Dairy farming in Kenya was introduced in mid-1950’s during the colonial era. Today the sector accounts for 14% of the Agricultural Gross Domestic Product and is dominated by smallholders who are characterized by subsistence production on small farms of about 0.5 to 2 ha and low levels of application of technology. With increasing pressure on productive agricultural land from human settlement and industrialization, growth in the dairy sector is expected to come from application of new technologies. Research has shown that productivity in smallholder farms can be significantly increased through adoption of better feeding and breeding technologies however, only 20% of the smallholder farmers use these technologies a situation attributed to many factors including inadequate extensions services and low capital levels due to limited access to agricultural credit. The public extension system in Kenya’s dairy sector is generally inefficient due to underfunding and limited staff capacity. Furthermore, financial service providers (FSP) only lend less than 5% of their loan book to the agricultural sector which limits ability of farmers to afford high upfront cost required for adoption of new technologies. The potential for application of digital technologies have been identified in the agricultural sector and special efforts to drive investment in digital technologies have been initiated to ensure the sector is running efficiently, markets are well supplied, and consumers are able to access affordable and nutritious food. This study therefore sought to evaluate how digital communication platforms can be utilized to influencing adoption of dairy production technologies and uptake of financial services in dairy farming. The study was conducted in three villages in Kapseret Sub-County of Uasin Gishu County, using two technologies i.e., mobile phone short message service (SMS) and video mediated learning (VML). 120 participants were randomly allocated into three groups of 40 farmers each and trained using VML for Group 1, SMS for Group 2 and a combination of VML and SMS in Group 3. In the results, the study found that 67% of the respondents depend on agriculture for their livelihoods while 50% kept livestock for milk production. Furthermore, 89% of farmers interviewed had access to mobile phones and 57% of had access to video viewing equipment. The study observed a general increase in adoption of dairy technologies from an average of 38% before the study to 53% after the study across all the study groups. The study found the highest uptake of financial services and dairy production technologies in the combined VML and SMS groups, with an adoption rate of 56% and 67% respectively. Further analysis revealed a strong association between farmer’s socioeconomic factors like age (r=-0.560), gender (r=-0.573), farming experience (r=-0.635), and education level (r=0.570) and utilization of digital platforms for accessing information on dairy production technologies and financial services. The study concluded that digital communication platforms like videos and mobile telephone SMS are effective in stimulating uptake of important technologies and services while better results are seen when they are combined and used in a complementary manner. This study highlights the potential of modern ICT tools for agricultural extension and communication in the Kenyan dairy sector and recommends how they can be utilized by the Kenyan government and relevant stakeholders to improve the smallholder milk productivity.

Diseases, pests, inappropriate agronomic practices and drought are the most important constraints to grain legumes production in Sub-Saharan Africa. Low green gram Vigna radiata (L) Wilczek yields in eastern Kenya is attributed to lack of adequate knowledge of agronomic practices like fertilization, appropriate spacing and use of available high yielding varieties. Therefore, the current study was established in Kiboko and Ithookwe to evaluate the influence of intra row spacing and microbial inoculation and varieties on growth and yield of selected green gram varieties. Five levels of plant spacing (5 cm x 45 cm, 10 cm x 45 cm, 15 cm x 45 cm, 20 cm x 45 cm, 25 cm x 45 cm), two inoculation treatments (inoculated with rhizobia and not inoculated with rhizobia) and three green gram varieties (KS20, KAT 00308 and KAT 00309) which were laid out in a randomized complete block design with a factorial arrangement and replicated three times. Data was collected on growth and yield parameters and analysed using GenStat Version 15.1 and means separated using Fischer’s Protected LSD test at p≤0.05. Plant height, shoot dry weight, number of effective nodules, weight of nodules and the ground cover were significantly influenced by the intra-row spacing in both sites but no significant differences observed