Abstract

Land degradation has poised great threats on food production and the sustainability of conservation areas. This has resulted from the depletion of soil organic carbon which forms the basis of soil fertility rendering farmlands unproductive. Efforts to resuscitate the productivity of farmlands have been made by the stakeholders promoting the adoption of soil organic carbon enhancing technologies (SOCETs). This study therefore, sought to investigate the extent of adoption of SOCETs and the factors affecting the adoption of these SOCETs among smallholder farmers and across the geographical space in the study areas in Kenya and Ethiopia. The dataset consists of 381 households in Ethiopia and 334 households in western Kenya. Probit model was used to predict the factors affecting adoption of SOCETs including fertilizer use, manure use, grass strips, crop rotation, intercropping, agroforestry and residue management. This was followed by the spatial modelling of the factors affecting adoption using Random forest to predict adoption spatially, and geographically weighted regression to show the relationship of adoption to each factor across space. The survey results indicated that fertilizer use was the most adopted technology in both Kenya and Ethiopia at 99% followed by intercropping at 80%, manure at 50 %, use of crop residues at 50%, crop rotation at 40% and grass strips at 30%. Factors constraining adoption were identified as those related to access of information, access to inputs and credit, household characteristics and biophysical characteristics such as rainfall, plot erosion and slope. Farmers who had access to information through extension (p<0.01) or involvement in farmer associations (p<0.05) and those who had access to education (p<0.05) had higher adoption of SOCETs. Those who lived closer to the markets (p<0.05) had higher adoption to fertilizer and agroforestry as compared to manure and grass strips. Farmers who perceived their soils to be fertile (p<0.1) had low adoption of SOCETs while those that perceived their plots to be susceptible to erosion (p<0.05) had low adoption to manure and fertilizers. Adoption prediction using the random forest model and further analysis using geographically weighted regression model showed that, factors affecting the adoption of SOCETs affect the farmers’ decision differently across space. Access to information in an area leads to increased adoption to fertilizer which is discouraged by long distance to markets and difficult access to credit reducing adoption. Therefore, farmers with access to information and who live closer to markets had a higher adoption of SOCETs compared to those who live further away. The study therefore, recommends that the government should support the farmers’ initiative by improving transport and market infrastructure. Also, the governments and the non-governmental organizations involved should invest in farmer education and dissemination of information so as to improve the knowhow of the farmers. Finally, the government should leverage micro-credit services to the farmers such as promoting affordable and appropriate credit facilities. The spatial aspect in the adoption of SOCETs should never be ignored by future research as it proves that failure to consider it would lead to wrong impressions and results. Keywords: Soil organic carbon, Kenya, Ethiopia, sustainable land management technologies, land degradation, adoption, small-scale farmers

This paper examines the effects of FDI flows on Kenyan economic growth over the period 1985-2011. The analysis applies ordinary least square (OLS) regressions technique with net FDI inflows as the main variables of interest. The study finds that FDI impacts positively on Kenyan economic growth although insignificantly with suggested thresholds in literature: trade openness and human capital stock reducing its potential benefit to economic growth in Kenya. Based on these findings, the study suggests that Kenya should embark on policies that promote sound macroeconomic policies to: increase and diversify exports; to provide avenues of utilising the idle or unproductive labour and; to reduce the cost of capital. In addition, the study recommends further research on: whether the source of FDI matters and; the effects of incentives offered so as to capture all the dynamics associated with FDI and economic growth in Kenya.

The banking industry in Kenya has not received due attention as regards corporate governance, and how they measure with established standards. This research project sought to fill this void by achieving two objectives; establish the corporate governance practices that are employed by the major commercial banks in Kenya, and to expose differences between these practices and established best practices. This study used both primary and secondary data to achieve these objectives. Primary data was obtained directly from top management in banks through questionnaire administration that had both closed and open ended questions that provided this research with both qualitative and qualitative data. Secondary data was especially used to establish best practices. The respondents were six top managers of the six major commercial banks in the country that comprise tier one status in the market. Findings indicate that Kenya has made great strides in corporate governance practices in the banking industry through benchmarking and to some extent regulation. The study however exposed shortfalls in representation in boards of management and certain aspects of regulation such as remuneration. The study recommends sound regulatory governance as regards representation. The quality of supervision and prudential guidelines need to be carefully crafted.

