Getting girls back to school in Kenya: The 4Ts (\u27Trace, Track, Talk and reTurn\u27) Initiative implementation report

The Covid-19 pandemic led to devastating economic and social disruptions globally including in the education sector. The pandemic disrupted access to both sexual and reproductive health services and safe spaces. As a result, many girls faced vulnerabilities that inhibited access to basic education, including risks of child marriage, early pregnancy, gender-based violence, female genital mutilation/cutting, sexual exploitation, and child labor. The negative impact of Covid-19 on girls\u27 education underscores the need for interventions addressing the effect on school re-entry and retention. Kenya has a favorable policy environment for supporting retention within, and re-entry into, schools for vulnerable girls. Notable core challenges to education such as teenage pregnancy, child marriage, and FGM/C have received considerable attention from policymakers, program implementers, researchers, and other key stakeholders. Such opportunities provide a robust environment for operationalization and institutionalization of school re-entry guidelines to promote inclusive education for sustainable development in Kenya. This report documents key lessons learned in Kenya from implementing an intervention designed to expand out-of-school girls’ access to, and inclusion in, education during the Covid-19 pandemic

Advancing operational flood forecasting, early warning and risk management with new emerging science: Gaps, opportunities and barriers in Kenya

Kenya and the wider East African region suffer from significant flood risk, as illustrated by major losses of lives, livelihoods and assets in the most recent years. This is likely to increase in future as exposure rises and rainfall intensifies under climate change. Accordingly, flood risk management is a priority action area in Kenya's national climate change adaptation planning. Here, we outline the opportunities and challenges to improve end-to-end flood early warning systems, considering the scientific, technical and institutional/governance dimensions. We demonstrate improvements in rainfall forecasts, river flow, inundation and baseline flood risk information. Notably, East Africa is a ‘sweetspot’ for rainfall predictability at sub-seasonal to seasonal timescales for extending forecast lead times beyond a few days and for ensemble flood forecasting. Further, we demonstrate coupled ensemble flow forecasting, new flood inundation simulation, vulnerability and exposure data to support Impact based Forecasting (IbF). We illustrate these advances in the case of fluvial and urban flooding and reflect on the potential for improved flood preparedness action. However, we note that, unlike for drought, there remains no national flood risk management framework in Kenya and there is need to enhance institutional capacities and arrangements to take full advantage of these scientific advances

Effect of Intellectual Stimulation and individualized Consideration on staff performance in State Owned Enterprises in Kenya

The aim of this study was to examine effect of Intellectual Stimulation and Individualized Consideration on performance of staff in State Owned Enterprises in Kenya. The study intended to answer the following research questions: does intellectual stimulation affect performance of staff in SOEs in Kenya?, and does individualized consideration affect performance of staff in SOEs in Kenya? Positivism research philosophy and descriptive research design were used in this study. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 163 senior managers from the target population of 275 senior managers. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the selected members of top management team in SOEs. The study used factor analysis to reduce data, correlation analysis to establish the relationship between staff performance and intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, chi square test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression model to test the hypotheses. The study found that intellectual stimulation was positively and significantly related with staff performance, r(139) = .73, p < .00 and significantly predicted staff performance, β = .78, t (145) = 3.38, p< .001. Individualized consideration was strongly correlated with staff performance r (138) = .75, p < .00 and significantly predicted staff performance, β = 1.07, t (145) = 4.57, p< .00.The study concluded that Intellectual Stimulation and Individualized Consideration positively and significantly increased performance of staff in SOEs in Kenya. The study recommended in order for the SOEs to achieve their objectives, top management should inspire and motivate their followers so as to increase performance

Income mobility in diversified CSA households of Nyando Basin, South Western Kenya