on the parameters due to rhizobial inoculation. The days to maturation were significantly different between the intra-row spacing treatments in both sites where the narrowest spacing led to earlier maturation of green grams. The varieties differed significantly on plant height, shoot dry weight, number of effective nodules, dry weight of nodules and the ground cover in both sites. Variety KS20 matured the earliest in Kiboko while KAT00309 matured within the shortest period in Ithookwe where the two sites had a difference of >11 days. There were significant differences between the intra-row spacing treatments in growth parameters where the highest grain yield at Kiboko (3,114 kg ha-1 ) was observed in the 20 cm by 45 cm spacing while the same treatment had the highest grain yield at Ithookwe (1,583 kg ha-1 ). The lowest grain yield was exhibited in the narrowest spacing of 5 cm by 45 cm spacing in both sites. Inoculation significantly increased the number of effective nodules compared to those that were not inoculated in both sites at 3, 5 and 7 weeks after sowing (WAS) but it did not have a significant influence on the yield of green gram. The varieties differed significantly in the growth and yield parameters tested in both sites where variety KAT00309 had the highest grain yield with 2,898 kg ha-1 and 1,568 kg ha-1 in Kiboko and Ithookwe respectively. The local variety, KS20 had the lowest number of pods per plant in both sites with only 22 and 14 pods per plant for Kiboko and Ithookwe respectively compared to 33 and 20 pods per plant on the other varieties in Kiboko and Ithookwe respectively. Moreover, the local variety had the lowest 100-seed mass at the two study sites with more than 14% compared to KAT00308 and KAT00309. From these results, it is recommended that variety KAT00309 is the best variety in both sites planted at an intra-row spacing of 20 cm by 45 cm with or without inoculation.

Two studies were done to evaluate feeding management practices, challenges, and coping strategies in confined peri-urban dairy camels in Mogadishu, Somalia, and the types and quantities of feeds on offer and profitability of the peri-urban dairy camels. In the first study, 50 respondents from 10 peri-urban camel dairy farms were interviewed, each from of the ten farms. They were the owner, general manager, finance manager, and the laborers in charge of feeding and milking. Of the respondents, (84%) adopted group feeding and two-thirds of the respondents (64%) fed their camels twice a day. More than two-thirds of respondents (78%) offered their concentrates mixed with other feeds and provided salt to their herds as a mineral supplement. More than half of the respondents (56%) provided free access to tap water as a source of drinking water for camels. The majority of respondents (64 %) milked five times a day and allowed the calf to suckle both before and after milking. Camel milk producers in the peri-urban system were concerned about camel diseases, feed shortage, and lack of market. These problems can overcome with appropriate knowledge for proper disease diagnoses, feed conservation, and hygiene when managing the herd. The second study was to identify the types and quantities of feeds on offer and profitability of peri-urban dairy camels. A purposive sampling of 12 camels from each farm was selected: four camels in each lactation stage (early, middle, and late). Thus, a total of 120 lactating camels from 10 peri-urban dairy farms were recorded. The types of feeds on offer to the lactating dairy camels varied across the farm categories where the large and small-scale farms were using maize corn, sesame oil meal, alfalfa hay, yellow pea seeds, and sorghum straw while the medium scale were using the same feedstuffs in addition to yellow pea seeds. The quantity of feed offered also varied across the farm categories (P < 0.05). On average, the large, medium, and small scale farms were offering an average of 13.6kg/d, 10kg/d, and 8.4 kg/d respectively, which translated to 12.3 kg/DM/day, 9.3 kg/DM/day, and 7.7 kg/DM/day for the large, medium and small scale farms, respectively. The average estimated quantity of Metabolizable Energy, crude protein, and digestible protein offered among the large, medium and small scale farms were 121.3 MJ ME, 1983.6 g CP and 1400.6 g DP; 83.8 MJ ME, 1227.7g CP, 821.4 g DP and 73.5MJ ME, 1092.5 g CP, and 749.7 g DP, respectively. The quantity of milk produced also varied across the three categories (P < 0.05). On average, the milk production was 4.7 liter in the small-scale farms while the large-scale farms were 5.7liter. Therefore, the medium scale production was quite better than other scales in terms of feeding practice, income and proficiency. it can be used to improve and sustain the milk production of entire peri-urban dairy camel system.

