Report on the forage and feed product flow in Kenya (Busia, Bungoma, Kakamega and Siaya Counties)

Kenyan economy expanded 4.7% in 2017 and 6% in 2018 (World Bank, 2018). This growth was mainly supported by growth in agricultural output, among other steady economic growths such as industrial activity and service sectors. Agriculture is a huge contributor in terms of GPD with livestock taking a key position in this contribution. There is high demand for livestock products, which in turn creates a high demand for forage and feed. The availability of forage and feed is challenged by inadequate rainfall, overstocking, lack of knowledge and technology among others. However, famers are becoming persistent by using various ways in order to counter these challenges; among them production, conservation and purchase of forage and feed. This study examines the flow of forage and feed in selected counties in Kenya. A mixed research technique was applied using questionnaire as instrument of choice to conduct interviews with livestock farmers. The study found that most of the forage and feed consumed by livestock in these areas comes from respondents’ family lands. The study also found that most of the livestock diet is comprised of crop residues. Almost all the respondents in the counties agreed that planning forage and feed is not an expensive endeavor. Almost all the respondents said that buying forage and feed is an expensive engagement across the four counties. There is therefore room to increase productivity in terms of quality and quantity of forage and feed in these counties, through forage and feed farming

Effective management and performance in state owned corporations in Kenya: An assessment of Impediments to corporate governance practices by public managers and administrators

This paper describes the impediments to effective management and performance by corporate managers in public administration and governance. Methodology: A survey questionnaire was administered to 200 corporate and executive managers in the scope of public administration and management. The researcher used descriptive and correlation method to assess the relationship between variables and corporate governance practices. Findings: The study found that senior corporate management leadership is critical to the success of public administration and management in state owned corporations in Kenya. In this regard, considerable attention and support need to be provided by senior corporate management to ensure that the strategy execution in the public administration and governance reforms has been well understood in the agency. Originality and value: The study supports the existence of four empirical dimensions in the formulation of effective performance and management by corporate managers.  It brings a new perspective in terms of corporate management practices and emerging impediments. Keywords: Corporate managerial practices, public performance and management, corporate governanc

An Investigation of Coping Strategies for Managing Effects of Female Genital Mutilation by the Girl Child among the Ameru Community in Kenya

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is an old cultural practice which acts as a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood among the Ameru community of Kenya who still perpetuate the practice despite the ban by the Government of Kenya and the Njuri Ncheke (Supreme Council of Ameru Elders). It is documented that the physical, psychological and social effects of FGM cause distressing pain and suffering warranting the need for coping strategies for use by the female initiates. The purpose of this study was to investigate the post FGM effects’ coping strategies employed by the girl child among the Ameru community in Kenya. The study employed descriptive survey research design. The target population was 300,176 girls from both Meru County and Tharaka-Nithi County in Kenya where FGM is prevalent. The accessible population was 137,044 girls from whom a total of 489 respondents participated in the study. This comprised of 408 girls who had undergone FGM, three social workers, 48 health workers and 30 Focus Group Discussion members. Snowball sampling and purposive sampling methods were used to obtain the study sample. Data was collected using questionnaires, interview guides and Focus Group Discussion schedules. The validity of the instruments was confirmed by University supervisors and other research experts while reliability was tested by use of Cronbach coefficient alpha. Descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentages were used to analyze the data. The research findings indicated that the Ameru girl child frequently utilized counselling services, social support, medical attention as well as education and training to manage the effects of FGM. It was recommended that these coping strategies be strengthened and access improved among the Ameru girl child who have undergone FGM. Key words: Coping strategies, Female Genital Mutilation, Girl child

Equity in Health Financing: Review of Health Care financing in Four organizations for economic cooperation development (OECD) countries, Canada, The republic of Korea, Mexico and the United Kingdom

Includes bibliographical references.Background: The World Health Assembly Resolution in 2005 urges Member States to introduce and/or strengthen universal coverage policy in order to offer financial risk protection (FRP) to households in order to avoid catastrophic health expenditures and impoverishment from seeking care. The other goal of universal coverage is to ensure equitable access to healthcare based on relative need, irrespective of ability to make health care payments, social status or geographical location. The two prepaid financing mechanisms that guarantee universal coverage are social health insurance and general tax revenue. Aim: To undertake a comparative analysis of selected OECD countries with universal coverage to derive lessons that could inform the development of universal coverage policy in low-to-middle income (LMICs) countries. Methods: Empirical evidence from the OECD was sourced through an extensive review of published literature from print and electronic sources. Selection sought to include a range of countries in different continents and health systems with a long history as universal systems. Most universal systems are in OECD countries. OECD countries were selected because of availability of quality and credible data. The data for the analysis is drawn from the OECD Health Data 2008 dataset. Kutzin's conceptual framework is the analytical tool for the critical analysis of evidence, including OECD data, to evaluate the functionality of each health system based on the concepts of equity, sustainability, efficiency and feasibility. Results: Findings from the analysis show that publicly funded (primarily tax-funded) systems have lower out-of-pocket expenditures and offer greater financial risk protection. Systems with a single risk pool and a single payer tend to be more administratively efficient than multiple pools and payers. Allocating health resources based on a needs-based allocation formula is more equitable than historical budgeting. Capitation provider payment promotes greater efficiency than fee-for-service. A purchaser-provider split can improve efficiency

Phrasal movement inside Bantu verbs : deriving affix scope and order in Kîîtharaka

