Strategic training plays an imperative role in the implementation of organizational strategies. Organisations are therefore encouraged to take a more a more strategic approach to training and align training with the strategic goals of the organization. However, despite the large literature body supporting the use of strategy-linked training, majority of organisations have done little effort in this direction. In most organisations, training programs and needs have little to do with the organisation’s strategic initiatives and goals. In Kenya, to streamline its operations and enhance accountability in the KPS several reforms have been instituted since 2003. Most of the KPS reforms among them; the integration of the administration police and the general duty officers, adoption of the integrated communication command and control centre, police infrastructure modernization as well as the implementation of new training curriculum among others are some of the reforms that have been successfully realised and operationalized. However, a number of reforms have not been fully and timely implemented and are still work in progress. This study sought to determine the relationship between strategic training practices and reforms implementation in the Kenya Police Service. The key theories guiding the study included the dynamic capabilities theory and the Institutional theory. The study adopted a case study research design and primary data was collected from the Kenya Police Service. The data was gathered using an interactive interview guide. The targeted interviewees were 13 senior administrators in the 13 Kenya Police Units. The gathered qualitative raw data was analyzed using content analysis where the generated responses was categorized based on identified themes and the study objectives. The findings revealed that effective learning and training portfolio diversification, expanding the training needs of officers, accelerating the pace of training, aligning training and development, communication of learning objectives, modifying the work environment to support learning and knowledge sharing and creation enhanced reforms implementation in the Police Service. The study concluded that strategic training practices enhances reforms implementation at the Kenya Police Service. The study recommends that the KPS continuously review the strategic training practices to aid in the implementation of pending reforms. The study also recommends that the KPS improves their communication of learning objectives, as well as modify the working environment to support learning and enhance reforms implementation. Lastly, the study recommends that KPS designs effective training strategies that align with strategic goals for enhanced implementation of the set targets and objectives.

This study sought to determine the effect of terrorist activities on volatility of returns from NSE 20 share index securities. The occurrence of terrorist events, the region where a terrorist event breaks out, the size and target of the event were investigated to find out whether they influence volatility of securities that make the NSE 20 share index. Time series daily data on prices of the NSE 20 share index and the volume of traded shares were obtained from the Nairobi Securities Exchange database for the period spanning between 2001-2020. Data on days when terrorist events broke out, the size of the terrorist event, the target and region of occurrence was obtained from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). Data on political stability of Kenya as a control variable was obtained from World Bank’s database on governance indicators. The Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) model was used in carrying out the empirical estimation. Specifically, the Ordinary Least Squares approach was embraced in estimating the causal relationship between outbreak of terrorist events and volatility of returns from the NSE 20 share index securities. The study findings indicates that the return of securities varies yearly due to the terror shock effect. Figure 4.1 indicates that a year before the terror attack there is a high return and a year after there is a low return due to poor performance. The returns results were non-linear and dependent on some market factors that affect the day-to-day purchase of the stock. The unit root test was conducted and the ADF was negative indicated by -9.23. Since the value was larger and stronger, we accept that the terror attack affected the stock price in the year 2012 to 2014 in the Westgate mall attack. The year that the stock returns were affected at a high rate was given by the year 2013 under Mpeketoni attack where the ADF had a strong negative of 12.05. This was further explained that the sum of the ARCH and GARCH (α+β) is indicated by 1.20 which explains that the volatility rate to have an increasing return in the year 2014 in Mpeketoni attack. This shows that the terror attack affected the securities return in the years 2013 to 2015. The ADF statistics is indicated by -10.43 and -11.72 for the year 2015 and 2018 respectively this indicates that the terror attack has affected the securities return in the companies listed in NSE. It was indicated that the sum of the ARCH and GARCH (α+β) in 2019 was indicated by 0.800 which explains that the volatility rate to have an increasing return. The variation coefficient is indicated to be 0.31 this indicates that holding all the factors constant the terror shock affects the securities return with 31%. The study recommends that there should be further study to determine other effects of terror shock especially economically to determine the chain of the prices of the securities in the security market.

