Community Participation in Integrated Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) Programs in Supply of Safe Water in Trans Nzioa, Kenya

37% of Developing world’s population lack access to clean water; 2.5 billion people lack improved basic sanitation and hygiene facilities, over 780 million people still use unsafe drinking water.  Trans Nzioa County, in Kenya faces considerable challenges in reaching water and sanitation Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and objectives of primary prevention.  The County has four Divisions: (Bondeni, Suwerwa, Kaplamai and Waitaluk), blended with inadequate access to safe water and sanitation services, couple with poor hygiene practices that, kill and sicken vulnerable groups being women and under fives, who spend 4–5 times per day fetching for water and are overwhelmed with burden of water related diseases.  It was this reasons in the County that, Government of Kenya GOK comes in collaboration with Development partners (WHO, UNICEF, USAID and UN Habitat) to form integrated water resource management programmes, to supply safe and clean water to its community household in order to alleviate water- related diseases.  Cross-sectional design, using mixed data collection procedure was conducted.  Sample sizes of 297 respondents participated.  Purposive, proportional sampling design, from sampling frames of households in each Division was utilized.  Structured questionnaire, Key Informant Interviews (KII) guides, Focus Group Discussion, (FGD) guides were used, Quantitative, data was statistically analyzed by MS excel and SPSS version 16, to measure central tendency, and dispersion.  Qualitative data, themes and sub-themes were discussed to saturation.  Results showed secondary attained households are critical for efficiency implementation of safe and clean water supply compared to primary attained households, male participation in water issues was minimal (41%).  Accessibility to safe water from one source, by majority residents,’ remains low (30 %).  Hand washing after visiting latrine still low (43%).  However majority of households (88%) utilized latrines.  Need for more grants and wel-wishers for Public Private Provision programmes in water resource management, policy to increase male involvement in community participation in integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene WASH programmes in Trans Nzioa County is timely required. Keywords: Synergistic partner, Millennium development goals, Empowerments, Sustainable, Accessible Affordable and household

Justification for a Devolved Systems of Government: Corporate Governance and Financial Management Issues in Kenya

Devolution which entailed the ceding of power by a legislated act from a Central Government to the county Governments is Kenya’s historical constitutional transformative aspect from the year 2010 to today.  It is considered as a panacea to the public finance management issues that have dodged the country since independence in 1963. Since then the country has experienced persistent corporate governance and financial management problems both at Central and local Government levels.  Critical of these was when some powers of revenue collection and expenditure among others were transferred to the 47 Counties. Each of these Counties formed the County Governments comprising of the County Assemblies and County Executives with powers to legislate, and executive powers to Implement the Laws and policies respectively. The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between Corporate Governance practices and financial performance of Local Authorities in Kenya prior to devolution. Using the agency and stewardship theories, this study examined the corporate governance issues in the county’s local authorities. An exploratory survey was used in a case study since Local Authorities were single tiered and operates under cap. 265. Laws of Kenya. Primary data was analysed using a regression and correlation analysis and an equation that expressed the relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables established. This study found that Local Authority studied had huge debts, operated on huge bank overdrafts and generally practiced poor finance management practices. The study also found a strong relationship between CEO Authority, Transparency and Accountability, Partisan Politics, Skills levels, Debt burden and Performance of local authority and poor corporate governance practices. Generally, governance issues provided major causes of poor financial performance and a key justification to the amendment of the Local Government Act cap 265, creating devolved systems of governance which changed the structures and functions of Local Authorities. Keywords: Corporate Governance, Financial performance, Devolution, Agency, Stewardship

The Influence of Principals’ Mentorship Practices on Students’ Retention in Public-Day Secondary Schools in Nakuru County-Kenya

The purpose of this study was to look into potential relationships or associations between various Principal mentoring practices in the mentorship scheme and student retention at a day secondary school in Nakuru County, Kenya. Low secondary school retention has long been an issue in much of the existing literature, and therefore complex, multifaceted, and poorly understood. The purpose of this research was to find out how principals\u27 student mentorship practices affected student retention in Nakuru County public-day secondary schools. The study found a positive but insignificant relationship between principal mentoring practices and student retention rates in day public secondary schools (p > 05). Based on this finding, principals should strengthen mentorship practices in order to increase student retention and foster a positive learning environment for academic performance

Anticipatory humanitarian action and behavioural change

Summary of ongoing PhD research presented as a poster at the University of Edinburgh Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems Symposium, 15 March 202

Factors associated with delay in presentation of Cancer patients for treatment: a patients’ perspective

