancy in Nyandarua North Sub-County, Kenya.
Full text linkThe study aimed to investigate the local community’s role in preventing teenage girls’ pregnancy in Nyandarua
North Sub-county, Kenya. The study applied Social Cognitive Theory, using a descriptive cross-sectional survey
research design; data was collected from a target population of 14 chiefs from the fourteen locations within the
sub-county and 27,917 households. An accessible population of 569 households was identified to take part in the
research-using cluster, purposive and snowballing sampling. All chiefs in the fourteen locations took part in the
study. The data was obtained through interviews and questionnaires. The instruments were systematically
assessed for validity through review by experts in the School of Education Kabarak University and by carrying out
a pilot study comprising 30 households in Nyandarua Central Sub- County to ensure questionnaires gathered the
information required by the study. Qualitative data was analysed descriptively, which was further analysed using
version 24.0 of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study also found that community-initiated
projects for mentoring teen girls are present in the location from information gathered from chiefs, but most
girls were not aware of this. In addition, it was noted that teen girls are dating older men, especially Boda Boda
operators. The study recommended that Chiefs and members of the community should undertake a thorough
awareness campaign through churches, chief barazas and schools and encourage collective parenting of all
teenagers within the are
Strategic Procurement Management Practices and Performance of Real Estate firms in Nairobi County, Kenya
Full text linkIn Kenya, the real estate industry provided 9.0% of the GDP of the
nation in the second quarter of 2020. It also made a large contribution to
employment generation and the provision of residential and commercial space.
But because of the weak housing market, which is demonstrated by the housing
index's progressive and severe decrease in the 2019- 2020 period, real estate
enterprises continue to encounter a variety of performance issues. The real
estate firms in Kenya have also had challenges of late delivery of the housing
projects, poor quality of delivered projects, client funds misappropriations, and
legal challenges with their clients. This study sought to examine the effect of
procurement management practices on the performance of real estate firms in
Nairobi County, Kenya. This study utilized correlational research design. The
study’s population was the 100 senior managers of real estate firms in Nairobi
County, Kenya. The study utilized a sample size of 50 respondent’s generated
using Naissuma coefficient of variation formula. The study collected data using
structured questionnaires. The findings indicated that strategic procurement
practices have a significant effect on the performance of real estate firms. The
study concludes that applying aspects such as supplier optimization dynamics,
supplier development and strategic alliances with suppliers is significant in
organization performance among firms. The study recommends that supplier
development strategies in terms of financial support and training ought to be
underscored. The real estate practitioners and investors in the real estate may
gain an understanding on the effect of the strategic management practices on the
performance of the real estate firm
Staff Involvement on Employee Performance in Geothermal Development Company in Nakuru County, Kenya
Full text linkhe performance of geothermal development
company has been declining in an environment where resources
are scarce and needs have been mounting. The study therefore
sought to assess the effect of staff involvement on employee
performance of geothermal development company in Nakuru
County, Kenya. The study was informed by the concept of
stakeholder theory. The study used a descriptive research
design. The target population of the study was 1097 employees
at GDC Nakuru County. The study used Nassiuma’s (2000)
formula to get a sample size of 100. The study further adopted a
stratified random sampling from which the samples were
allocated to various categories according to their relative sizes in
the targeted population. Questionnaires were used to collect
primary data desirable for the study. Reliability of the data
collection instrument in this study was enhanced by pre-testing
the questionnaire with a selected sample which was not included
in the main study. Cronbach's Alpha was used to determine
reliability of the research instrument. Quantitative data was
analyzed through SPSS Version 24. Descriptive and inferential
statistics was employed in the study. Descriptive statistics
involve the use of percentages, frequencies, mean and standard
deviation. Inferential statistic involved the use of correlation
analysis and regression analysis. Presentation of the study was
done using table. The findings indicated that there is a moderate
relationship between staff involvement and employee
performance in geothermal development company in Kenya
(r=.382 and p<0.05). In addition the study concluded that staff
involvement is significantly related to employee performance in
geothermal development company in Kenya. From the
conclusion the study recommended that Geothermal
Development Company should actively involve employees in
decision making this will make them feel as part of the
organization this will consequently enhance their productivi