Many public institutions in the world have experienced challenges in their organisational efficiency with a significant part of these challenges arising from the performance of employees. In Puntland parliament, strategic plan was adopted in 2014 with an aim of fostering organisational efficiency and despite the efforts, challenges remain, therefore this study aimed at evaluating the effect of performance appraisal system on organisational efficiency in Puntland Parliament. The explicit objectives were; to assess the effect of appraisal techniques on organizational efficiency at Puntland State Parliament, to evaluate the effect of performance feedback on organizational efficiency at Puntland State Parliament and to establish the effect of employee’s attitude on organizational efficiency at Puntland State Parliament. The study was guided by the goal setting theory of motivation. A case study research design was used and targeted a population of 159 comprising 66 members of parliament and 93 members of staff. The sample size was 80 constituting 33 members of parliament and 47 members of staff. The collection of data was done through questionnaires. The responses rate was 60%. The results from the regression analysis and hypothesis testing revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between appraisal techniques and organisational efficiency. This is based on the regression coefficient of 0.314 and p value of 0.031. From the regression output and hypothesis tests there is a positive and significant link between performance feedback and organizational efficiency based on p value of 0.001 and regression coefficient of 0.494. From the regression output and hypothesis tests there is a positive and significant relationship between employee attitude and organizational efficiency based on p value of 0.000 and regression coefficient of 0.947. The study therefore recommends that that the institution should focus more on ways of improving the employee attitudes through forums and participatory leadership in addition to the reward system that is already in place. Through trainings the employee attitudes can be enhanced by way of equipping them with skills and adequate knowledge that will positively build their attitudes towards their functions. The study recommends that in addition to yearly feedbacks, the institution should introduce periodic feedback system where the employees are given feedback on the progress of their performance on continuous basis to ensure that they are on track. The study recommends that the performance appraisal system be improved to not only comprise actual verse targeted results but should take into consideration employee attributes like their behaviours. On the basis of the results from the study, appraisal techniques, performance feedback and employee attitude account for 73% of the changes in the organizational efficiency. Future studies may be done on the other factors that influence organizational efficiency in Puntland parliament. Further future studies should also be done on other public institutions in Somalia in relation to the nexus between performance appraisal system and organizational efficiency.

The multifaceted existence of threats to state security has posed a major challenge to states' strategic posture in Africa. This very dynamic environment has brought with it complex and ever evolving security implications for states. Diplomatic and military means therefore can be viewed as some of the means by which states pursue global and regional security using a mixture of policies and non-policy means. African states have struggled to develop effective security arrangements at the regional level. The main objective of this study is to examine the role of defense diplomacy in enhancing regional stability in Africa with a focus on the Kenya Defense Forces. The study examines the trends in respect to defense diplomacy as an enabler of global peace and security, assesses the role of defense diplomacy in enhancing regional stability in Africa and analyzes the challenges and future prospects of securing Africa through defense diplomacy. The study is informed by the neo-liberalism theory. The study uses both qualitative and quantitative research designs including both primary and secondary data. The research paper establishes that defense diplomacy is gaining ground in Africa with gradual but steady adoption being noted. The utilization of defence diplomacy is evident through bilateral and multilateral partnerships as well as through cooperation agreements. Defence diplomacy is associated with western countries and attached to the idea of colonial masters “keeping in touch” with their former colonies. The research paper also establishes that defense diplomacy plays a key role in fostering unity through regional institutions and organizations in Africa. Through avenues such as joint military training, sports, exchange programs, defense attaches and peace keeping missions, African states are moving towards full utility of defense diplomacy to secure the continent. Further, the study establishes that the complete operationalization of defense diplomacy faces challenges including unclear link between the objectives, means and ends, loopholes in policies, limited fitting of country legislation into regional defense policies, lack of a single conceptualization of defense diplomacy, limited resources and self-interests among African nations who want to forge their own defense policies. In view of the future prospects of using defense diplomacy to secure Africa, it is noted that strengthening of multilateral and bilateral institutions, incorporation of members of the public and diverse constituencies in decision making and capitalizing on communication especially digital communication would give defence diplomacy more mileage. In addition, maximizing on the ideology of the “African solutions to African problems” would place defense diplomacy at a vantage point to take over defence in Africa.

