The interplay between commodities markets and rural livelihoods: a focus on the tea industry in rural Kenya

Through the years, the agricultural sector has occupied a central place in rural Kenya. Agriculture is also a dominant sector in the Kenyan economy and it is a source of livelihood for the majority of the rural population. The sector accounts for 30-35 percent of the gross domestic product and well over 60 percent of foreign exchange earnings. Furthermore, agriculture engages nearly 80 percent of the nation's workforce and most rural households are dependent on this sector for subsistence and cash income. Evidently, agriculture is central to rural development efforts and the sector is a possible gateway to improvement in the distribution of national incomes, faster rural development necessary to bring about rural-urban balance, faster growth in employment opportunities and the generation of raw materials for the domestic industry. Indeed, in rural Kenya, agricultural growth, rural development and poverty alleviation are intertwined. Hence, in recent times, poverty alleviation has also been seen in terms of having access to productive resources and more importantly, being able to participate in the decision-making process at the global market level. This study, therefore, focuses on the linkages between commodity markets and rural livelihoods. Specifically, the study looks at how the tea market is organised, the forces that direct and influence the way the various parties conduct their businesses, the resultant formal and informal linkages, and how these structures affect the role of the tea industry in the Kenyan economy

The Soko Huru trade: network building, informal contracts and compliance failure in the marketing of green leaf tea in rural Kenya

This paper is based on the premise that although liberalisation is assumed to result in market friendly incentives that can encourage the accumulation of capital and more efficient allocation of resources, the interplay between market forces, government policy and social processes continues to shape and re-shape the tea commodity market. In the midst of what seems like expanded choices are struggles and uncertainties, some of which determine what the actors concerned come to count as success or failure. The paper is an attempt to understand the smallholder tea commodity market from the point of view of the Soko Huru trade. More specifically, the paper looks at how the Soko Huru trade is organised, the forces that direct and influence the buying and selling of green leaf, the resultant formal and informal linkages, and how these structures affect the role of tea as a source of livelihood among rural households. Attention is paid to the written and unwritten rules that govern the linkages that Soko Huru traders maintain with tea growers and various categories of end users, and how these come to influence the tea commodity market and the strategies that traders apply so as to protect their interests

A Multi-Faceted Program To Recruit And Develop African Seventh-Day Adventist Writers

Problem Although the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) in Kenya has about 500,000 believers, most of the literature read and used by its members was originally written by Christians from the West. This study identifies some of the problems caused by the lack of African Adventist writers producing acceptable African Adventist literature for Adventist members and other Africans in Kenya, and points the way toward positive measures to remedy the situation. Method In order to design an appropriate program to recruit and develop African Seventh-day Adventist writers in Kenya, an attempt is made to examine the kind of literature needed and acceptable to the African mind. Also, an attempt is made to identify the need for African Adventist writers and the challenge of finding them. Then in response to the lack of African Adventist writers, who are able to produce needed and acceptable African Adventist literature, a practical strategy for recruiting and developing them is presented. This strategy covers the long-term goals and the goals for the first two years and then presents a plan for the implementation of the program. The implementation plan includes a proper use of communication methods, assigned responsibilities, workshops, the editorial process, printing and distribution, and lastly the evaluation of the program. Results The study shows that presently, the Kenyan SDA church needs to recruit and develop African Seventh-day Adventist writers to produce needed and acceptable African Adventist literature. The literature must be culturally relevant, written in understandable language, and acceptable to Kenyan Africans for use in Christian nurture and evangelism. The literature produced must also be marketable at a reasonable price. A major problem facing the SDA Church in Kenya is a lack of African Seventh-day Adventist writers. Several factors have contributed to this. First, there is a tradition of oral literature that is difficult to overcome and replace with written literature. Furthermore, the potential of the would be writers is not recognized. Also, writers are not intentionally trained by the church and enabled to write. Those writers who try to write on their own do not benefit financially, and, as a result, do not continue submitting needed manuscripts. The greatest need, therefore, is for the SDA Church in Kenya to have a planned and funded program to recruit and train African SDA writers who will produce literature that will help African Adventist members become faithful Christians within their own culture. Conclusion The East African Union has begun implementing some of the program\u27s recommendations. It is hoped that the union will witness significant success in evangelism and Christian nurture, by using literature developed through this program