This study is about social investment strategies and sustainability of nonprofit organizations in Nairobi, Kenya. The study is guided by two objectives; to establish social investment strategies used by NPOs in Nairobi and determine the relationship between social investment and sustainability for nonprofit organizations. The essence of this study is to expand knowledge on social investment, where Kenyan nonprofit organizations can tap social investment strategies for their sustainability in the transformation of livelihood of the communities (beneficiaries) they serve. The findings of this study will be important to the Government and policy makers towards formulating social investment national frameworks and policies like United Kingdom or United States, to actualize the social pillar/ third sector as arched in Kenya Vision 2030. Potential social investors can use the resource to form a better understanding of the Kenya social pillar to enable them make well informed investment decisions/choices. The academicians and researchers may use the resources also as a source of reference but more importantly, steer Kenyan universities (Including University of Nairobi) to adopt social investment/entrepreneurship as an MBA specialization like Harvard, LSE and Oxford Schools of business have done. The results of this study will shed light into other areas of research that other researchers need to put focus on. This study will highlight the role played by social investment strategies and its impact towards sustainability of NPOs in pursuance of realization of their vision. The study research was an exploratory crosssectional survey of nonprofit organizations (NPO) in Nairobi, Kenya. Primary data was collected by use of structured questionnaires and interviews. Senior level management was the research respondents given their role in strategy formulation and implementation. The triangulation aspect of data collection was employed for data authenticity and credibility. The data collected from the study was both quantitative and qualitative. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean score, standard deviation, frequency distribution, statistical graphics correlation and hierarchical multiple regression were used for data analysis and presentation. The research found that most of the NPOs in Nairobi County suffer from dependency on foreign donations. However, due to external environmental changes such as the global meltdown, they are adopting to SI strategies like social enterprises, volunteerism, endowment, commercial equity/enterprises and many more with the aim to be sustainable in future. As depicted by Hierarchical Multiple Regression (HMR) there is strong positive direct correlation/relationship exists between SI and sustainability of NPOs in Nairobi Kenya but there are other factors influencing SI adoptions such as social innovation, availability of financing, globalization and internationalization and organizational structure flexibility. Leadership and governance, networking, finance and technical capacity are some of the successful strategies towards NPO’s SI sustainability. SI sector is still underdeveloped and understudied in Kenya. Government, Operating intermediaries and SEs are the main SI players and they should harmonize working relations for full-bodied SI growth and development. The main barriers and challenges of SI growth and development is lack of an enabling policy environment. This can only be mitigated by the government playing their role to increase supply and demand for SI and providing an enabling environment as policy makers.

Plant disease is a major constraint in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) production in Kenya. Angular bean leaf spot (als) (Pseudocercospora griseola) and anthracnose of bean (Colletotrichum lindemuthianum) are foliar fungal diseases that affect common beans in Trans Nzoia County. Development of plant diseases are influenced by weather parameters including temperature, humidity, rainfall and farm cultural practices such seed selection, planting time, field sanitation practices and disease control methods. The overall objective of the study was to determine how crop management practices, rainfall and temperature affect the temporal development of angular leaf spot and anthracnose on common beans under diverse agro-climatic zones in Trans Nzoia County, Kenya. Farmers’ perception on seed access approaches to disease management practice for angular bean leaf spot and anthracnose of bean was determined through a survey carried out on 100 randomly selected common bean farmers in Trans Nzoia County by administering a semi structured questionnaire. Data was collected on the sources of seeds, preferred bean varieties, disease knowledge and management methods used by the farmers. A survey was done on six major breeding institutions which were KEPHIS, KALRO, CIAT, Egerton University, Simlaw and Seedco Groups of companies to understand bean breeding and availability of certified seeds to farmers. Purposive sampling method was used to select the key breeders for survey using a semi structured questionnaire which was done virtually. Field experiments were conducted in Kitale, Trans Nzoia County over two cropping seasons that was during the short rains in 2020 and during the long rains in 2021. The experimental treatments were in three plots that