Participatory Forest Management is a framework that has widely been adopted in management of forests because it includes community and other stakeholders in forest management. The Forest Act (2005) provided way in which PFM would be implemented in Kenya to provide a solution to the problems facing the forestry sector. It provided an opportunity for the community to participate in the management of the forest through co-management of the forest with KFS using Community Forest Associations who together with other stakeholders come up with a Participatory Forest Management Plans for forests that inter alia establishes the CFA’s roles, responsibilities and their user rights in the forest reserve. In the initial stages of implementation of Participatory Forest Management in Kenya it was noted that CFA’s face various challenges in their attempts to improve the socio economic status of the forest-adjacent communities which if not addressed, may defeat the purpose of PFM and revert the state of forests to a situation where there is open access to forests and deforestation. This project was aimed at assessing how PFM has been implemented in Kinangop, Nyandarua County, the steps they have taken to improve the socio-economic status of the community and the challenges they are facing in improving livelihoods. The findings from questionnaires, interviews, observation and literature review show that a CFA was established with a specific purpose and objectives. However most of the objectives are yet to be met due to various challenges such as lack of funds. The report is finally concluded with several recommendations that can be adopted by the CFA and other stakeholders to address the challenges they face in socio-economic empowerment of communities.

The Mau Forests Complex (MFC) is considered the most important of the five main watershed areas in Kenya because of its economic, social and environmental contribution to the country. The forest is under increasing threat from irregular and ill‐planned settlements, encroachments and illegal forest resource exploitation. In recent years, the Government of Kenya (GoK) has taken significant steps towards addressing the threat of rapid ecological degradation of its forest resources. A new forest policy and law were adopted in 2005. The forest law has placed significant emphasis on co‐management of forest resources with local communities and the private sector and lays the foundation for the strict control of logging and human settlements. Another major step in addressing this issue was to commence restoration activities of the forests with focus set on Mau Forest. The Mau Narok forest is a part of the Mau Forest Complex where such restoration activities have taken place. The past restoration efforts at the Mau Narok Forest have not been successful evidenced by the massive dying of newly planted trees leading to duplication of reforestation efforts. There is no research study that documents the challenges and the opportunities of restoring the Mau Narok Forest. The purpose of the study was to investigate the challenges and opportunities of restoring the forest as the way to improve seedling survival rate. This study was based in Mau Narok Division, and attempted to assess the factors that retard the restoration efforts and also came up with the opportunities that had not been seized. The study was able to unmask most of the challenges and opportunities. Among the challenges, included insufficient funds to undertake the restoration activities fully that specifically involve planting, tendering and protection exercises. In the opportunities, the local community has a great potential to participate fully in the conserving and restoring the Mau Narok Forest.

Biogas technology in Kenya dates back to the 1957.Efforts to promote the technology in most potential areas had not been effective in the country until May 2007 when the plan for implementation of national biogas energy programme started with the formation of the Kenya Biogas Task Force. Despite the potential and demand the adoption level has been low and on a decreasing rate. The study sought to assess the level of people‘s awareness and attitude towards biogas technology, to explore the root causes of low technology adoption in relation to the efforts so far executed in biogas promotion, to assess the efficacy of biogas technology in comparison to other sources of household energy and sought to explain the roles and challenges stakeholders face in their effort to promote biogas technology in Kisii county. Multi-Stage sampling procedure involving purposive selection of resource persons who have been reached by biogas programmes with the purpose of capturing the experiences of biogas users and potential adopters. The study was conducted in the peri-urban of five town centers in Kisii County namely:Kisii,Sunek,Mosocho,Marani and Kiogoro.The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative approaches in data collection and analysis. A conceptual framework based on the adoption theories guided the analysis of factors influencing biogas adoption. Study findings show that 85.71% of the population was aware of the technology and only 114 units of t in 2007 and 167 units as by 2013 December. Biogas technology adoption has continued to decrease. The decrease has been associated with reduction and subsequent withdrawal of subsidies for biogas plant constructions. Based on the results of factors influencing biogas technology adoption in the area, starting from the most influential to the least are: high installation costs of plants, multiple use of household fuels, level of income and education ,promotion of the technology, and from the experience of biogas users, biogas was very efficient when well maintained and very clean, no health implications were reported though they complained of inadequate combustion efficiency to provide more energy for cooking and inadequate or rather lack of facilities and appliances such as stoves and lamps. There was minimal coordination between stakeholders and lack of a central coordinating body. The study further identified that the government institutions have not fully engaged in promoting biogas technology in the area and instead the responsibility has been left to NGOs without effectual intervention on other factors including information dissemination, access to credits motivation and coordination. Based on the study, the researcher recommends that first the ministry of energy should harmonize the policy on energy and environment so as to uphold biogas technology as an alternative clean green energy, secondly there is need for a central biogas coordinating body at the national and regional level to coordinate and monitor stakeholder roles as well as financial management and also introduce technologies that are cheap such as the plastic tubular design through enhanced research.