Nowadays, it is rare for a power distribution system to run without a unique protective device to handle transients produced by energy theft, lightning, falling trees, and animals such as monkeys, among other things. Researchers employing reclosers to regulate transients have previously examined reliability needs. Non-technical power loss and cost reduction, on the other hand, have not been adequately addressed in order to improve high-quality power supply. As a result, customers have always had to pay extra for system losses. This thesis discusses optimal reclosing, cost of energy not served, and the firefly algorithm strategy to combat this threat. In the event of temporary faults, reclosers are employed to temporarily or permanently lock out the distribution system, preventing damage to system apparatus. The distribution system successfully functions on computerized intelligent settings, based on predefined transient faults in high-risk locations, with appropriate reclosing. Recloser's accurate reactions in diverse situations are intelligently determined. This thesis built an intelligent system that uses the firefly algorithm to install reclosers at specific points along distribution lines, as well as manage and monitor transient faults. As a result, utilizing the optimal reclosing technique, energy not served (ENS) and associated costs are minimized. The results and analysis of the used method show a cost reduction of sixty-one (61%) on energy not served (ENS) during transient. This saving is made feasible by the recloser's optimal placement and reaction time. Other than the Firefly algorithm, the radial distribution system used to assess this can be replaced with a closed network and another new optimization method.

This study evaluated the effects of organic and inorganic soil fertilization on forage grass (Brachiaria brizantha cv. xaraes) yields, soil N availability, and soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Central Kenya. A field experiment was conducted at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) farm in Nairobi, Central Kenya. A completely randomized block design was set up with three replications in blocks (20 m × 15 m) approximately 50 m apart from each other, each containing six plots (4 m × 2 m) with Brachiaria brizantha cv. xaraes. Treatments included one inorganic and four organic soil fertilizers, namely NPK fertilizer, farm-yard cattle manure (FYM), FYM plus biochar (FYM-BC), FYM converted to bioslurry via anaerobic digestion, legume intercropping with Lablab (Lablab purpureus), and control (zero fertilizer amendment). Greenhouse gas emissions (N2O, CO2 and CH4) were measured using the static chamber approach for a period of eight months. In addition, soil samples were taken for determination of mineral N concentrations in the forms of nitrate (NO3 - ) and ammonium (NH4 + ). Plant biomass sampling for Brachiaria brizantha cv. xaraes grass yields was conducted every ten weeks and above-ground plant dry matter was determined. All fertilizer types were applied at a rate of 45 kg N ha-1 one week after each harvest, except for Lablab intercropping, which relied solely on biological nitrogen fixation via the legume (rate not determined in this study). The study was conducted between October 2018 and August 2019 comprising of four harvest seasons of 10 weeks each: short rains (SR, October 2018 to January 2019), hot dry season (HD, January 2019 to March 2019), long rains (LR, March 2019 to June 2019), and short rain 2; cold dry season (CD, June 2019 to August 2019). Treatment and season significantly influenced daily CH4 uptakes (p <0.01 and p = 0.009) but did not show significant interaction (p = 0.093). Methane uptake was similar across all the treatments following the order of Control > Lablab > FYM > FYM-BC > NPK, except for Bioslurry which exhibited significantly lower (-2.69±4.47) CH4 uptake (p< 0.01). Within the xiv seasons, significantly lower (-11.43±4.42) and higher (-21.23±1.11) CH4 uptakes were recorded during the HD and CD seasons, respectively while SR and LR seasons had similar CH4 uptake. Treatment and season had significant (p < 0.01 two-way ANOVA) effect on CO2 emissions. CO2 emissions in FYM-BC and FYM alone were on average lower by 61.6% compared to the control which had the highest (94.76±19.32). Seasonal CO2 emissions followed the order of CD>HD>LR>SR seasons, respectively. Treatment and season also interacted significantly (p<0.01 two-way ANOVA) to influence CO2 emissions. Lower (44.33±15.67) emissions occurred under FYM alone during the HD season while the highest (157.54±2.77) CO2 emissions was recorded under the control treatment during the SR season. FYM-BC and FYM alone had significantly (p < 0.01 two-way ANOVA) lower (6.70±14.48 and 8.20±15.67 respectively) N2O emissions compared to the control which had the highest (12.95±3.61). Significantly higher N2O emissions were recorded during the SR season while HD, LR and CD seasons had similar emission rates. Significant (p < 0.01 two-way ANOVA) interaction between treatment and season was also observed with NPK recording the lowest (4.21±0.83) emissions during the second season relative to control which had the highest (27.16±0.90) N2O emissions during the first season. Furthermore, fertilizer treatments significantly influenced NH4 + and NO3 - availability in the soil (p < 0.001). The highest NH4 + concentration was recorded in the NPK treatment 14 days after fertilization (21.20±27.01 µg g -1 DM), while the lowest NH4 + concentration was recorded in the Lablab treatment (6.62±8.02 µg g-1 DM). Similar to NH4 + , significantly higher NO3 - -N concentration was observed in the NPK plots 14 days after fertilization (61.41±38.81 µg g-1 DM), while the lowest NO3 - concentration was found in the Lablab plots 14 days after the last harvest (37.09±25.10 µg g-1 soil). Brachiaria brizantha cv. xaraes yields for the four harvests followed the order Control > FYM > NPK > FYM-BC > Bioslurry > Lablab, but these differences were not significant (p ₌ 0.957). There were, however, significant differences in xv yields of Brachiaria across the four seasons (p<0.01), with highest yields recorded in the long rains at 4.72±1.47 Mg DM ha-1 and lowest yields recorded in the cold dry season at 1.54±0.51 Mg DM ha-1. The total mean biomass for the entire study period (8 months) was 10.4t ha-1±1.3. Taken together, our findings do not show any significant effect of different soil fertilizers on Brachiaria brizantha cv. xaraes yields. This could partly be attributed to the short study period of eight months in a newly established area. Furthermore, the soil had been ploughed before grass planting, which could have mobilized N and other nutrients from soil organic matter mineralization and therefore might have masked a potential fertilizer effect. Whether fertilizer effects become more clearly distinguishable in the long term requires long-term measurements. Concerning soil GHG emissions, the findings have shown that at the applied fertilization rate, organic fertilizers did not increase soil N2O emissions in this tropical site, indicating a potential option for low-emission forage grass production in SSA.