was KALRO Research centre (UM 4), Kitale Airstrip (UM 3) and Kibomet (LH 1) with a size of 0.5 hectares each and bean variety Rosecoco GLP 2 was planted in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). Temperature data was collected using a HoboMobile app while the rainfall measurements were recorded using a rain gauge installed 2m away from the plants within the field. Data on phenological stages of crop, plant height, disease incidence and severity collected two times a week during the cropping season. Samples of diseased plant materials were collected and the disease causing fungi isolated for identification. The survey showed that most farmers (82%) sourced their seeds from local markets and their own saved seeds from the previous harvest which they grow for household consumption. The most preferred bean variety was Rosecoco (GLP 2) because of its early maturity, high yielding and adaptability characteristics. Information on good agricultural practices was accessed through the extension officers by majority of the farmers (55%) on how to manage pests and diseases which was a major (51%) challenge on bean production. The major diseases observed on 78% of the farms were angular leaf spot and anthracnose of which most farmers used cultural methods to manage the diseases. Majority of breeders (33%) preferred to breed Rosecoco GLP2 since it had high intake in agroshops which they bred against disease tolerance and resistance. Majority (67%) had bred beans for disease resistance against angular leaf spot and anthracnose. The main challenge was pathogen variability among 50% of the breeders which occurred after the crops have been exposed to the environment. Majority of the breeders (60%) knew about common beans diseases in specific regions through the farm visit reports by extension officers. Results from the field experiments showed that increase in temperature and rainfall caused an increase in disease development. The disease severity was highly significantly (p<0.05) affected by increase in temperature. The development of the disease on the three AEZs was attributed to the varying environmental conditions. However, there was no significant difference in the temperature records on UM4, UM3 and LH1 during the long rains as the AEZs bordered each other hence the close climatic condition. During the short rains, there was a positive significant correlation of 0.031 between temperature and anthracnose severity. There was a significant difference (P<0.05) in temperature means between UM4 and UM3 during the short rains however there was no significant difference (P<0.05) in the different AEZs during the long rains. The study showed that farmer’s cultural practices such as choice of bean varieties and weather elements including temperature and rainfall increase disease development in the cropping system which later affects the expected yields. Breeders concentrated more on early maturity characteristics so that their variety could be accepted by farmers. Alternating periods of high and low rainfall with long periods of high humidity caused increase in both diseases across the three AEZs.

Technology is an emerging and important trend. New information and communication technologies are both cause and effect of these changes. On the same breath, the emergence of e-Government offers potential to reshape the public sector and build relationships between citizens and the government through provisioning convenient access to government information and services, to improve the quality of services and provide better opportunities to participate in democratic institutions and processes. The e-Government movement is being driven by the need for Government to cut costs and improve efficiency, meet citizen expectations and improve citizen relationship and facilitate economic development. Kenya has put in place strategies that include a fully functional Institutional Framework for eGovernment. The implementation actions were operationalized in three phases, namely short term, medium term and long term. This was done to ensure systematic implementation of e-Government that could easily be evaluated using the target set, the achievements and the variance. Further, the primary delivery models of e-Government can be divided into four: Government-to Government communication; Government-to-Citizen; and Government-to-Business. In addition, the Government is undertaking to accomplish the Instituting Structure and Operational Reforms through training and awareness creation to reform and change approach to communication. The Government further aims at accomplishing regulatory and legal framework by reviewing, enacting and enforcing laws related to electronic communication and develop secure and reliable Infrastructure. I he general objective of this study was to find out the appropriateness of strategies used by government to implement e-Government. The research findings revealed that there is a relationship between various demographical characteristics and the knowledge of e-Government and ICT literacy. In order to be effective in implementation of e-Governance, the Kenyan Government has adopted different modes of reaching different classes of its citizens and other stakeholders on eGovernment process. In some of these have been successful but others have not been. The study recommends the best way forward in this regard.

