17 research outputs found
Sand storage dams in Kitui – Kenya: community perspective on access to water: An evaluation using Q-methodology
No full textEphemeral rivers are common hydrological features in Southern Africa where periods of up to 9 months occur, without significant rainfall. These rivers are important in the Kitui region of Kenya, where water shortage impedes rural and urban development. The seasonal rivers of Kitui provide suitable water for domestic, livestock and agricultural use, particularly small-scale irrigation. A majority of the population of Kitui county depends on the ephemeral river for water supply. In dry periods, water levels drop and water can only be found in scoop holes (holes dug in the riverbed). The water shortage is where NaBWIG, an abbreviation for Nature-based water infrastructures in Ethiopia and Kenya for #GlobalGoals (NaBWIG), focuses on. Its goal is to increase resilience through sustainable water supply with the use of stored water within ephemeral sand rivers (Karimi, 2018). This research is part of NaBWIG where, based on 2 months fieldwork trip to Kenya, an evaluation was done using Q-methodology. This study aimed to define which elements of water access are valued by people who use water from sand storage dams in two sub-regions in Kitui – Kenya. This research revealed the broad definition of access to water, specifically when zooming in to local sand dam utilization. Main elements that seem to be most important like distance, time, water quantity, water quality and also reliability of a water source. Other elements are also related to water access such as social capital, income and terrain. Results suggest that ‘one community’ does not exist in either of the regions. The results from the Q-method show different perspectives within both communities on both domestic and agricultural water use, with specifics of perspectives depending on whether one takes the respondents as a whole or analyses them per community. In both regions, comparable elements arise, but different groups appear too. These two ‘communities’ are diverse in perspectives and one must look at both regions with different ‘lenses’ as their position is different from each other. The researcher may force these people into groups, which then are called a community, but in reality, is still a group of people with different interests. The alignment of these different factor groups is important to ensure the community benefit the most of a sand dam structure, which does not stop after construction. This research aimed at creating a better understanding of the interplay of multiple factors regarding water access and provided a more thorough understanding of the dynamics of local communities and their appreciation of water access regarding sand storage dams.Water Managemen
Ambivalent Assets: The Success of Sand-Storage Dams for Rainwater Harvesting in Kitui County, Kenya
No full textThis paper assesses the success of sand-storage dams in Kitui, Kenya—with “success” being considered to relate to the amount of water that dams can store, and the usability of the water in terms of access, quantity and quality. Building on a series of recent larger and smaller research projects, the paper sketches the complex interactions between community involvement, water use, and hydrological processes. Catchment-wide processes (including infiltration and runoff) resulting in water retention and sustained flow in the seasonal rives need to be taken into account. At the same time, within a catchment and within communities, diversity between water users (for example in terms of access or values related to water) will be encountered. The interplays between all these different issues have to be studied in more detail, to support governments and communities developing water harvesting interventions like sand-storage dams
Impact of ownership of water resources and associated facilities to its access and management in the asal Kitui County, Kenya
No full textIn Kenya, where 80% of the land is arid and semi-arid, access to water is an everyday challenge for majority of the people. Methods used to improve access to water in Kenya results to different, and sometimes unexpected outcomes. The water resources assessed have come about through interventions by various agents, majority donor funded. These agents use various models resulting to different outcomes. We assessed technologies used to improve access to water in the Asals of Kitui County, Kenya. The technologies were classified into four; individual, private, community and government owned. Those assessed were tanks, boreholes and hand dug wells, sand dams and pipelines for individual, private, community and government owned respectively. Private and individual resources outperformed others in terms of management with donor aided community owned being the least sustainable. Government owned water facilities reached relatively more people and although unreliable were the most trusted source to those covered by the infrastructure. Individual owned water resources offered water in small quantities, the main benefit being owners were able to manage with ease through rationing to stretch availability for a long time. Donor funded community owned resources suffered vague ownership models making their management and maintenance impossible. Privately owned resources offered the best solution as water was sold and the resulting money become income for the owners as well as providing resources for maintenance. The resulting income offered incentives for further investment which further improved access. The tragedy with privately owned water resources was that the poor paid too much for water while the rich continued to accumulate massive wealth. To ensure adequate access to water especially in remote places, privately owned and operated systems should be encouraged and supported but with government sponsored regulations to ensure the poor are not exploited.Water Resource
An analysis of Kilumi ritual songs among the Akamba of Kitui, Kenya
No full textKilumi is a sacred ritual dance among the Akamba of Kenya. It consists of psychotherapeutic practices, however, the rituals continue to adapt. There is paucity of scholarly research done on kilumi. Consequently, this article intends to fill in a significant gap in literature as it relates to kilumi as one of the cultural therapeutic interventions used by the Akamba during difficult times. The author endeavors to classify kilumi songs in different categories. Also, the religious beliefs and experiences of the Akamba as reflected in the kilumi songs are explained. Hopefully, this article will be used by different academicians and researchers as a primer for their further research to understand the Religiocultural significance of African religious dances. Furthermore, they may make reference as they review their literature.