Tax compliance is a very important facet of modern day strategic planning. Organizations adopt strategic planning practices to continuouslyenhance tax compliance. Strategic planning enables SMEs to be proactive about their tax liabilities. Firms use planning to better understand their income and important transactions so that they can predict their tax liabilities at year's end, take efforts to mitigate tax effects, and avoid tax shocks. This enhances tax compliance for SMEs. “The main aim of this research was to analyze the influence of strategic planningon tax compliance among SMEs in Mombasa County. The following objectives were used to provide guidance; to determine the influence of Environmental scanningon tax compliance, to study the effect of strategy formulation on tax compliance, to study the effect of strategy implementationon tax compliances and to establish the effect of strategy evaluationon tax compliance. This research adopted the contingency theory, strategic fit theoryand resource based theory. A descriptive research design was used. The 5655 registered SMEs in Mombasa County served as the research population. Sample size was 110 respondents selected from Private education, Health and Entertainment. This research relied on primary data collected through questionnaires. Google forms were made use of in the questionnaire administration. The collected data was converted into quantitative format to make analysis using statistical package for social sciences. The statistics generated were descriptive statistics including mean and std. deviation and inferential statistics which included both correlation analysis and multiple linear regression. The study revealed a significant positive relationship betweenenvironmental scanning, strategy formulation, implementation, evaluationand tax compliance amongSMEs in Mombasa County. Regression analysis revealed that 64.2% of changes in tax complianceamong SMEswere ascribed to the four variables selected in this study. In conclusion, environmental scanning, strategy formulation, implementation andevaluationare essential in enhancing tax compliance. Based on the findings, strategy implementation had the greatest influence on tax compliance followed by strategy formulation while strategy evaluationand environmental scanning had the least influence. As a result, it is recommended that SMEs' managers and owners concentrate on strategic planning, as this improves tax compliance.”

Employee relationships are one of the foundations and key tasks of management of human resources, which contribute to successful employee performance and organizational performance. Employee performance practices are designed to guarantee the optimum contribution of workers to the growth of the broader business. The research objective aimed at determining employee performance improvement practices at Capital Club East Africa. This study was based on two theories, goal theory and the theory of agencies. The research adopted a case study approach and interview guide was used for collection of data. Content analysis was used to analyse data. The study established that Capital Club East Africa has more female than male employees and most of the respondents were in the youthful age bracket. It was also established that majority of the respondents have sufficient knowledge of the tasks assigned to them and adequate information on their performance expectations. It was found out that Capital Club East Africa has the training and development policy applicable to all staff in which supervisors diligently communicate to the junior staff if they are performing their duties according to the training requirements. The supervisors gave employees the opportunity to apply what they learnt, and the equipment used in training. The results demonstrate that work teams in Capital Club East Africa had a common purpose, and team members clearly understood their responsibilities. It is recommended that the human resources department in Capital Club East Africa should create awareness among all the employees on terms, conditions and objectives contained in performance contracts. The study also recommends employee performance improvement practices should be guided by policies that ensure employees in the firm are not victimized by being forced into unrealistic performance targets.

Budget absorption is an aspect that shows the efficiency in using public funds allocated to specific sectors and is expressed as a percentage of the total budget. As a fiscal policy tool, the government applies the budget to allocate resources to various sectors of the economy in order to among other objectives, stimulate economic growth. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the effect of budget absorption on economic growth in Kenya. Budget absorption was operationalized using the annual budget allocation, the budget absorption rate, and the revenue performance as the proxies. Economic growth was measured using the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The study was anchored on the stewardship theory and supported by the agency theory and resource dependency theory. The study was undertaken using the descriptive research design. Secondary data on the inflation rate, the annual budgetary allocations, revenue, and expenditure reported, was obtained from reliable government sources including KNBS, CBK, the National Treasury, OCOB, and 21 national government ministry records for the 5-year period 2015/2016 to 2019/2020. The natural logarithms of the collected data were used in the analysis. Inferential (regression) analysis was used to obtain the preferred model of the study. The analysis led to two models; model 1 (uncontrolled) and model 2 (controlled using inflation). The analysis of variance of the two models established p-values greater than 0.05, which established that the models were significant. The findings revealed a positive relationship between economic growth (expressed as the annual percentage (%) change in GDP) and annual budget allocation, budget absorption rate, and revenue performance. Increasing budgetary allocation, the budget absorption rate, and revenue performance would lead to an increase in GDP (economic growth) of a country. Among the three independent variables, revenue performance had the biggest impact. The relationship was influenced by inflation whose controlling nature indicated a reduction in economic growth, budget allocation, budget absorption rate, and revenue performance. The findings will be of value to scholars and government policy makers. The study concludes on the need to enhance revenue collection efforts vis a vis the targets as the revenue performance has a significant impact on economic growth. Additionally, the level of budget absorption was determined to have a bigger impact on the economy that the actual budget allocation. This is a call on the government and its related entities to become more efficient and deliberate in absorbing the allocated budget. The results of the study also indicated that inflation affects all the variables negatively. It is therefore imperative that the regulatory bodies take action to reduce inflation.