Kenya is a growing economy and it is in the list of third world countries what is commonly referred to as developing countries. As a result of this its poor-rich gap keeps on growing as a result of the high stone quarrying and its impacts on the environment by able investors and as research indicates 4 out of every 5 Kenyans live in rural areas and this may clearly imply that most of the rural folk live in high poverty levels. To sought out this problem of high poverty levels research has clearly shown that making improvements in the quarrying of minerals such as stones has contribute significantly to achieving global development priorities, particularly the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving poverty and hunger reduced by 2015. A significant body of research shows that development of a viable stone quarrying sector is vital for both economic growth and poverty reduction (World Bank, 2004; DFID, 2004a). Rural stone quarrying is thus one of the key items in the achievement of development in most counties in Kenya in this case Nyambera in Kisii County because of the fact that rural areas carry a large percentage of the Kenyan population. Most people engage stone quarrying because of low finance involved in the activity. Initially financial service providers assumed that it was not viable to invest in stone quarrying areas this is because of constraints such as the weakness of rural finance markets as well as their dependence on agriculture to earn a living this is according to various scholars such as (Zeller and Sharma, 1998; Buchenau, 2003) who believe that positive effect of rural finance on growth, poverty and livelihoods is limited by the weakness of rural financial markets. Stone quarrying has also been hindered by physical access that is the distance between the consumers and the service providers among other constraints. However, with time the constraints have been overcome with the pursuit of the millennium development goals. Many developing countries Kenya inclusive have aligned themselves towards alleviating over-exploitation of minerals like stone quarrying. Through the help of the Kenyan government there was a creation of the agent quarrying legislation that has changed the picture of rural stone quarrying dramatically. It has enabled community in nyambera to create a wide network of agents who carry out various services such as stone agents, brokers and so many other services addressing the problem of physical access on stone quarrying. The commercial stone quarrying industry also has not been left behind in making this goal a reality. It will use all the necessary data collection techniques such as questionnaires, interview and observations as well as the descriptive research design to make this research a success. The tools used for the study will be tested including the questionnaires and the interview schedule for purposes of ascertaining whether it is fit for the fieldwork. The research will be carried out in Nyambera in Kisii County to ascertain the effect of stone quarrying in the environment.

Artisanal mining has been for many years disregarded, where large scale mining that involves large scale extraction of minerals such us valuable metals, oil and gas has been documented and given much concentration. Small scale mining however has had a significant role to play in the developing countries, where it takes opportunity of the abundant available labor while only requiring limited amounts of less than abundant capital. Nevertheless, this sector of the economy surrounded by much enthusiasm has a lot of problems, which has plagued it; poor health and safety, wasted mineral resources, and environmental degradation (Noronha, 1998). This sector is not affected by other pollutant problems like those experienced by the mining industry involved in metals and minerals, because the process of extraction is merely physical, and more recently involves the use of some machinery to ease the process. However, this does not mean that stone quarrying does not have its fair share of numerous environmental effects, which are actually serious. Ndarugu is among the areas in the country where such quarries exist, and they pose a blatant disregard for the environment. The research project aims at looking at these environmental effects, coming up with mitigation measures and recommendations to tackle these issues. The major effects were examined first by looking at relevant literature, and finally collecting data on the ground and providing a comprehensive analysis. Data was analyzed and represented statistically through use of graphs and photographs collected in the field. The findings show that the quarrying activities are a great source of negative environment impacts. The issue is greatly accelerated by the fact that the quarries are abandoned after use and no elaborate rehabilitation plan is available, and furthermore the sector is highly unregulated with no proper legislations and policies.

