Dairy Cattle Productivity after the Post Election Crisis in Uasin Gishu District of Kenya

The dairy sub sector is one of the most important of the agricultural sub sectors in Kenya, contributing to 5% of Kenya’s GDP. The estimated annual consumption of milk stands at 3.1 billion litres. Although there was a steady agricultural growth to about 6% between 2003 and 2007, other emerging challenges as high production costs have emerged. These were compounded by the post election crisis (PEC) after the disputed Presidential elections which saw the looting of property including livestock, leading to a decline in the sector. The objective of the study was to determine the dairy productivity after the PEC. The survey was done in four designated project areas namely, Turbo, Kapseret, Kessess and Ainabkoi. Primary data was collected by use of structured questionnaires from 194 systematically selected farmers. The data was then analyzed by use of the SPSS. The results show that 67.53% of the farmers had lactating cows; the average number being 1.2 cows. The numbers of all the livestock categories (lactating, dry, bulls and steers, and calves) reduced after the PEC. Despite a higher mean production of 10.67 lts/day for pure breeds, this was not significantly different from the average production of 7.38 lts/day among the crosses. This implied that the milk production potential of pure bred dairy cattle was yet to be exploited. It is recommended that development agencies focus on all production and management initiatives to enable farmers exploit existing potential.Dairy productivity, Uasin Gishu, Kenya, Livestock Production/Industries,

Situational Factors Influencing Employee Theft in Supermarket Outlets: A Survey of Kisumu City, Kenya

Employees' theft is an act of stealing, use, or misuse of an employer's asset without his or her consent. Despite the security surveillance measures taken by the supermarket retail outlets, these businesses are yet to have any significant reduction in the theft cases in the supermarkets. The study aimed to establish the effects of situational factors on employees' theft in the supermarket outlets within Kisumu City, Kenya. The objectives of the study were: to assess the effect of prevailing opportunity to steal on employees' theft, to examine the contribution of organizational values and culture to employees' theft, to establish how employees' attributes contribute to theft and to determine the effect of job dissatisfaction on employees' theft in the supermarkets within Kisumu City. The study adopted a cross-sectional qualitative research design. The study was informed by Rational Choice Theory developed by Siegel and McCormick, 2006, and Equity Theory of Employee Motivation established by Adams. In this study, a qualitative survey design was adopted. A convenient sampling technique was used to sample 10 managers, 10 cashiers, and 10 subordinate staff from 10 supermarket outlets within Kisumu City out of the target population of 400 employees. The analyzed demographic data were presented in frequency tables and charts while qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The study revealed that the availability of opportunity to steal is one of the main reasons why employees working in supermarkets indulge in workplace theft. This occurs due to the use of weak monitoring systems to curb theft-related cases by supermarket managers. Besides, the study established that staff who steal from the workplace do not recognize the formal organizational values and practices imposed by the management. As a result, poor organization values and cultural practices have a meaningful effect on the employees in the supermarkets thus influence employees’ theft. This, therefore, means that organizational values guide the employees on what is right or wrong and what is most important in life, hence greatly controls their behavior in the organizations. Moreover, employees with negative personal attributes for instance were more likely inclined towards engaging in criminal behavior such as theft than those who did not. The study recommends that future researchers should conduct a comparative study on the causes of job dissatisfaction and how it contributes to employees' theft. Lastly, the study recommends that further research should be conducted on the overall perception of the workplace theft by employees across the different organizations. Key Words: employees, theft, supermarkets, business, opportunity, organization values DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-18-09 Publication date:September 30th 202

Determination of Caffeine Content in Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Energy Drinks Using Hplc-Uv Method.

The purpose of this study was to determine the amount of caffeine in non-alcoholic energy drinks and prepared teas using reverse phase HPLC. Caffeine was extracted from 19 different types of non-alcoholic beverages and prepared teas sampled from supermarkets in Nairobi Central Business District, Kenya. These were analyzed alongside a caffeine standard of 99 % purity by use of HPLC-UV detector at the wavelength of 272nm, Supelco HS C18 column 25 cm x 4.6 cm x 5 μm, oven temperature of 40 oC, mobile phase 80:20 (v/v) of methanol: water and mobile phase flow rate of 1.5mL/min. For quantitation purposes, serial dilution of the caffeine standard gave correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9993 and the retention time of 2.11±0.03 minute. Percentage recovery of caffeine from the column ranged from 89.78 to 105.59%. Limits of detection and quantitation were found to be 0.279 and 0.931 μg/mL respectively. It was found that Burn®, XL energy drink® and Red Bull® had the highest amount of caffeine. It was however noted that though most of the non-alcoholic beverages had high caffeine content they had no label claim. Key Words: Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid chromatography (HPLC), Ultra violet visible (UV/VIS), caffeine, non-alcoholic beverage

Comparative Study of Composite Made from Ensete False Banana Fibres and Polyethylene with Block Board