Recently there has been a growing interest in the use of corporate venturing as a means for corporations to enhance the innovative abilities of their employees and, at the same time, increase corporate success through the creation of new corporate ventures. However, the creation of corporate activity is difficult since it involves radically changing internal organizational behaviour patterns. The objective of this study was to determine the integration of corporate venture in strategic management in the Kenya Wildlife Service. In undertaking the study, employees of the KWS were considered. Data was collected by use of questionnaires reinforced by personal visits and telephone calls. A total of 70 questionnaires were distributed to the employees. Out of these, 53 responded by completing and returning the questionnaires. Research findings revealed that corporate venture was well integrated with strategic management as was evidenced by the integration of innovation and creativity as one of the objectives in the organization balance score card. From the findings, it was concluded that the major challenge faced in implementing corporate venture at the Kenya wildlife service was limited financial resources for research and development and luck of training on corporate venture. Arising from the findings, it was recommended that the organization’s management should emphasis and support strong corporate venture by training employees on corporate venturing as a way of creating the organizations wealth and collaborate with the government to obtain funding for Research and Development.

Groundwater pollution is becoming a major concern worldwide. The impact of polluted groundwater resources is three-fold: artificial water scarcity, human health problem and an impediment to economic development. Mid River Njoro catchment has experienced numerous human settlements and intensive agricultural activities over the years, threatening the quality of water from wells and boreholes. This study assessed the groundwater quality, the land-use types and the vulnerability of groundwater resources to surface pollution within Mid River Njoro catchment, Kenya, using a modified DRASTIC model in a GIS environment. Groundwater samples were collected from boreholes and analyzed for pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, ammonia, and total phosphorus to calculate the Groundwater Quality Index (GQI). The land-use map was prepared from a high-resolution Google earth satellite imagery of 2015. The vulnerability zones developed using parameters such as depth to water table, net recharge, aquifer media, topography, impact of vadose zones, hydraulic conductivity and land use types. Validation nitrate values were compared to the calculated DRASTIC index to assess the efficacy of the modified DRASTIC model. From the results, the GQI range from 68.38 to 70.92, suggesting fairly good groundwater quality. The major land-use types identified include agricultural land, built-up areas, forests and agroforestry areas. The agricultural land dominated the study area, followed by built-up areas, forests and agroforestry areas. The study area is characterized by three vulnerability zones: very low (6.1%), low (87.4%) and moderate (6.5%). The validation results obtained from Pearson’s correlation (0.49) and chisquare values (5.01), revealed a positive relationship between the modified DRASTIC index and nitrate values.

The scarcity of water in semi-arid area of Kiboko, Makindu sub-county is a major contributor tolow maize yield beside climate change due to little and unreliable rainfall. Regulated deficit irrigation is a water management technique that improves water use efficiency to obtainminimal yield and irrigation cost benefit. An experiment was carried out for two seasons in Kiboko, Makindu Sub-County during 2018 and 2019 short and long rains, respectively to evaluate the response of maize growth and yield to regulated deficit irrigation in semi-arid area. The experiment was a Randomized Complete Block Design with three blocks replicated three times. The treatments were T1 (100% field capacity), T2 (75% field capacity, T3 (50% field capacity), T4 (25 % field capacity) and T5 (rain-fed) were evaluated. The highest maize yield obtained in season I was 10.9tha-1recorded under full irrigation (T1) followed by 10.4tha-1 obtained in T2, 9.8tha-1 obtained in T3 (50% field capacity), 9.0tha-1 in T4 and the lowest maize yield was 8.4tha-1recorded under rain-fed (T5) while in season II the highest maize yield of 10.2tha-1 was recorded in T1, followed by 9.1tha-1 in T2, 8.3tha-1 in T3, 6.0tha-1 in T4 and the lowest maize yield of 3.0tha-1 was obtained under rain-fed (T5).However,the highestwater use efficiency recorded in season I was22kgha-1mm-1 obtained under rain-fed(T5), 19.8 kgha-1mm-1 recorded in T3 (50% field capacity) while in season II the highest WUE of 24.8kgha-1 mm -1 was recorded in T3, followed by 23.7kgha1mm-1 in T2 and the lowest WUE was 16.6kgha-1mm-1 obtained under rain-fed (T5). Two climate change scenarios (2020-2039) and (2040-2059) were projected and modelled by global circulation model (GCM) and the yield was predicted usingAquaCrop water productivity model. The GCM indicated atemperature rise of1 0C which will affect the future rainfall patterns in the study area. The model predicted rainfall to increase by 15% in season I (short rains) and reduce by 10.1% in season II (long rains) compared to the baseline climate (1986 – 2005). The predicted yield of maize will remain constant under irrigation water management thoughit will significantly vary under rain-fed conditions due to temperature rise and rainfallvariation patterns which affect the crop water requirementat 401mm. The water management practices such as 100% soil surface cover will counteract the effect of climate change by reducing soil surface evaporation, net irrigation requirement and maintaining soil moisture and temperature.