The recent irregular trends in weather patterns have brought about challenges and opportunities in key sectors of the economy especially in developing countries. Agriculture and tourism are just but examples of these sectors that have been widely impacted by climate variability. Countries as Kenya where agriculture and tourism are the leading earners of the economy has seen a downhill scale in the recent years and climate variability is one of the factors that can held responsible. This challenge is not only posing a threat to the economy of a nation but on food security as well. The study was carried out in a small village in Cherangani Constituency-Trans-NzoiaEast Sub County called Chisare. It aimed at assessing the impacts of climate variability to small scale arable farmers in Trans-Nzoia; evaluating the adaptation strategies to climate variability by small scale arable farmers in Trans-Nzoia; assessing the existing farming methods among small scale arable farmers in Trans-Nzoiaand developing a climate variability adaptation action plan. Both secondary and primary sources of data were used in collecting data. A sample of 25 small scale arable farmers and 4 institutional interviews were used in data collection. Additional primary data was collected through observation and photography. Data analysis was conducted both qualitatively and quantitatively to derive various attributes according to the research objectives. Result from the data analysis show that although efforts are being made by small scale arable farmers who largely depend on weather patterns for growth of their crops, the agriculture sector is generally facing challenges from the recent drastic change in weather patterns threatening food security in the country because Trans-Nzoia if one of the food basket counties in Kenya and therefore it needs urgent actions to avert the situation. The study proposes a climate variability adaptation action plan which can be used to promote the capacities of farmers to adapt to this current situations.

The study examines the English pronunciation patterns of Hausa broadcasters. The research was carried out based on the presupposition that the English spoken by Hausa broadcasters is different from RP English and is likely to mislead or distort the communication process. The study was guided by three objectives which centred on an examination and analysis of the way Hausa broadcasters articulate RP English consonants, vowels and consonant clusters. The research used Optimality Theory and adopted the descriptive research design. The study was carried out in Bauchi State Northeast Nigeria and data were obtained through production test and recording of news broadcasts from four public broadcasting stations in Bauchi. These include two radio stations and two television stations. Moreover, twenty-two Hausa broadcasters from the four media outlets were selected as respondents. The findings revealed that the speech by the majority of the respondents does not conform to RP English because it is characterized by semantic alteration which changes the meaning of words where words like pull are rendered full, heal as hill, upper as offer, raid as red and exact as exert. The speech is also marked by the Hausa English accent but this does not interfere with meaning. These problems were caused by phonological processes such as: substitution, frication, stopping, affrication, long vowel reduction, monophthongization of diphthongs, epenthesis and deletion. The majority of the respondents English language Markedness constraints outranked Faithfulness constraints.

Academic performance of schools is important to education stakeholders in Kenya. In the past, announcement of results of national examinations created negative or positive reactions. Parents and stakeholders complain about poor school performance and attribute it to principal’s leadership. Research has established that certain leadership styles influence instructional effectiveness, organizational climate and job satisfaction of teachers, therefore stimulating good school performance. Some studies showed that female and male are similar while others showed they are different. There was no consensus on use of leadership styles thus, the study objectives was firstly to establish the leadership styles of female and male principals, and consequently; examine the relationship between use of directive, supportive, participative, achievement oriented leadership styles and students’ performance. The study had six null hypotheses. The study used correlation study design. The correlation was between two variables, leadership styles and performance categorised by gender of the principals. The study was conducted in Nyandarua, Nairobi and Garissa counties. The population targeted 214 schools, 214 principals and 3198 teachers. The sampled population was 10% of respondents. Stratified and purposive sampling was used to arrive at the sample. Stratified sampling was conducted to separate schools headed by either male or female principals and purposive sampling conducted to get principals who had been in the current school for 4 years and above. Thus, 24 principals, 24 HODs and 48 teachers were sampled. The sample was small because firstly, it was only principals who had been in the current school, for at least four years who participated in the study. Secondly, HODs and teachers were only drawn from schools where principals were sampled. Data was collected through questionnaires with a Likert scale measuring leadership styles. Quantitative data collected on differences in principal’s utilization of leadership styles was analysed using descriptive statistics and t test. ANOVA was used to compare group means of student performance when principals used leadership styles. The relationship between principals’ use of leadership styles and school performance was analysed using regression and presented in tables. The findings of this study showed a significant difference in use of leadership styles between female and male public school principals. The study also found that principals from the different counties preferred different styles of leadership. In addition, there was a relationship between directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented leadership style and performance. When combined, all the four leadership styles (directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented) had a positive relationship with student performance. However, the relationship was not significant. The study recommended that school leaders change their leadership styles to cater the gender differences identified in the study to improve students’ performance.In addition the study recommended that factors that hinder effectiveness of leadership styles be investigated in future research.