This thesis tries to determine the principles that govern affix ordering in Kîîtharaka, an SVO Bantu language spoken in Kenya. The thesis starts by determining the base hierarchy of affixes by using semantic scope. Thus if an affix A scopes over an affix B, A asymmetrically c-commands B in the phrasal structure configuration. The thesis then tries to investigate how the affixes in the base hierarchy are re-ordered to produce the surface string. It is shown that in order to get the surface string, a constituent containing the verb root undergoes phrasal movement past an affix in a mixture of cyclic and roll-up movement. This movement mechanism, which I refer to as dragging movement, is shown to be strikingly similar to the mechanism that derives the typological variation in the ordering of demonstrative, numeral and adjective in the extended projection of the noun (Cinque 2005). The thesis therefore shows that the ordering of the affixes in the extended projection of the verb phrase in Kîîtharaka and the ordering of modifiers in the extended projection of the noun phrase fall under the same generalization

The Agikuyu, the bible and colonial constructs: towards an ordinary African readers’ hermeneutics

Recognising the paradigm shift in African biblical studies where the image of a “decontextualized and non-ideological” scientific Bible reader is slowly being replaced with one of a “contextualized and ideological” reader, this research seeks to explore and understand the role of the “ordinary readers” in the development of biblical interpretation in colonial Kenya. It seeks to understand whether the semi-illiterate and illiterate can engage the Bible as capable hermeneuts. The study uses postcolonial criticism to recover and reconstruct the historical encounters of the Agĩkũyũ with the Bible. It reveals that ordinary African readers actively and creatively engaged biblical texts in the moment of colonial transformation using several reading strategies and reading resources. Despite the colonial hegemonic positioning, these Africans hybridised readings from the Bible through retrieval and incorporation of the defunct pre-colonial past; creating interstices that became sites for assimilation, questioning and resistance. The study proposes an African hermeneutic theory that accepts both scholarly readers and the ordinary readers with respect to biblical interpretation as constitutive of a community of readers positioned in a particular sociocultural milieu. It invites the socially engaged scholars to commit to: reading the Bible from the experienced reality of societal margins; reading communally with each other; and to read critically. The metaphor Sokoni (at the marketplace) is proposed as the starting point in which both the “ordinary” readers and scholarly readers can engage the Bible through the language of the African theatre and storytelling

Effect of autumn warming on the rate of senescence in Svalbard plants : an experimental approach with relevance for Svalbard reindeer

Phenology is a biological trait sensitive to global warming. Climate change scenarios predict a three-fold increase in temperature and altered rainfall for polar regions. The Svalbard Archipelago, situated at 780 North, and 150 East, is a hotspot for climate change in the arctic, and my study was in the Adventdalen valley of the island. According to climate models, the average annual temperature will increase by about 100C, while the autumn temperature will increase between 7-100C by 2100. My study was an experiment manipulating temperature (open top chambers in combination with heaters elevating temperature by ca. 2 and 7 degrees) and moisture (dry and wet) to investigate their impact on rate of senescence in autumn in three Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrynchus) forage species. The three species also constitute the three dominant growth forms in Svalbard. Alopecurus borealis represented graminoids, Bistorta vivipara represented forbs, and Salix polaris represented shrubs. It was a transplant experiment to a garden with 12 plots. Counts of green and brown shoots/ leaves were done for about six weeks in late summer-autumn, beginning in mid-August to the end of September when freezing occurred. I found that the graminoid delayed the rate of senescence with higher temperature and moisture. The forb was not affected by moisture but showed a moderate delay in rate of senescence with higher temperatures, while neither moisture nor temperature affected the autumn phenology of the shrub. My analysis shows contradictory results to various other studies that have suggested a greening arctic due to shrubification in the arctic tundra. Graminoids may be the winners of climate change effects in autumn and may affect herbivores positively, by increasing their autumn food quality. Therefore, warmer, and wetter autumns may counteract the effects of harsh winters and propagate the reproductive success of the Svalbard reindeer. As capital breeders, Svalbard reindeer may access higher quality and quantity of vegetation late into autumn and pack fat reserves for over-wintering. My study is just the beginning of a journey toward understanding the link between food availability in autumn and the enhanced fitness of the Svalbard reindeer.M-ECO

Micronutrient deficiencies in African soils and the human nutritional nexus: opportunities with staple crops

A synthesis of available agronomic datasets and peer-reviewed scientific literature was conducted to: (1) assess the status of micronutrients in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) arable soils, (2) improve the understanding of the relations between soil quality/management and crop nutritional quality and (3) evaluate the potential profitability of application of secondary and micronutrients to key food crops in SSA, namely maize (Zea mays L.), beans (Phaseolus spp. and Vicia faba L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and rice (Oryza sativa L.). We found that there is evidence of widespread but varying micronutrient deficiencies in SSA arable soils and that simultaneous deficiencies of multiple elements (co-occurrence) are prevalent. Zinc (Zn) predominates the list of micronutrients that are deficient in SSA arable soils. Boron (B), iron (Fe), molybdenum (Mo) and copper (Cu) deficiencies are also common. Micronutrient fertilization/agronomic biofortification increases micronutrient concentrations in edible plant organs, and it was profitable to apply fertilizers containing micronutrient elements in 60–80% of the cases. However, both the plant nutritional quality and profit had large variations. Possible causes of this variation may be differences in crop species and cultivars, fertilizer type and application methods, climate and initial soil conditions, and soil chemistry effects on nutrient availability for crop uptake. Therefore, micronutrient use efficiency can be improved by adapting the rates and types of fertilizers to site-specific soil and management conditions. To make region-wide nutritional changes using agronomic biofortification, major policy interventions are needed