CdS films have received a lot of attention attributed to their high transparency, high absorption coefficient, high electron affinity, and outstanding photoconductive property. So far, the best performance of thin film solar cells has been achieved using ultra-thin polycrystalline CdS as a buffer layer. While CdS thin film is the best choice for use as a window/buffer layer, it still experiences optical losses in the low-wavelength region of the solar spectrum due to its low bandgap (2.42 eV). Previous research has shown that nickel widens the bandgap of some semiconductors such as ZnO, CdS, and Sb2S3. Therefore, nickel doping of CdS could be a feasible way of widening its bandgap. The current study is intended to enhance the optical properties of CdS, hence the performance of the solar cells and optoelectronic devices by doping with nickel during film growth to widen the bandgap of CdS. CdS:Ni thin films were synthesized using chemical bath deposition (CBD) with different concentrations of Cd2+ and Ni2+ (15 wt%, 25 wt%, 35 wt%, and 45 wt%). The films were prepared from an aqueous solution of 0.1M cadmium chloride, 1M thiourea, 0.05M nickel (II) chloride, 1M triethanolamine (complexing agent), and 35 wt% ammonia solution (pH regulator). The pH of the reaction bath was ≈11. The samples were annealed in air at varying temperatures (150 – 450 ℃). The influence of nickel concentration and annealing temperatures on structural and optical properties of CdS thin films was studied. The incorporation of nickel into the CdS structure was recognized using X-ray diffraction (XRD). Optical properties, reflectance, and transmittance, in the range 200 nm-1500 nm were determined by UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer. The generated data were used to calculate other optical and solid-state properties like extinction coefficient (k), bandgap (Eg), absorption coefficient (α), refractive index (n), and Urbach energy (EU). The films were found to be polycrystalline and exhibited a mixed-phase structure (cubic and hexagonal structures). It was further observed that the diffraction peaks shifted slightly to the lower angle with increasing Ni2+ concentration. This could be as a result of compressional micro-stress in the CdS lattice, due to the difference in ionic radii of Cd2+ ion and Ni2+ ion. The transmittance of the films was found to increase with an increase in both dopant concentration and annealing temperature. This may be as a result of the improvement in the crystallinity of the films with increasing dopant concentration and annealing temperature. The bandgap of as-prepared CdS:Ni was observed to widen as the nickel concentration was increased. This could be due to donor electrons occupying the states at the bottom of the conduction band blocking thus the low energy transitions (Burstein- Moss effect). On annealing the films, their bandgaps decreased when the temperature was raised upto 250 ℃ and then increased with further annealing at 350 and 450 ℃. The decrease in the energy bandgap could be attributed to the increase in the grain size leading to denser films with lower bandgaps. The increase in the energy bandgap of films annealed at 350 and 450 ℃ could be attributed to the phase transition from cubic (zinc-blend) to hexagonal (wurtzite) structure. The absorption coefficients for all CdS:Ni thin films were found to be greater than 104 cm-1 in the visible region (380 nm to 780 nm) and near-infra red (780 and 2500 nm) regions which confirmed that the films have a direct optical energy gap. CdS:Ni thin films with 25 wt % and annealed at 250 ℃ were found to be the most appropriate films for use in solar cell as window/buffer layers as they recorded the highest transmittance with minimum optical properties (of Urbach energy of 0.16 and the lowest extinction coefficient) and had negative charges as the majority charge carriers. To realize higher conversion efficiencies in thin-film solar cells using CdS as window/buffer, we recommend further studies on film thickness and composition of the CdS:Ni thin films by varying the deposition time, pH of the solution, the concentration of the reagents, and temperature of the reaction bath.