This study undertook to critically examine, from a linguistic perspective, the gender disparities in the National Assembly of Kenya between 2013 and 2017. Through an idea of language as discourse, the study emphasizes the linguistic ideologies at play in producing and sustaining these disparities. The study uses Fairclough‟s (2001) and Van Dijk‟s (2001) approaches to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in order to understand the gendered discursive realm of politics in the National Assembly. The study objectives were: to identify and describe the linguistic items and expressions used by politicians and media opinion makers to describe the 2013-2017 National Assembly politicians in Kenya; to find out how the linguistic items and expressions construct the politicians; to point out the common ideologies held by the electorate about the politicians; and to establish how the use of the linguistic items and expressions affects the participation of National Assembly politicians in Kenya. The study, through a cross-sectional research design and a purposively selected sample, collected data through one-onone unstructured interviews with ten Kenya National Assembly politicians, reviewed newspaper and television documents from four newspaper groups and four television channels, and administered semi-closed questionnaires to eighty members of the electorate. Data were recorded by the use of a digital audiorecorder, flash disc, field notes, print outs and photocopies. Data consisted of verbal (written and spoken) and nonverbal gendered discourses, and gendered beliefs. Data were analysed qualitatively, through thematic analysis and simple descriptive statistics, and presented in written descriptions and tables. The study found out that there are gendered ideologies about the Kenya National Assembly politicians among the politicians themselves, the media and the electorate, which to a large extent portray men politicians positively and to a large extent portray women politicians in undesirable ways. These gendered ideologies, to a large extent favour men contestants, and to a large extent work against prospective and first-time women contestants. The study also found out that women politicians are not passive recipients of the distorted constructions and gendered ideologies, but they contest the distortions and ideologies, and encourage each other. The study concludes that, although the gendered ideologies have been naturalized through language, they are mere gimmicks meant to keep women out of politics and maintain the status quo. The study findings not only complement other studies in Critical Discourse Analysis, but also equip relevant stake-holders with a language-based analysis of the key issues which affect progress towards balanced representation, decision making and resource allocation, thus providing a unique vantage point onto the questions of gender and development in Kenya.

Poor reading ability is of great educational concern because it has been linked to truancy, low completion rates, and educational wastage. Research among public schools in Kenya has shown failure among pupils to attain basic literacy after three years of school. The purpose of this study was to establish the extent to which language use and literacy environment predict reading fluency and text comprehension among class four pupils in Busia County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were to determine the extent to which language use predicts reading fluency and text comprehension, and literacy environment predicts reading fluency and text comprehension in English. The study examined the interaction effect between language use and literacy environment on reading fluency and text comprehension respectively. Gender differences in text comprehension and reading fluency were investigated. It was hoped that the findings would inform the current understanding of reading achievement among class 4 pupils. The study was informed by David Rumelhart’s schema theory and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. A correlation research design was adopted. The select population were pupils in class 4 from public primary schools in Busia County, Kenya in 2018. Stratified, simple random and cluster sampling techniques were applied in the study. A sample of 388 pupils and 9 teachers were selected from seven mixed public primary schools. A pilot study using 30 class 4 pupils from a non-participating school helped establish the validity and reliability of the research instruments. Questionnaires, interviews, and observation methods were used to collect data on language use and literacy environment, while a reading test measured pupils’ reading fluency and text comprehension. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis and Quantitative data was analysed using linear regression analysis, two-way ANOVA, and t-tests which tested the respective null hypotheses at α=0.05. There was no statistically significant relationship between language use and reading fluency and between language use and text comprehension. However, the use of English within the school context significantly predicted reading fluency F (4,383) = 4.44, p < 0.05 and text comprehension F (4,387) = 5.40, p < 0.05. Literacy environment significantly predicted reading fluency and text comprehension. There was no significant interaction effect between language use and school literacy environment on reading fluency. A significant interaction effect was present between language use and school literacy environment on text comprehension F (2,388) =10.84, p< 0.05. A significant gender difference in reading fluency was observed but there was no significant gender difference in text comprehension. The study concluded that the use of language of instruction in school and not at home is a significant contributor to reading fluency and text comprehension. For effective reading, the provision of reading resources alone is insufficient, and reading support is important for reading achievement. It was recommended that teachers should model correct English language use and be encouraged to teach reading for text comprehension. A reading program geared towards improving reading among boys was also recommended.