This paper is an effort to utilize abundant availability of natural fibres and waste plastics for the development of composite materials based on polymer and particles of natural fibres for conservation of natural resources such as forests. Ensete false banana (EFB) fibres were used as reinforcement to obtain composites with melted waste polyethylene bottled as matrix phase. The composites were prepared by means of compression moulding, and then the effects of fibres loading on mechanical properties such as impact strength, flexural strength, and wear resistance were investigated. Water uptake was also studied. It was observed that the flexural modulus, compressive strength and flexural strength of treated EBF reinforced PE increased linearly with increment of fibres loadings. This trend was similar for impact strength where it exhibited a slight reduction at the initial stage but increased later as the fibres loading increased. It was also observed the water absorption increased with increase in fibres loading. Machining operations such as grinding, milling, drilling and cutting can be performed on the composite. The study has demonstrated that the optimum fibres loading for the best performance of the composite achieved was 30 wt%. The composite produced has a high potential as alternative block board materials. Keywords: Ensete false banana, Block board, fibres, plastics waste, composite

Large herbivores maintain a two‐phase herbaceous vegetation mosaic in a semi‐arid savanna

1. Many arid and semi‐arid rangelands exhibit distinct spatial patterning of vegetated and bare soil‐dominated patches. The latter potentially represent a grazing‐induced, degraded ecosystem state, but could also arise via mechanisms related to feedbacks between vegetation cover and soil moisture availability that are unrelated to grazing. The degree to which grazing contributes to the formation or maintenance of degraded patches has been widely discussed and modeled, but empirical studies of the role of grazing in their formation, persistence, and reversibility are limited. 2. We report on a long‐term (17 years) grazing removal experiment in a semi‐arid savanna where vegetated patches composed of perennial grasses were interspersed within large (>10 m2) patches of bare soil. 3. Short‐term (3 years) grazing removal did not allow bare patches to become revegetated, whereas following long‐term (17 years) grazing removal, bare soil patches were revegetated by a combination of stoloniferous grasses and tufted bunchgrasses. In the presence of grazers, stoloniferous grasses partially recolonized bare patches, but this did not lead to full recovery or to the establishment of tufted bunchgrasses. 4. These results show that grazers alter both the balance between bare and vegetated patches, as well as the types of grasses dominating both patch types in this semiarid savanna. 5. Synthesis: Large herbivores fundamentally shaped the composition and spatial pattern of the herbaceous layer by maintaining a two‐phase herbaceous mosaic. However, bare patches within this mosaic can recover given herbivore removal over sufficiently long time scales, and hence do not represent a permanently degraded ecosystem state

Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage: a photobook of traditional foodways of the Isukha and East Pokot communities of Kenya

This photobook presents the results of traditional foodways documentation conducted in Isukha and East Pokot communities of Kenya within the project ‘Safeguarding traditional foodways of two communities in Kenya’ executed by UNESCO Nairobi Office. The documentation was undertaken between 2008-2012 largely by pupils of primary schools in Isukha and East Pokot. The pupils received great assistance from their teachers, local project coordinators and the project team mainly consisting of staff from National Museums of Kenya, Bioversity International and the Department of Culture

Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage: traditional foodways of the Isukha community of Kenya

This document presents the results of documentation of traditional foodways conducted in the Isukha community of Kenya within the project ‘Safeguarding traditional foodways of two communities in Kenya. The documentation was undertaken between 2010-2012 largely by pupils of two primary schools– Muraka and Shihuli assisted by their teachers, a local project coordinator and the project team mainly consisting of staff from National Museums of Kenya, Bioversity International and the Department of Culture

Assessment of missed opportunities for vaccination in Kenyan health facilities, 2016.

BACKGROUND: In November 2016, the Kenya National Vaccines and Immunization Programme conducted an assessment of missed opportunities for vaccination (MOV) using the World Health Organization (WHO) MOV methodology. A MOV includes any contact with health services during which an eligible individual does not receive all the vaccine doses for which he or she is eligible. METHODS: The MOV assessment in Kenya was conducted in 10 geographically diverse counties, comprising exit interviews with caregivers and knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) surveys with health workers. On the survey dates, which covered a 4-day period in November 2016, all health workers and caregivers visiting the selected health facilities with children <24 months of age were eligible to participate. Health facilities (n = 4 per county) were purposively selected by size, location, ownership, and performance. We calculated the proportion of MOV among children eligible for vaccination and with documented vaccination histories (i.e., from a home-based record or health facility register), and stratified MOV by age and reason for visit. Timeliness of vaccine doses was also calculated. RESULTS: We conducted 677 age-eligible children exit interviews and 376 health worker KAP surveys. Of the 558 children with documented vaccination histories, 33% were visiting the health facility for a vaccination visit and 67% were for other reasons. A MOV was seen in 75% (244/324) of children eligible for vaccination with documented vaccination histories, with 57% (186/324) receiving no vaccinations. This included 55% of children visiting for a vaccination visit and 93% visiting for non-vaccination visits. Timeliness for multi-dose vaccine series doses decreased with subsequent doses. Among health workers, 25% (74/291) were unable to correctly identify the national vaccination schedule for vaccines administered during the first year of life. Among health workers who reported administering vaccines as part of their daily work, 39% (55/142) reported that they did not always have the materials they needed for patients seeking immunization services, such as vaccines, syringes, and vaccination recording documents. CONCLUSIONS: The MOV assessment in Kenya highlighted areas of improvement that could reduce MOV. The results suggest several interventions including standardizing health worker practices, implementing an orientation package for all health workers, and developing a stock management module to reduce stock-outs of vaccines and vaccination-related supplies. To improve vaccination coverage and equity in all counties in Kenya, interventions to reduce MOV should be considered as part of an overall immunization service improvement plan