The global burden and threat of non-communicable diseases constitute one of the major challenges for development in the twenty-first century which undermines social and economic development throughout the world. A huge proportion of deaths due to non-communicable diseases, including cancer, occur in the low and middle income countries. Cancer is among the top five causes of mortality in Kenya. Its estimated annual incidence is close to 37000 and unfortunately close to 80% of the patients is diagnosed at an advanced stage. The economic impact of cancer is felt at an individual and most importantly a population level. Shortening the interval between onset of symptoms and initiation of treatment would greatly improve patient outcomes and also reduce the cost of more aggressive treatment. Understanding the pathways to care is critical for interventions to be made in a timely manner. An assessment of patients‟ perspectives guides strategic decision making to meet expectations and effectively manage health care performance. The main aim of this study was to identify the factors associated with late cancer diagnosis among patients presenting for treatment at Kenyatta National Hospital. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used for this study. The study was undertaken at Kenyatta National Hospital‟s Cancer Treatment Center. Standardized questionnaires were administered to all eligible and consenting patients with either stage three or four of cancer presenting for treatment at the cancer treatment center. Patients‟ records were also reviewed to ascertain the diagnosis, stage and type of cancer. The data collected was summarized and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and MINITAB 14. Female respondents were more than the male respondents. The mean age of the respondents was 49 years; 87% of the respondents were below 65 years old. 71% had attained only primary education, 10% had attained tertiary education. Most of the respondents (74%) resided in rural areas and 84% of them were in the informal sector. 87% had no pre-existing illnesses and only 23% were smokers. 65% of them had no prior knowledge on cancer, 71% were unaware of measures to reduce the risk of cancer and only 19% had been previously screened for cancer. 78% of the participants had experienced their symptoms for more than 6 months before the diagnosis of cancer was made. 58% of the participants initially sought help for their symptoms in private hospitals and 45% had their diagnosis made in private hospitals. 55% had their diagnosis made in secondary and tertiary public hospitals. 61% waited for more than 6 months before iv getting their diagnosis of cancer and a similar proportion had to wait for more than 3 months before initiation of treatment. Long waiting time for specialized treatment was identified as the main reason for delay. The findings of this study corroborate those of other similar studies. The success of any cancer control programs will require well-coordinated demand-side and supply-side efforts to address the barriers to early detection and treatment of cancer

The Influence of mass customization capabilities on operational performance of multinational manufacturing firms in Kenya

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirements for the Degree of Master of Commerce (MCOM) at Strathmore UniversityThe manufacturing sector in Kenya is faced with stiff competition from local and international sources. Customer needs are not only dynamic but also heterogeneous hence a firm must find ways to provide goods that match the needs of a target market at a given time. In order to survive, manufacturing firms need to build mass customization capabilities that will enable them to meet dynamic and diverse customer needs for a particular market. The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of mass customization capabilities on operational performance of multinational manufacturing firms in Kenya. The specific objectives included: to examine the extent of adoption of mass customization capabilities by multinational manufacturing firms in Kenya, to assess the influence of solution space development on operational performance of multinational manufacturing firms in Kenya, to establish the influence of robust process design on operational performance of multinational manufacturing firms in Kenya and to assess the influence of customer choice navigation on operational performance of multinational manufacturing firms in Kenya. Data was collected by use of questionnaires from the target population of 93 multinational manufacturing firms in Kenya. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. Results showed that solution space development was the most widely adopted mass customization capability followed by robust process design then customer choice navigation as evidenced by their overall mean scores. On influence of each mass customization capability on operational performance, solution space development and robust process design were not statistically significant in explaining changes in operational performance while customer choice navigation had a significant positive influence on operational performance. Results on the synergetic influence of mass customization capabilities on operational performance however showed that customer choice navigation and robust process design had a significant positive influence on operational performance while solution space development was not statistically significant. The study however had limitations, in that it was cross sectional and therefore was not expected to capture mass customization capabilities developments and operational performance changes that come with the passage of time since these variables are not static

An evaluation of entrepreneurship education as a tool used by the government to promote growth and development of SMEs in Kenya: A case study of the KPMG top 100 SMEs

A Research project Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Business Science in Financial Economics at Strathmore UniversityThe primary aim of this was to evaluate entrepreneurship education as a government policy tool, to stimulate growth and development of SMEs in Kenya. The SMEs considered for this study are all considered the best in their fields according to KPMG’s Top 100 SMEs. The study focused on owners or management of the SMEs selected. The study investigated whether entrepreneurship education had an effect on the performance of the selected KPMG Top 100 SMEs and subsequently their growth and development. The study made use of the data collected through the use of self-administered questionnaire in a survey. The data analysis included descriptive statistics and the T-test. Results showed a positive impact on the performance of SMEs in Kenya through the study of KPMG's Top 100 SMEs in 2015.It particularly improved entrepreneurship skills and knowledge of both the owners and managers of SMEs. The study indicated the extent to which entrepreneurship education plays in the growth and development of SMEs through highlighting the positive relationship between entrepreneurship education and growth and profitability of SMEs

Barriers to and enablers of diabetic retinopathy screening attendance: a systematic review of published and grey literature

AIMS: To identify and synthesize studies reporting modifiable barriers/enablers associated with retinopathy screening attendance in people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, and to identify those most likely to influence attendance. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library and the 'grey literature' for quantitative and qualitative studies to February 2017. Data (i.e. participant quotations, interpretive summaries, survey results) reporting barriers/enablers were extracted and deductively coded into domains from the Theoretical Domains Framework; with domains representing categories of theoretical barriers/enablers proposed to mediate behaviour change. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted within domains to describe the role each domain plays in facilitating or hindering screening attendance. Domains that were more frequently coded and for which more themes were generated were judged more likely to influence attendance. RESULTS: Sixty-nine primary studies were included. We identified six theoretical domains ['environmental context and resources' (75% of included studies), 'social influences' (51%), 'knowledge' (51%), 'memory, attention, decision processes' (50%), 'beliefs about consequences' (38%) and 'emotions' (33%)] as the key mediators of diabetic retinopathy screening attendance. Examples of barriers populating these domains included inaccurate diabetic registers and confusion between routine eye care and retinopathy screening. Recommendations by healthcare professionals and community-level media coverage acted as enablers. CONCLUSIONS: Across a variety of contexts, we found common barriers to and enablers of retinopathy screening that could be targeted in interventions aiming to increase screening attendance