The scope of this article is limited to the Akamba of Kitui County. It documents analysis of some kilumi song texts and their translations. This article has been adapted from the author’s Master of Arts thesis in which data collection was done through observations, interviews, and examinations of relevant documents. Content analysis approach was adopted in analyzing the data. Further, the researcher participated in kilumi dances. The respondents were sampled from the five divisions of Kitui District by then. A flexible questionnaire was used to obtain the necessary information from the respondents; traditional and church elders. The interviews were tape recorded and later transcribed. These raw data augmented by information from literature review were analyzed and interpreted to yield desired result. The findings indicated that kilumi songs are functional in contemporary Akamba society. They are used for socio-cultural and therapeutic purposes. It is hoped that the documentation of this article will influence further scholarly research by those who may be interested in this field of knowledge.
 
Structural and Mechanical Properties of Bulk Scandium Trifluoride Investigated by First-Principles Calculations
No full textCubic Scandium Triflouride (ScF3) is a material that contracts when exposed to heat. Not many materials are known to behave this way. Such a material has many interesting technological applications yet some of its properties are yet to be fully explored using ab initio methods. This paper engaged the state-of-the-art ab initio methods to study the Structural and Mechanical properties of ScF3 at ambient conditions. All calculations were done within the Density Functional Theory (DFT) framework and a plane wave basis set as implemented in the QUANTUM ESPRESSO computer code. A comparison with previous DFT and Experimental studies was done. The Projector Augmented Wave pseudo-potentials were used to describe the core-valence electron interactions with the GGA (PBE,PBEsol,PW91,WC) and LDA chosen for the exchange –correlations. The cubic ScF3 was modeled using 4-atoms. The calculated lattice parameters for cubic ScF3 were found to be in good agreement with previous studies and differed by -1.17% to 1.07% from the experimental value. The calculated elastic constants (C11=231.65GPa to 280.15GPa, C12=16.41GPa to 18.18GPa and C44=17.74GPa to 18.61GPa) were also in agreement with the existing cited data. This paper points out the fact that ScF3 is a ductile material at ambient conditions and will deform under tensile stress.National Commission of Science and Technology-Keny
Back to the drawing board: Assessing siting guidelines for sand dams in Kenya
No full textSand dams have become popular in many parts of the arid world as a relatively cheap and effective water harvesting technology. Kenya is one of the countries with the highest number of such dams, with semi-arid Kitui County having become a major hub in recent decades. These sand dams are used for water storage in the beds of Kitui’s seasonal rivers. The water is used for households and small-scale economic activities. Generally, sand dams are evaluated as very successful, but this paper shows that such success is not guaranteed. Field research conducted in Kitui County in October 2016 suggests that from 116 sand dams surveyed, about half did not have any water during the time of the assessment. This study assesses how various environmental factors affect sand dams’ ability to supply water for community use during dry periods in Tiva River catchment in Kitui County. Most of the assessed environmental factors did not show consistent patterns to draw inferences on how they affect sand dams’ ability to supply water, with the exception of rainfall amount, water indicating vegetation percentage of clay in a soil and stream orders. More overarching factors like agro-ecological zones and stream order do show a pattern of influence on dams’ performance. These results have global significance due to the widespread use or plans to use of sand dams worldwide. There is a clear need to build a better understanding of sand dams performance to define more reliable sand dams’ site identification criteria.Water Resource
Missed opportunities for tuberculosis diagnosis.
