Book Review: Making Globalization Work

Review of the book Making Globalization Work, by Joseph E. Stiglitz. Published by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2006

The Role of the Kenyan Diaspora in Constructing a New Political Culture and Identity

This paper focuses on the need for and the prospects of a congenial politics of identity construction in Kenya as spearheaded by the country\u27s diasporic communities. It identifies and interrogates the intersection of consciousness and historical experience as the basis of such identity construction. It posits the leadership function as a critical component in this process and points out how mismanagement of the African polity has led to swelling ranks of refugees. These émigrés have contributed to the making of a global Africa embodied in the Black Diaspora. This diaspora can help reconstruct the politics of identity within Kenya as it diagnoses and explores cultural logics of power informing national politics

Ubiquitous Traffic Management with Fuzzy Logic - Case Study of Maseru, Lesotho

Conference ProceedingsMaseru is the capital city of Lesotho and is a relatively small city with roughly 67 vehicles registered each day. Traffic lights are used with the intension of effectively managing vehicular traffic at junctions. These traffic lights follow a predetermined sequence usually based on historic data. As a result of this design, they inherently fail to efficaciously manage traffic flow when it is abnormal. Vehicles on one side have to wait even though there are no cars on other sides of the road. The consequences of this include increased congestion and atmospheric air pollution. Technological advancements have resulted in the now widely researched Internet of Things paradigm with one of its applications being vehicular traffic management. The focus of this paper is the design of a prototype reactive system based on Internet of Things whose functionality includes traffic lights that are capable of reacting to prevailing conditions. The system makes use of Radio Frequency IDentifier technology and mobile tools to ubiquitously collect traffic data and disseminate value added traffic information

Counting what counts: A researcher productivity scoring framework for South African's universities of technology

One of the three objectives of academic institutions all over the world is that of ensuring and upholding vibrant research productivity. For developing countries such as South Africa, public spending on research and development provides mechanisms for this. The South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) is the custodian of government research funds. Evidence shows that DHET continues to grapple with the challenge of objectively measuring research productivity from the research funds invested in universities. The current funding framework applied by DHET has received numerous criticism one of them being its quantitative nature - it rewards quantity as opposed to quality research. This problem is more pronounced in Universities of Technology (UoTs) where, after more than ten years of operating as universities, the culture of research is not yet fully entrenched. Acknowledging the critical role played by research productivity measurements, we present a research productivity and quality measurement framework for UoTs. Using a case study of one of the UoTs, quantitative data relating to 48 aspects of the of existing research incentive system was used in determining the system’s effectiveness and efficacy in stimulating researchers’ activities. The proposed Framework consists of three components on: how to motivate researchers, what/how to measure research performance and how to incentivise researchers. Using an actual dataset of research outputs from the case study, an illustration on how to apply the framework has been provided. The results confirm our Framework’s ability to “count what counts” and proven the statement that “not everything that can be counted counts”

The influence of nitrogen application on the growth and mineral content of two African nightshade species (Solanum spp.) cultivated in Kenya

Plant growth, leaf nitrogen and nitrate-N, and chemical content of two African nightshades, Solanum villosum and S. sarrachoides under different nitrogen levels was investigated in field experiments in 2001 and 2004. Plants were supplied with 0, 1.3, 2.6 and 5.2 g N/plant. Both African nightshade species responded similarly to nitrogen supply. Leaf area and dry matter production of plants supplied with nitrogen was 4-8 times that of plants not supplied with nitrogen. Plants supplied with nitrogen had significantly higher specific leaf area but had a lower leaf to stem ratio (p≤0.05). Leaf nitrogen concentration was significantly higher (p≤0.05) in plants supplied with nitrogen. However, when expressed on a leaf area basis, the differences in the leaf nitrogen content between nitrogen treatments were minimal. Leaf blade nitrate-N tended to be high in young plants especially those that were supplied with nitrogen. The species showed significant differences (p≤0.05) in the mineral content. It was concluded that African nightshade responded to limited nitrogen by drastic reduction in leaf area to maintain the leaf nitrogen content.Key words: Leaf nitrogen, leaf to stem ratio, mineral content, nitrates, Solanum sarrachoides, Solanum villosu

Developing SMEs through large firm-small firm linkages

This thesis aims to explore the prospects for small and medium enterprise (SME) development using inter-finn linkages between large and small finns in Kenya A wide range of strategies has been adopted already for the development of small enterprises globally, but limited use appears to have been made, outside Japan, of inter-finn linkages as a specific strategy. Despite the recent global movement towards inter-finn relationships as a strategy for achieving efficiency through the down-sizing of large finns, externalisation of activities, and adoption of lean production techniques, no attempt appears to have been made to use the strategy for SME development, possibly because little is known about how inter-finn linkages between large and small .finns are fonned. This thesis aims to con1ribute to the development of this understanding by using an inductive, qualitative research approach to explore the fuctors influencing the sourcing strategies of large finns in Kenya, to detennine whether these have some potential for SME development both in the country and more generally. The study focuses on the Kenyan vehicle assembly industry and examines, through in-depth case studies, the sourcing activities of three vehicle assembly plants and four franchise holders. Overnll, the research lends support to the argument that for various reasons largely related to m.arlcet failure, and a non-conducive business environment, large firms in Kenya's motor vehicle industIy are reluctant to outsource voluntarily from local small finns, and that when they do, relations appear to be arms-length and adversarial. The research also reveals that in the Kenyan environment, contrary to the arguments of transaction cost theory, outsourcing decisions are predicated on the need to comply with compulsory regulations in order to gain access to resources and m.arlcets, rather -than primarily on cost minimisation. Consequently, strategies which assure access to resources such as foreign exchange and impo.rt licenses were found to override purely efficiency considerations. The findings imply that although there are some prospects for SME development using this approach, the selection of small enterprises as suppliers by managers of large firms is limited by large firms' perceptions of the suitability of such suppliers, and that if SME development is to take place through such linkages, strategies which either change the image of small suppliers, or improve the attitudes oflarge buyers have to be adopted

A Security Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks in the Internet of Things Paradigm

Conference ProceedingsIn this paper we explore the possibilities of having an algorithm that can protect Zigbee wireless sensor networks from intrusion; this is done from the Internet of Things paradigm. This algorithm is then realised as part of an intrusion detection system for Zigbee sensors used in wireless networks. The paper describes the algorithm used, the programming process, and the architecture of the system developed as well as the results achieved