Firms require different plans to manage their success. Strategies are what determine value and success of firms. Without effective strategic direction, firms cannot achieve their long term value. The goal of this inquiry was to determine some of the plans used by TNH in gaining their power over rivals. The analysis was based on case study model. Information was gained from eight managers at the TNH. Through the use of interview, data was obtained. The analysis was based on content analysis models. From the findings, it is true that adoption of unique strategies promotes the firm success. The inquiry noted that TNH has adopted different plans to achieve their goals. Some of the programs widely used in the firm included the adoption of quality services, the enhancement of stakeholder management and diversification strategies. The study review indicated that the firm also used cost cutting plans, use of innovation and research systems and development of customer management plans. In their operations, the study noted that the firm used focus plans, brand differentiation and offering unique services through stakeholder and partnership models. All these new models and plans improve the success of the firm. As such, it was concluded that TNH should continue using its unique strategies to improve its success. However, service delivery and quality services were viewed as one of the major factors that led to its success. Offering and introducing diverse services including publications on medical aspects, hiring professionals and offering meeting as well as laundry services also improved the firm success in times of economic crisis. It is recommended and considered that the management of the firm should adopt effective diversification plans going forward. The firm should also adopt ways of improving its quality control and avoid errors that may damage its brand image and reputation. Without proper service integration, the firm may fail to achieve its plans. It is imperative that the firm adopt ways of hiring medical experts and motivate their workers to achieve their success. With focus on the East African region, the firm should control their price range to meet the low income needs of various people in the region. This is one of the ways that can help promote sustainability of the services and activities in the firm.

Leadership style is a pattern of behaviour designed to integrate organisational and personal interest in pursuit of an objective. The guidance and direction of the leaders, that is, leadership style is important in ensuring that strategies are implemented successfully and desired outcomes are achieved. As the banking industry is characterised by intense rivalry and competition, this study is important in that it highlights the key role that leadership style plays in strategy implementation and how this influence of leadership style on strategy implementation provides a competitive edge to organisations. The objective of this study was to establish the leadership styles at Co-operative Bank of Kenya and to establish the influence of leadership style on strategy implementation at the Co-operative Bank of Kenya. This study adopted a case study research design where the unit of study was Co-operative Bank of Kenya. The research targeted ten senior managers, that is, two regional managers, four heads of departments, two branch managers and two operations managers. These senior managers were targeted as they are knowledgeable in matters of leadership styles adopted and strategy implementation issues and were therefore able to answer all the relevant questions. The study used primary data. The data was collected through an interview guide. The data collected was analysed using content analysis. The key findings of the study were that Co-operative Bank of Kenya predominantly uses participative (democratic) leadership style and transformational leadership style. Another key finding of the study was that leadership styles influence strategy implementation. The implication of the study was that leadership styles are important in strategy implementation and organisations should pay attention to this and incorporate leadership styles as one of the strategies in ensuring strategy implementation. The study recommends that organisations should be aware that transformational and participative leadership styles are important in an organisation and implement these. The study also recommends that organisations should use the various leadership styles characteristics to influence strategy implementation with regard to goal achievement. For further studies, the study should be advanced to include other ingredients that are key to strategy implementation. This study should also be replicated in the manufacturing industry to validate or invalidate the findings. Further research should also be done on the same study but with a different methodology other than case study.

This research work was conducted in five schools in Thika District. l The research focused on Young Farmers Clubs in the District in order to find out whether there is any role they play, in improving the performance of member studnets. Most of the literature reviewed by the researcher is in line with various Young Farmers Clubs of the world and focuses particularly on the Young Farmers Clubs of Kenya. The lite- rature has been reviewed such that it becomes comprehensive, accurate and meaningful in its context. The instruments used in this research were questionnaires for agriculture students and observation schedules for agri- culture teachers. After their construction they were well validated to ensure their appropriateness in data collection. The information obtained was organised and discussed using descriptive statistics, in form of percentages. Tables were also USwd in data analysis. The conclusions and recommendations made reflect that most schools have Young Farmers Clubs and that these clubs positively influences stgdnets performance in Agriculture. It was therefore, recommended by the researcher that, all schools offering Agriculture should have Young Farmers Club, which should be active and that every Agriculture student should be a member as a matter of policy. It was also recommended that the Young Farmers Clubs should be incorporated in the 8-4-4 curriculum and that more research should be conducted using larger samples around these clubs.