No full textBACKGROUND: In high tuberculosis (TB) burden, resource-poor countries, sputum smear microscopy remains the mainstay of diagnosis. The low sensitivity of this test means that patients with smear-negative but culture-positive TB pass undetected through the health care system. Such clinical episodes are missed opportunities for diagnosis and interruption of transmission, which might be averted through the application of more sensitive diagnostic tests. OBJECTIVES: To estimate the proportion of incident TB cases that might have been detected earlier than the actual date of diagnosis if a test more sensitive than smear microscopy had been used at an earlier presentation episode. METHOD: Retrospective cohort study in urban Peru, investigating health care facility interactions for symptoms suggestive of TB prior to TB diagnosis through patient interviews and a review of clinical records. RESULTS: Of 212 participants enrolled, 58% had one or more clinical interactions prior to their diagnostic episode. Of those with a prior episode, the median number of episodes was three. The median delay to diagnosis from first presentation was 26 days. CONCLUSION: There are clear missed opportunities for earlier TB diagnosis, delaying treatment initiation and continued spread of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to the community. The implementation of sensitive diagnostic tests appropriate to resource-poor settings should be given high priority
ICTS As A Bridge Between Climate Information And Livelihood Strategies Among Rural Women In Kitui County, Kenya
No full textThe study was motivated by the increasing challenges of climate variability and climate change, which create problems, such as food insecurity in Kitui County in Kenya. In the current digital age, ICTs are core to all sectors to facilitate access to and enhance efficiency across various services. Although the role of ICTs in improving life in Kenya is widely acknowledged, the focus of most ICT-related developments has been on human experiences at the level of disease and needs for communication and mobility. Less obvious is how such technological interventions may be used to address seemingly abstract yet grave concerns like climate change and its impact on the quality of human life. This study, therefore, investigated the various scenarios where ICTs were deployed in relaying relevant localized climate information to help rural women farmers in Kitui County to make relevant decisions to improve their farm productivity and their livelihoods by extension.
The study incorporated an ICT system to the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) that consisted of Digital Capital and ICT Tools, thereby improving on the SLF. This modified SLF, mainstreamed ICT-driven climate information and provided the ideal means by which such information was leveraged to ensure enhanced sustainable livelihoods. Gender and Development (GAD) theory, Bourdieu’s ideas of social capital theory, and the Information Needs Assessment Model (INAM) further strengthened the SLF by addressing household power dynamics and climate information relevance in the rural communities. The research drew from emerging variables to demonstrate that regardless of the context in which the SLF was formulated, its versatility makes it the most appropriate tool for such studies in rural Kenya.
The specific objectives of this study were threefold: (1) to assess the extent to which rural women access and use ICT tools in the utilization of climate information including weather, seasonal forecasts and agro-advisories; (2) to analyze the extent to which the use of ICT-based climate information by rural women influence maximize access and utilization of livelihood assets; and (3) to examine the livelihood strategies employed with the increasing availability and use of ICT-based climate information. The author adopted a mixed-methods approach for data collection and analysis that was guided by the SLF. Specific methods used, apart from on-desk review, were a household survey of 419 respondents, 14 key informant interviews, and two focus group discussions. The study merged theoretical and applied research outcomes to narrow the gap between the theory and practice of ICTs use while linking it to climate information and enhanced rural livelihood strategies.