The emergence and determined survival of women in high flying jobs today in corporations and organizations depends on their own willingness to confront and fight strong barriers and hurdles that stand their way, some too grave to confront and others less weighty. The main objective of this study was to investigate the factors affecting career progression of women in corporate sector using a case of Standard Chartered Hank in Nairobi. The study was guided by four specific research objectives: examining the perception of management towards women's career progression: establishing if balancing work and family responsibility impacts on women's career: identifying policies and practices which discourage women's career progression and measuring the factors which impede the career development of women employees at Standard Chartered Bank. The study adopted a descriptive research design. A representative of 60 respondents who making up more than 10% of the population for questionnaire administration and three focused group discussions of 5-8 women employees. Primary data was collected through questionnaires, key informants and focused group discussions. The collected data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences and presented using mean, frequencies and standard deviation. The study concludes that at the management at the Standard Chartered has a positive perception towards women employees and as a result this perception affects female employees' career progression to a large extent. The study also concludes that the human resource management policies do embrace female employees and that the Human resource management policies at the Bank promote a balanced employee work life as well as affect female employees' career progression to a great extent. The study concludes that the difficulty of balancing work and family life also results in a higher degree of stress related, among other things. The study recommends that as a first step toward achieving gender equality and promoting the career progression of women, organizations can encourage the hiring, retention, and advancement of women by adopting work/life policies such as daycare centers for new mothers, work adjustments hours for new mothers to mention a few.

The goal of this research is to examine how peace initiatives have capitalized on the existence of shared interests, in order to transfer them into opportunities to promote peace. To offer insight on how cooperative processes have been designed and implemented in a conflict-sensitive way and finally To provide lessons learned about challenges and successes of water cooperation as a means to building peace in Marsabit County Water is a fundamental resource, indispensable to all forms of life on earth. Reliable freshwater resources are crucial to human and environmental health, as well as economic development. Almost every sector of human activity depends on water resources, from agriculture to industrial production and power generation. Furthermore, water resources are shared at the local, national and international levels, as water flows ignore state boundaries. Examining the Borana traditional water allocation policies in different parts of Marsabit County, this research suggests that water can be used as a platform to induce cooperation over larger political issues, ultimately settling conflicts in the county between different communities. The main premise is that water has been used as a catalyst for peace and cooperation rather than conflict. Evidence is provided to support this claim through examples from Marsabit County. This study will utilize Peter Haas theory of environmental cooperation. The study utilized both primary and secondary source of data. These studies focused on the review of the relation of these issues to local and intrastate conflict, not peaceful relations between groups originating from sharing water resources. It might be possible to envisage that water is a source of conflict, but in this context, the study examine if water has in any way contributed to peace building. Water as a source of international conflict seems to loom large not only in the public mind but also in political circles. The current trend for water co-operation as a conflict prevention tool and the idea of water as a pivotal factor in conflict prevention is lacking in the literature. Considering the increased significance of war in relation to water issues, one might foresee a heightened interest in researching on water and conflict prevention area.