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) strategies have been introduced in the Nyando basin (comprising Kisumu and Kericho Counties) in Kenya, and farmers have comparatively taken up the practices. This has resulted in the diversification of farming crops/livestock and incomes to bridge seasonal shortfalls under erratic harsh weather conditions due to climate change. The main objective of the study was to determine how smallholder farmers bridge seasonal incomes variations. This study demonstrates income diversification probabilities on four outcomes of climate-smart agriculture; agricultural practices, sales of goods and services, gifts/remittances, and savings (deposits/retrievals). Additionally, gender aspects were aggregated on the same in climate-smart villages (CSVs) and non-CSVs communities. The study used household-level financial diaries panel data, collected in 2019/2020 from 124 samples of farmers selected by a multistage sampling technique. Descriptive statistics and a multinomial logistic model were used to determine the risk/probability of income sources and mobility (livelihood diversification) from a set of strategies. Results indicated that agriculture diversification activities (sale of goods and services and agricultural practices) as income sources were seasonal-sensitive and during droughts, households diversified to gifts/ remittances and savings. Education, age and household size were noteworthy aspects that influenced the choice of livelihood diversification strategies there were gender differences in sources of contributions to household transactions whereby women mainly relied on Gifts/Loans/Credit/Advances while sales of goods and services were exhibited in men. CSVs predictors on all the income sources over the year were negative and not significant indicating a greater probability of CSVs shifting incomes sources to sales of goods than the non- CSVs

Effect of Idealized Influence and Inspirational Motivation on Staff Performance in State Owned Enterprises in Kenya

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of Idealized Influence and Inspirational Motivation on performance of staff in State Owned Enterprises in Kenya. The study intended to answer the following research questions: does idealized influence affect performance of staff in SOEs in Kenya? and does inspirational motivation affect performance of staff in SOEs in Kenya? Positivism research philosophy and descriptive research design were used in this study. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 163 senior managers from the target population of 275 senior managers. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the selected members of top management team in SOEs. The study used factor analysis to reduce data, correlation analysis to establish the relationship between staff performance and transformational leadership, chi square test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression model to test the hypotheses. The study found that idealized influence was positively and significantly correlated with staff performance, r(138) = .64, p < .00. Multiple linear regression revealed that idealized influence significantly predicted staff performance, β = .78, t (145) = 2.99, p< .004. Inspirational motivation was positively and significantly related with staff performance, r(140) = .73, p < .00 and significantly predicted staff performance, β = 1.1, t (145) = 4.54, p< .00. The study concluded that Idealized Influence and Inspirational Motivation positively and significantly increased performance of staff in SOEs in Kenya. The study recommended that top management teams in SOEs should work towards encouraging delegation of tasks, career mentoring and coaching, and creation of new learning opportunities alongside a supportive climate for their employees. Keywords: Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation, Staff Performance, State Owned Enterprise

Epidemiological Assessment of the Rift Valley Fever Outbreak in Kenya and Tanzania in 2006 and 2007

To capture lessons from the 2007 Rift Valley fever (RVF) outbreak, epidemiological studies were carried out in Kenya and Tanzania. Somali pastoralists proved to be adept at recognizing symptoms of RVF and risk factors such as heavy rainfall and mosquito swarms. Sandik, which means “bloody nose,” was used by Somalis to denote disease consistent with RVF. Somalis reported that sandik was previously seen in 1997/98, the period of the last RVF epidemic. Pastoralists communicated valuable epidemiological information for surveillance and early warning systems that was observed before international warnings. The results indicate that an all or none approach to decision making contributed to the delay in response. In the future, a phased approach balancing actions against increasing risk of an outbreak would be more effective. Given the time required to mobilize large vaccine stocks, emergency vaccination did not contribute to the mitigation of explosive outbreaks of RVF

Advancing operational flood forecasting, early warning and risk management with new emerging science: Gaps, opportunities and barriers in Kenya

Kenya and the wider East African region suffer from significant flood risk, as illustrated by major losses of lives, livelihoods and assets in the most recent years. This is likely to increase in future as exposure rises and rainfall intensifies under climate change. Accordingly, flood risk management is a priority action area in Kenya's national climate change adaptation planning. Here, we outline the opportunities and challenges to improve end-to-end flood early warning systems, considering the scientific, technical and institutional/governance dimensions. We demonstrate improvements in rainfall forecasts, river flow, inundation and baseline flood risk information. Notably, East Africa is a ‘sweetspot’ for rainfall predictability at sub-seasonal to seasonal timescales for extending forecast lead times beyond a few days and for ensemble flood forecasting. Further, we demonstrate coupled ensemble flow forecasting, new flood inundation simulation, vulnerability and exposure data to support Impact based Forecasting (IbF). We illustrate these advances in the case of fluvial and urban flooding and reflect on the potential for improved flood preparedness action. However, we note that, unlike for drought, there remains no national flood risk management framework in Kenya and there is need to enhance institutional capacities and arrangements to take full advantage of these scientific advances