The outcome from the research findings highlighted the need for interventions to empower rural women in the use of ICT tools in exploiting the full potential of climate information, the need for tailoring modern scientific climate information to local needs, translated into simple formats and the local Kikamba language, the need for complementary services such as affordable credit, insurance, livelihood diversification opportunities and access to livelihood assets that can further strengthen their household resilience to climate variability. The results show that community radios combined with mobile phones are the most accessible and cost-effective ICT tools for rural women’s access to real-time, relevant climate and agro-advisory information. There is evidence that the women’s livelihood strategies have been enhanced which strengthened their livelihood assets, thereby improving their livelihoods under the wider rubric of the sustainable livelihood framework.
The contribution to knowledge for this research was an enhanced SLF where the various responses and systematic analysis made the framework relevant in gaining insights into the link between climate information and livelihood strategies through ICTs among women in
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rural communities in Kitui. The modified framework and the research findings are also timely in light of the increasing realization of ICTs potential in contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Also, the thesis builds on the growing body of literature that generated a rich repository that other researchers can use to advance knowledge, and the outcomes are eight peer-reviewed articles.
The output of this study is replicable to other counties in Kenya because rural households depend on agriculture for their livelihood and this economic sector is not exempt to climate change and variability necessitating the need for local specific climate information. The recommendations to the research are that it can be extended to examine outcomes that will look at improved income, sustainable resource utilization, and food security, physical and emotional wellbeing. Further we provide policy recommendations and made suggestions to shape future climate change adaptation policies, plans, and strategies in Kenya that integrates gender equality into ICT and climate change to help farmers adapt to climate change/variability for sustainable development.
Keywords: ICT Tools; Digital Capital; Climate Information; Enhanced Sustainable livelihood Framework; Livelihood Strategie
Tree Planting Data 2017 - Kenya
No full textIn order to assess the impact of the Land Restoration Program, understanding what land restoration options work, where and for whom, there is need to identify the context-specific variables that may influence the performance of the restoration options as well as their uptake. In addition to monitoring the performance of the restoration option being implemented, a registration of the farmers involved in the project was conducted. A standard household survey was used, assessing both the socio-economic and biophysical characteristics of the households. The farmers were from seven sub-counties across three Kenyan counties. Specifically, the farmers were from Mwala, Yatta and Masinga sub-counties in Machakos County; Mwingi Central and Kitui Rural in Kitui County; and Mbooni East and Kibwezi East in Makueni County. The present dataset includes data about tree planting in experimental plots developed inside the project, from 1286 households. The tree planting data were collected in 2017 about six month after the establishement of the plots.
NOTE: The coordinates were removed from the dataset in May 2021, in order to comply with GDPR standards. The location details are available on request: please contact the author and explain the purpose of your research
Tree Planting Data 2018 - Kenya
No full textIn order to assess the impact of the Land Restoration Program, understanding what land restoration options work, where and for whom, there is need to identify the context-specific variables that may influence the performance of the restoration options as well as their uptake. In addition to monitoring the performance of the restoration option being implemented, a registration of the farmers involved in the project was conducted. A standard household survey was used, assessing both the socio-economic and biophysical characteristics of the households. The farmers were from seven sub-counties across three Kenyan counties. Specifically, the farmers were from Mwala, Yatta and Masinga sub-counties in Machakos County; Mwingi Central and Kitui Rural in Kitui County; and Mbooni East and Kibwezi East in Makueni County. The present dataset includes data about tree planting in experimental plots developed inside the project, from 1202 households. The tree planting data were collected mainly in July 2018, bewteen six months and 1 year after the establishement of the plots.
NOTE: The coordinates were removed from the dataset in May 2021, in order to comply with GDPR standards. The location details are available on request: please contact the author and explain the purpose of your research