Fruits and vegetable value chains form a crucial part of the food system. However, the chains have been faced with a major challenge of PHLs that has been estimated at about 40%-50%. Developing countries have been characterised by poor production and market linkages. They have also been employing traditional production and marketing systems which have not been efficient in actualising losses, their causes, as well as means to reducing them. The current study was thus conducted in Embu, Machakos, and Nairobi following a value chain perspective to estimate the level of losses, model the drivers of losses, as well as assess the factors that influence adoption of loss reduction practices. Survey data was collected from a total of 74 wholesalers, 98 retailers, and 70 farmers making use of a multistage sampling procedure. Household Interviews and trader’s checklists were used to gather data which was then analysed using descriptive statistics, multiple regression model and heck-Poisson model. Data was collected during the month of May, 2018, and focused on grafted mango varieties including Tommy, Apple, Vandyke, Ngowe, and Kent. The descriptive results revealed that major losses were occurring at the farm level with Embu having higher losses compared to Machakos. Loss levels were also high at retail level with major perceived reasons being low prices, poor quality from farmers (infected) and physical injuries. With regards to adoption of loss reduction practices, the actors preferred use of stick and bag as well as hand picking at the farm level, use of cartons at wholesale level, and peeling at retail level. However, actors complained of time wastage, reduced quantities, and high labour requirements as major limiting factors to adoption of low reduction practices. The regression analysis results at the farm level indicated that age, and output affected the level of PHLs negatively. Schooling, inadequate storage, ICT, and county type affected PHLs positively. At the wholesale level, age, county type, and experience had a negative effect, while purchased quantity, inadequate labour, inadequate transport, and ICT had a positive effect. Retail level results indicated a negative relation with respect to experience, and county type, while a positive influence with respect to income and purchased quantities. The Heck-Poisson model at the farm level showed that credit was a major hindrance to adoption, but there was higher adoption in Machakos than Embu. At wholesale level, actors with organised selling were more likely to adopt loss reduction practices, but PHLs reduced the likelihood of adopting multiple practices. At the retail level, diversification limited adoption of the practices, while those with higher incomes adopted multiple practices. The study concluded that PHLs was evident at all nodes of the post-harvest chain. Thus, at the farm level recommended for farmers to grow the varieties most suitable for the regions and the government should make the varieties available at low cost. At the market level where handling, storage and transportation were key causes of losses, the study recommended for adoption of loss reduction practices to ensure proper handling and improvement of fruit shelf life.

Pepper is among the most widely grown and consumed spice and one of the most important vegetable crops in Eritrea as well as the world. In Eritrea it is an ingredient in almost all traditional dishes of the country, thus it is characterized by its high demand throughout the year. Locally produced pepper is of low quality and low productivity which necessitates intervention for improving it. Thus this research aimed: To study the current status and opportunities of pepper production in Eritrea,the morphological and molecular characterization of locally available germ plasm and its relatedness to selected reference germ plasm from other countries and to evaluate the breeding potential of a local variety crossed with exotic varieties. Current status of pepper production in Eritrea was assessed using a participatory rural appraisal method,collection of secondary data, key informants interviews, focus group discussions and formal household survey The major constraints identified were unavailability of improved and quality seed, inputs and services, insect pests and diseases, small acreage and discouraging land tenure system, improper marketing chain, poor extension service and shortage of water.Opportunities were identified as availability of vast lands, favorable climate, domestic and export markets and high willingness of farmers to grow pepper. During the survey a total of 129 seed samples were collected from farmers and institutions for diversity studies. The collected germ plasm was evaluated at two sites;Hamelmalo and Asmaralocated in two different agro-climatic regions of Eritrea. A randomized complete block design was used in each evaluation. Data was collected on 39 quantitative and qualitative characters. Data were subjected to Analysis of variance, Principal Component Analysis, Principal Coordinate Analysis and Hierarchical clustering with Euclidean distance. Phonological attributes and fruit characteristics (number of fruits per plant, fruit weight, fruit wall thickness, calyx annular constriction and Fruit shape at both pedicel attachment and blossom end), were found to contribute most of the variation. Genotype and location had significant effect on majority of the characteristics evaluated; but the interaction between them was not.The highest Coefficient of Variation was related to fruit characteristics. xxBased on the combined data from the two sites the collections were grouped into four clusters. Cluster one was characterized by intermediate to erect growth habit, presence of calyx annular constriction, elongate fruit shape, mainly light red or dark red but sometimes orange red, light brown and brown mature fruit colourand neck at base of fruit was present or absent. Fruits of this group were relatively short, medium in fruit width and pericarp thickness and an average fruit weight of 15.06 g, number of fruits/plant of 45.28 and yield/plant of 419.68 g. Cluster two was characterized by mainly erect with intermediate growth habit, calyx annular constriction was rarely present, fruit shape was elongate, mature fruit colourwas usually light red but also dark red, brown and rarely light brown and neck at base of fruit was present or absent. Fruits were intermediate in length, slim andrelatively thin pericarp with an average fruit weight of 10.56g, number of fruits/plant of 62.63 and yield/plant 392.48. Cluster four was characterized by Erect or intermediate growth habit, calyx annular constriction was present but some times absent, triangular or elongate fruit shape, light red mature fruit colour, sometimes dark red and rarely brown and neck at base of fruit was usually absent but sometimes mixed. Fruits in this group were intermediate in length, wide and relatively thick pericarp withan average fruit weight of 25.46g, number of fruits/plant of 39.24 and yield/plant of 637.44g.A total of150 seed collectionwere evaluated using 28 SSR markers. The 28 polymorphic markers revealed existence of high genetic variation among Eritrea genotypes and that germplasmmaintained in situ by farmers are heterogeneous. Atotal of 352 alleleswere obtainedwith an average of 13 alleles per marker, Mean Polymorphic Information Content was0.62, mean Genetic Diversity was 0.65 and mean Observed Heterozygosity was0.4. Alarge number of rare alleleswere also observed. A PCoA analysis, neighbour joining clustering and the model based clustering (Structure) classified the collectionsinto 3 groups. However, in the model based clustering; increasing thenumber of populations to 4 (K=4 ) moved all the non-Eritrean genotypes in a separate cluster. This suggests thatthe Eritrean populationsare specificsince thecollections studiedhad a large number of private alleles.