Real estate industry has been one of the most resilient, vibrant and profitable in the world today. The growth has mainly been driven by urbanization, a strong economy and stable legal environment, significant credit expansion and increased spending on infrastructure by the government. Fluctuation in property prices have been experienced in many countries, this is attributed to the financial instability result from the house price boom and bust. According to the Kenya National Bureau of statistics, in Kenya the real estate has been a driver of growth in the past five years. Real estate markets are continuously adjusting to equilibrium where price range is adjusted according to variation in supply influenced by changes national and regional economies. Inflation has pushed up the cost of doing business contributing to the cutting down to the number of properties. This project objective is to investigate the relationship between property price and the inflation rates. The causal research design was used in this study and secondary data which was analyzed using SPSS package. From the findings it was observed that there is no clear defined relationship between the property prices and inflation rates. From the analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistic the study shows that the processed data has the significant level. This indicates that the data is ideal for making conclusion and it also shows that the data sampled represent the population. We can observe that the regression sum of squares is very huge implying that much of the variability is actually accounted for in this regression model. The p-value=0.000<0.05 (significance level) indicating that the model is appropriate and significant. It can also be observed that property prices has been on a continuous increase over the years but gradually while inflation rate rose sharply to its peak (double digit )highest of 19.72% in the last quarter of 2012. It has been fluctuating to extreme variations. The findings of this study shows that there is no clear relationship between the property price and the inflation rate

The quality of drinking water is determined by measuring its physico-chemical, chemical, heavy metals and bacteriological characteristics. Quality drinking water is one which none of the above parameters can result to any significant health risk to its users upon consumption. A study was conducted to determine the sources and quality of drinking water in Isibania settlement, Nyamaharaga sub location of Kuria West Sub- County in Migori County. The following parameters were investigated; physico-chemical parameters comprising of pH, total dissolved solids, total alkalinity and total hardness, chemical; nitrate, nitrite, chloride, fluoride, sulphate, phosphate, sodium, magnesium, heavy metals; iron, manganese, cadmium, zinc, chromium, lead and bacteriological; total coliform and fecal coliform. Sixty closed ended questionnaires were administered to residents of Isibania who were selected through stratified random sampling to establish their demographic characteristics and sources of drinking water. A total of 27 samples were collected through stratified and purposive random sampling from water sources that included wells, streams and rainwater harvest. The questionnaires were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists while physico-chemical parameters were analyzed using portable electrochemical meters that had been standardized in the laboratory. Single Beam UV Spectrophotometric method was used for the analysis of nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, chloride, sulphate and fluoride. Flame Atomization Atomic Absorption Spectroscopic method was used to analyze for sodium and magnesium. Flameless Atomic Absorption Spectroscopic method was used to analyze for cadmium, zinc, chromium, lead, iron and manganese. Bacteriological quality was determined by measuring the most probable number of colonies for total coliform and fecal coliform after incubation. It was established that 98% of the respondents depended on wells, streams and rainwater harvest as sources of their drinking water. It was observed that; 14.8 % of the water samples had an average pH value of 5.3, 26% nitrites of 0.008 mg/L, 15% nitrates of 104.65 mg/L, 3% chromium of 0.08 mg/L, 7% manganese of 0.7 mg/L, 7% lead of 0.04 mg/L, 78% total coliform of 136 MPN and that 56% had fecal coliform of 120 MPN. It was further established that water from 82% of the sources studied was unsuitable for human consumption. This implies that majority of Kuria West residents consume poor quality water according to standards guidelines.

Dividend policy is a very important aspect of financial management but remains as the ten important unresolved problems in finance. This is because it affects such areas as the financial structure of the firm, the flow of liquid funds, liquidity and investor satisfaction. Not only do managers show extra care in their payout decisions, especially in changing payout decisions, but also the markets react strongly to dividend changes, and more so, to dividend omissions and initiations. The purpose of this paper was to study the relationship between dividends changes and subsequent period earnings changes of SACCOs in Kenya. This research involved the use of a descriptive survey. The target population of this study consisted of 4233 SACCOs registered under the Societies Act in Kenya. The SACCOs were selected using Systematic random sampling method. Nairobi was selected as it is the center of SACCO activity as about 40% of all registered SACCOs in the country are found here. In this study emphasis was given to secondary data which was obtained from the financial results filled at the ministry of cooperative and development. The data included the actual dividend paid by the SACCOs and financial statements data over five-year period of 2005-2009. Regression analysis model was used to test the data. The study concluded that there is a positive relationship between dividend changes and subsequent period earnings change in the dividend payment year and previous years but only a significant though modest relationship between dividend change and subsequent year‟s earnings. The study also concludes that managers only incorporate their expectation of earnings in relatively shorter time when changing dividend payment. This is due to various uncertain factors which may prevent managers from incorporating longer future into consideration into financial decisions thus they prefer to use a short time period to raise feasibility.