Historically, conflict at the workplace was viewed as unwelcome and to be avoided, the most recent data though shows that this thinking has shifted to an increased willingness to address the conflict early and in more informal ways. There will always be conflict between the different participants within the project phases, being able to handle disputes and solve them has slowly and surely become one of the skills required of project staff and program managers. When conflicts in the workplace remain unresolved, project performance is influenced which might lead to poor project deliverables, and loss or high turnover of staff. This study was seeking to explore the influence of conflict management strategies on the performance of youth projects: A case of Amani Kibera which is a community-based youth organization. Similar studies have been done in public companies with many employees and complex hierarchical structures such as universities and breweries. This specific study focused on a youth-led community-based development organization, staff 36, in Nairobi County and was specific to the case of conflict strategies and their influence the performance of youth projects at Amani kibera. The precise objectives of this study were to find out the influence of integrating, dominating, compromising, and accommodating strategy of conflict management on youth project performance in Amani Kibera. The management theories that guided this study were the Human Relations Theory which centers on worker fulfillment or the importance of the individual. This theory was further supported by the Contingency Theory which says that in any situation the best practices depend solely on the contingencies of the specific situation. The target population was the 36 staff members of the Amani Kibera Community-based organization. They include 6 board members, 1 project manager, 5 project officers, and 23 youth group leaders. The sampling method used was the entire population for the case study. Data was collected using an online questionnaire which had both open and closed questions for triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data. The gathered data was analyzed using descriptive, thematic, and inferential statistics with the data being presented descriptively using frequencies and percentages. Pearson’s correlation was used to analyze the inferential statistic data and the results presented. In this study Spearman was used to measure the level of association between the independent and dependent variables. On the influence of integrating strategy and performance of youth projects a Composite Mean of 4.00 and a strong correlation value of 0.770 were found. On the influence of Dominating strategy on youth project performance, a Composite Mean of 3.44 and a moderately positive correlation value of 0.454 were found. On the influence of comprising strategy and youth project performance, a Composite Mean of 3.68 and a moderate positive correlation value of 0.500 were found. On the influence influence of accommodating strategy of conflict management on youth project performance, a Composite Mean of 3.81 and a moderately positive correlation value of 0.509 were achieved. The study came to the conclusion that the performance of youth projects was affected positively by the independent variables at Amani Kibera.

This survey sought to find out the effects of social networking sites on traditional media. The study targeted college and university students in Nairobi. The government, non-governmental organisations, and private companies use conventional media to communicate with masses through public education, information and advertising, among other uses. The main objective of the study was to investigate media use patterns among college-going students and how their use of new technology affects the traditional media. To achieve the goal of the study, the researcher focused on five key objectives that involved identification of uses and gratifications among the college and university students, investigating the displacement effects of the new media upon the conventional media, establishing how emergence of new media technology impacts on the use of the existing media, finding out the displacement effects of the new media upon the old and to identify the emerging trends in use of modem media technologies compared to the older. The research identified three theories relevant to the study namely the Uses and Gratifications, Displacement and Technological Determinism theories. The Uses and Gratifications Theory was important in identifying the satisfaction and motivations of the respondents in use of the new and old media as well as assess the impact of social media use on the traditional media. And given that the possible effect would be audiences shifting to the new media at the expense of the old, Displacement Theory came in handy to establish whether users are likely to embrace the social media and lead to the demise of the old media. Technological Determinism Theory was significant in explaining the role of computer mediated communication and the impact of its use on human communication. The study was based on descriptive research, which involved administering questionnaires and face-to-face interviews to generate both quantifiable and qualitative data targeting student respondents aged between 18 and 35 in learning institutions within Nairobi County. The design sought to gauge their perceptions and attitudes in old and new media use. The study yielded two major findings based on the areas that were investigated that give a more or less similar findings by other related studies, so far. In terms of motivations for media use and gratifications, the research found out that each medium plays a special role in meeting the needs of the audience despite the fact that all the media compete for their attention. The study also established that the old and new media complement one another and are interdependent. To retain and increase audiences, the old media are adapting the new technologies and perfecting the functions that they play better than the social media, therefore, minimising the displacement effects of the new media. The researcher came up with several recommendations to media managers and other stakeholders in the industry. The study recommends that managers of the traditional media should fully engage audiences in the social media platforms and direct them to their various products. Another important recommendation of this study is for the media organizations to be dynamic and proactive in their marketing strategies by emulating technology companies. They should empower their audiences* with tools and gadgets such as in-house software applications to enable them use the new technology like iPads and mobile telephones to access media content they generate.