Food security trends: a situational analysis of food supply differentials in rural Kenya

This paper looks at food security trends at three different levels; national, district and household. The paper aims to go beyond the conventionalist view of food security by focusing on the dynamics that characterise the apparent differentials in access to adequate food. The central argument is that obtaining adequate food is a function of interactions, negotiations and social struggles and the extent to which some succeed (and others fail) in their search for adequate food is bound to vary even in situations that appear similar. The paper thus concludes that food security and attendant policies must be conceptualised and defined in the context of people's actual experiences. In essence, therefore, food security goes beyond numbers as it includes the existence of social networks and the capacity to juggle opportunities

Decision Support System for Managing Reverse Supply Chain

Reverse logistics are becoming more and more important in the overall Industry area because of the environment and business factors. Planning and implementing a suitable reverse logistics network could bring more profit, customer satisfaction, and an excellent social picture for companies. But, most of the logistics networks are not equipped to handle the return products in reverse channels. Reverse logistics processes and plans rely heavily on reversing the supply chain so that companies can correctly identify and categorize returned products for disposition, an area that offers many opportunities for additional revenue. The science of reverse logistics includes return policy administration, product recall protocols, repairs processing, product repackaging, parts management, recycling, product disposition management, maximizing liquidation values and much more. The focus of this project is to develop a reverse logistics management system/ tools (RLMS). The proposed tools are demonstrated in the following order. First, we identify the risks involved in the reverse supply chain. Survey tool is used to collect data and information required for analysis. The methodologies that are used to identify key risks are the six sigma tools, namely Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control (DMAIC), SWOT analysis, cause and effect, and Risk Mapping. An improved decision-making method using fuzzy set theory for converting linguistic data into numeric risk ratings has been attempted. In this study, the concept of ‘Left and Right dominance approach’(Chen and Liu, 2001) and Method of ‘In center of centroids’ (Thoran et al., 2012a,b) for generalized trapezoidal fuzzy numbers has been used to quantify the ‘degree of risk’ in terms of crisp ratings. After the analysis, the key risks are identified are categorized, and an action requirement plan suggested for providing guidelines for the managers to manage the risk successfully in the context of reverse logistics. Next, from risk assessment findings, information technology risk presents the highest risk impact on the performance of the reverse logistics, especially lack of use of a decision support system (DSS). We propose a novel multi-attribute decision (MADM) support tool that can categorizes return products and make the best alternative selection of recovery and disposal option using carefully considered criteria using MADM decision making methodologies such as fuzzy MOORA and VIKOR. The project can be applied to all types of industries. Once the returned products are collected and categorized at the retailers/ Points of return (PoR), an optimized network is required to determine the number of reprocessing centres to be opened and the optimized optimum material flow between retailers, reprocessing, recycling and disposal centers at minimum costs. The research develops a mixed integer linear programming model for two scenarios, namely considering direct shipping from retailer/ PoR to the respective reprocessing centers and considering the use of centralized return centers (CRC). The models are solved using LINGO 15 software and excel solver tools respectively. The advantage of the implementation of our solution is that it will help improve performance and reduce time. This benefits the company by having a reduction in their cost due to uncertainties and also contributes to better customer satisfaction. Implementation of these tools at ABZ computer distributing company demonstrates how the reverse logistics management tools can used in order to be beneficial to the organization. The tool is designed to be easily implemented at minimal cost and serves as a valuable tool for personnel faced with significant and costly decisions regarding risk assessment, decision making and network optimization in the reverse supply chain practices

Incorporation into the Market Economy and Food Security among

This article loOks at the Gusii's movement into the market economy and its impact on the region's food security. The primary aim is to capture shfls in the Gusii 's food security position vis-à-vis incorporation into the market economy and in particular, the weakening of cultivation as a source of food, and the challenges that surround markets as an emerging alternative. The overall observation is that once the Gusii entered commodity markets, and the more such links were established, their food needs, until then secured largely through cultivating land, faced new challenges. The discussion is based on data from the national archives, district agricultural records, oral narratives and empirical literature.[Key Words:Gusii; Food Security; Incorporation; Market Economy

Incorporation into the Market Economy and Food Security among the Gusii: Paradise Lost or Paradise Gained?