Out of pocket expenditures always have devastating effects on families, more so those living beneath the poverty line. One way of mitigating this is by using health insurance. The Kitui County Government introduced a low-cost insurance scheme called the Kitui County Health Insurance Cover (KCHIC). Primary aim of this research work was to investigate the factors influencing uptake of Kitui County health Insurance Cover case of Kitui County, Kenya. A sample size of 357 households out of 96,653 registered households. Questionnaires were used to collect data. These instruments were piloted at Makueni County with a sample of 35 respondents which is a 10% representation of the sample of study which was 357. Data collection for this study was done in two months’ time in the 14 hospitals in Kitui County. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used for data analysis. The study employed a probit model to answer the main research objective and found out that some factors were significant, whereas others were established to be statistically insignificant in explaining Kitui County Health Insurance uptake. The study noted that 50.98% of females had taken up health cover in comparison to 49.02% males. The married had a higher enrolment of 247 (69.19%) than unmarried 110 (30.81%), education level was important influencing factor in decision to register for the health cover (registration for those with higher income and the ones affiliated to social welfare groupings). Policy recommendations include; the County ought to consider letting workers from the informal sectors remit their premiums in small and manageable installments instead of insistence on remittance monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually. The government at both tiers needs to consider subsidizing or pay premiums for the family who are very poor, those elderly as well as disabled, who in most cases are never considered in the Social Security Programs. With this, the two levels of government can adopt it as a strategy to reduce poverty as they increase access to quality health care. Offering more health-related services improves or incentivizes individual to enroll for a health insurance package. Therefore, it requires the hospital management to introduce new services that were not previously done at their health facilities. This study recommended further research to investigate influence of religion and culture on registration or uptake decision, level of adversative selection in registration as well as the level of adversative registration selection and retention factors or insurance scheme drop out.

Occupational segregation has been identified as a primary cause of the gender wage gap. In this line, this paper aimed at investigating the effects of occupational segregation on gender wage gap in Kenya using the 2019 Quarterly Labour Force Survey for period January to March. The preliminary findings were that male workers are paid approximately 58.88979 percent more than female employees. In addition, the study measured the extent of the Occupational classification using the Duncan index and found that 42.73 percent of women need to change occupation for occupational integration to occur. Further, using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression there was a negative relationship between the log female wage and the proportion of women in employment. These results confirmed the theory of crowding model used. However, based on the findings inter occupational segregation does not significantly impact on wage since only 1.89 percent of it explained the gender wage gap. Thereby, focus on narrowing the gender wage gap should be on the impact of intra occupational segregation on gender income and or the unexplainable which are attributable to discrimination and culture/norm values.

This study explores the adjudication processes by courts of law in handling corruption cases. As an outright and imminent danger facing the desired adjudication of cases, there exists the stumbling block in delays and undesired longevity of handling corruption cases. This situation ultimately affects both the constitutional expectation of fastened and efficient justice; and the legitimate expectation of effective and efficient access and execution of justice in corruption cases. Delays and inefficiency in hearing and determination of these cases ultimately affects the constitutional right to access to justice as enshrined in Article 48 of the Constitution of Kenya. In exploring options available away from this conundrum, this paper sees that the delay and longevity as a problem which has its root in the nature of the adversarial system. This study adopts a desk based research methodology through which statutes, regulations, case law and other legal writings were analysed aimed at making a case for the incorporation of inquisitorial system elements which empowers courts of law adjudicating corruption cases. This analysis is important in formulating the desired recommendations under this study. Finally, the study makes recommendations in four main dimensions. First are the legislation recommendations which will inform the desired enactment and amendment of laws which will design special rules of practice for courts handling corruption cases. Second are the policy recommendations which will inform and implement the enacted provisions. Third is the administrative recommendation for the day to day running and handling of corruption cases. Lastly is the research recommendation through which the study is inviting scholars to focus on this rich area.