Abstract

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to design and develop electronic file index for Ashinaga Uganda that will provide a convenient, easy-to-use, internet based application for staff and users to retrieve and access the students’ records. The objectives of the study were to: examine the manual system used in retrieval of students’ records at Ashinaga Uganda, establish the challenges of indexing of the student’s records at Ashinaga Uganda, determine the requirements necessary for in designing and developing an electronic file index at Ashinaga Uganda, design and develop an electronic file index for Ashinaga Uganda to ease the retrieval of students’ records. The study employed a case study research design while adopting a qualitative approach in data collection. The researchers purposively selected 12 respondents to participate in the study. Interview, observation, and document review methods were data collection methods used to collect data from the field. The study found out that Ashinaga Uganda uses a manual retrieval system of student’s records which is characterised by lack of immediate retrievals, lack of immediate information storage, lack of prompt updating, error prone manual calculation and preparation of accurate and prompt reports. The study concluded that the implementation of the an electronic file index, training of the staff, purchase more computers and a user friendly system interface would help to improve the storage and retrieval of the student’s records at Ashinaga Uganda. The study recommended that Ashinaga Uganda should implement this electronic file index, train and sensitise all the records staff. The merits and use of the electronic file index in Ashinaga Uganda will ensure the access control to the students’ records, easy search and retrieval of the student’s records and provide the backup for the student’s records.

Reverse Logistics Practices and Performance of Alcoholic Beverage Manufacturers in Kenya

According to the 2003 International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Parks Congress, human-wildlife conflict occurs when wildlife requirements encroach on those of human populations, with costs both to residents and wild animals. In Africa, human-wildlife conflict is particularly prevalent, even in countries with a higher average annual income. Crocodiles still kill people in the Lake Nasser area in Egypt and within towns in Mozambique; leopards still kill sheep within 100 km of Cape Town, South Africa, and lions kill cattle around the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya like was recentry witnessed in Kitengera. Conflict is a dynamic phenomenon that goes through phases, infraction, escalation, controlled menace, and termination. Conflict will always occur when actors in conflict try to pursue their perceptions of mutually in compactable goals by undermining directly or indirectly the goal seeking capability of one another. Another school of thought argues that conflicts are caused by lack of fulfillment of needs. People are displeased because their expectations are not met. This displeasure builds up when they perceive that they are being neglected. Rampant land transformation combined with the increase in various recreational activities and growing public interest in charismatic species, such as large carnivores and endangered species, have increased the human presence in protected areas, wildlife habitats and raised concern about capacities to manage and regulate public access and large-scale use of protected areas. In recent years, the successful recovery of declining or near extinct species populations through wildlife management and protection from overexploitation has also led to new conflicts. The wildlife managers and communities continue to use various strategies to mitigate these conflicts. The causes of these conflicts range from poor governance, inequality access to resources, and resource competition among others. Various strategies have been used to manage wildlife related conflicts. Coexistence is only achieved when the strategies used are able to deescalate the conflicts. This research looks analysis the strategies used in management of wildlife related conflicts and the researcher makes recommendation based on this analysis.