This article loOks at the Gusii's movement into the market economy and its impact on the region's food security. The primary aim is to capture shfls in the Gusii 's food security position vis-à-vis incorporation into the market economy and in particular, the weakening of cultivation as a source of food, and the challenges that surround markets as an emerging alternative. The overall observation is that once the Gusii entered commodity markets, and the more such links were established, their food needs, until then secured largely through cultivating land, faced new challenges. The discussion is based on data from the national archives, district agricultural records, oral narratives and empirical literature

The Role of Prison Experience on Recidivism in Kakamega County, Kenya

Recidivism is the relapse into criminal activity and is generally measured by a former prisoner’s return to prison for a new offence. The rate of recidivism in Kenya is estimated to be about two‐thirds, which means that two‐thirds of released inmates will be re‐incarcerated after their release from prisons. As a result of this, crime by former inmates alone account for a substantial share of the current and future crimes. From the trend in the high prevalence of recidivism in Kenya, there are a staggering high number of people being incarcerated and eventually released back to the community and the high risk of re-arrest and re-incarceration is a concern for policymakers, criminologists, and those involved in corrections. High rates of recidivism result in tremendous costs both in terms of public safety and in monies spent to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate re‐offenders. High rates of recidivism also lead to devastating social costs to the communities and families of offenders, as well as the personal costs to the offenders themselves. This made the researcher to be interested in recidivism by looking at the role of prison experience on recidivism. The study adopted survey research design. This is a type of descriptive research that adopts descriptive and fact finding enquiries of different kinds of information that describes existing phenomenon by asking individuals about their perception, attitudes, behavior or values. The study was carried out in Kakamega County, covering the three penal institutions, that is, Kakamega Male, Kakamega Female and Shikutse G.K prisons. The study population was repeat offenders found in all the three penal institutions in Kakamega County. Purposive sampling was used to identify recidivists from the general prison offender population based on the existing official prison records. a total of one hundred and forty six respondents were sampled for this study. Random sampling was used to achieve the desired representation from the study population. Questionnaires were used as data collection tools and interviews method was also utilized to collect data. Findings revealed that the longer the duration spent in prison, the worse the reentry experience since those inmates who had served longer sentences suffered the greatest reentry experiences occasioned by disintegrated families, inability to easily secure employment after release, and high chances of reoffending. Therefore the need to come up with working pre-release programs meant to enable inmates to have smooth transitions from correctional institutions to their communities by working with the offenders to develop plans, including housing, employment and participation in post-release programs. Keywords: recidivism, prisoner, re-incarceration

Police and Private Security Partnership in Crime Prevention, A Study of Nairobi County

With regard to the provision of security services in Kenya, Police and private security function in a mutually exclusive manner. However, it apparent that is essential to develop a formal partnership relationship, because both have several shared goals. Additionally, the private security industry also plays a significant protective role in the country. The study sought to investigate the reality of partnership between the police and the private security in Kenya. It sought to achieve this by examining the existence of any level of partnership between the private security and police in provision of security. The study also sought to establish the existing partnership between the private and public security, especially in places of common protection of public gatherings, information exchange, security and transport of money, information, and private security handing over suspected offenders to the police and how the challenges facing both private and public security providers can be curbed to enhance security. This is based on the premise that conditions for effective cooperation between the police and private security providers are not yet well developed. This study examined how co-operation in crime prevention and policing could be realized and made beneficial to all role players within the framework of a public-private security partnership. The research used both qualitative and qualitative approaches in collecting, as well as analyzing data. Additionally, both secondary and primary data were collected, with primary data being collected by use of questionnaire and interview schedule. The primary data was collected in Nairobi which was purposely sampled for its large intensity of criminal activities and security providers, both private and public. The data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The study provides deeper knowledge of local security dynamics and gives an insight into measures that could be taken to harness the energies and potentials of police and private security partnership. It also serves as a basis for future research into the country’s overall strategy for providing security whilst contributing to the existing body of literature to address scarcity of data in this research area in Kenya. Keywords: Police, Private Security, Partnership, Crime Prevention DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/11-1-01 Publication date: January 31st 202