There is a tremendous growth in the volume of information available on the internet, digital libraries, new sources and company database or intranets that contain valuable information. Information from World Wide Web has been a source of information which caters for different sectors ranging from social, political and economical spheres for decision making. Such information would be more valuable if it can be available to the end user and other application systems in required formats. This has caused the need for tools to assist users in extracting relevant information in a fast and effective way. We explore an efficient mechanism of extracting web data through analysis of HTML tags and patterns. HTML constitutes a large percentage of web content. However, much of this content lacks strict structure and proper schema. Additionally, web content has high update frequency and semantic heterogeneity of the information as compared to other format such as XML that are more firms in structure. We have managed to produce a customized generic model that can be used to extract unstructured data from the web and populate it to a database. The main contribution is an automated process for locating, extracting and storing data from HTML web sources. Such data is then available to other application software for analysis and other processing.

This study investigates the role of the Commission on Administrative Justice (hereinafter stated to as the CAJ) in protecting the right to fair administrative act under the 2010 Kenyan Constitution. It documents the successes, challenges, and opportunities that the CAJ has encountered in realizing its constitutional mandate. The study argues that although the CAJ has made some strides in guarding the right to fair administrative action, it nevertheless continues to face numerous challenges, which hinder it from fulfilling its mandate. As a result, this inadequacy of the Commission on Administrative Justice Act 2011 and the Fair Administrative Action Act, No. 4 of 2015 has restrained the operations of the CAJ hence the failure in promotion of fair administrative action in Kenya as defined for under the Constitution of Kenya 2010. It demonstrates that although some progress has been made, the absence of a policy on enforcement of decisions, political bureaucracy and impunity, limited accessibility, and lack of awareness of the public on the roles of the existence and mandate of the CAJ are some of the critical challenges that continue to greatly undermine the CAJ from fulfilling its mandate. Although several scholars have written on the CAJ, to the best of my knowledge, no other study has evaluated the extent to which the CAJ has fulfilled its constitutional mandate of regulating administrative power in Kenya. This study also seeks to seal this gap by exposing the limitations of the CAJ caused by legislative gaps such as lack of enforcement mechanisms and different interpretations that prevent it from enforcing, realizing and enhancing the right to a fair administrative action. With a sole purpose of contributing to existing literature, this study in a bid to take away the execution role by parliament, among other recommendations, recommend the amendment of Section 8 and 54 of the Commission on Administrative Action Act, 2011 to assist the CAJ fulfil its desired mandate as envisaged in the 2010 Kenyan Constitution.

Pastoralists all over the world are faced with a myriad of challenges, chief of them being recurrent droughts, diminishing grazing land owing to land tenure and land use changes, and conflicts over scarce resources, which are exacerbated by climate change to undermine their livelihoods. They have however evolved various strategies of coping and adapting to the changes around them. The most common and contemporary pastoralists’ responses to these changes include diversification of livelihoods and migration to urban and peri-urban areas to seek opportunities, especially following loss of their herds to drought. Such migration is normally accompanied by shifts in general lifestyle of pastoralist households, and specifically livelihood activities. This calls for a better understanding of the socio-cultural and economic shifts that occur among pastoral households upon migration to urban areas, as well as the drivers of the choice of economic activities among the migrant households. This study was carried out in Isiolo county of Kenya to determine factors that influence the choice of current households' livelihood activities in the urban and peri-urban areas of Isiolo town, and to analyze community perceptions on socio-ecological changes and social cultural impacts of rural-urban migration among pastoral households in the study area. A total of one hundred and ninety-one household interviews, six focus group discussions and 12 key informant interviews were conducted to gather data in Wabera and Bulla Pesa wards within the urban, and Burat and Ngaremara wards in the peri-urban areas of Isiolo town. The results show that the main source of livelihood of households before migration was livestock keeping and casual labor, while upon migration to urban and peri-urban areas, they ventured into small businesses and wage employment. The main reasons for households’ migration to urban areas were to seek opportunities for wage employment and trade. Households in urban areas mainly engaged in wage employment and operating retail shops, while those in the peri-urban areas engaged in casual labor, with majority of the population being unemployed. The results of the multinomial logit model indicated that the main determinants of the choice of livelihood activities by households were the level of education of household heads and re-settlement location (urban vis a vis peri-urban) following migration. Results also show that the households perceived changes over time in their climate, environment, and socioeconomics upon migration to urban areas. Majority of the respondents reported that upon migration to urban centers, pastoral households undergo several socio-cultural transformations such as increased involvement of women in leadership, incomegenerating activities, and engagement in responsibilities that are traditionally male-dominated. Whereas migration to urban areas and urbanization, in general, presents diverse livelihood opportunities and improved access to social services and amenities to pastoral households, it has trade-offs associated with erosion of socio-cultural values, loss of social capital, and exposure to the high cost of living in the urban and peri-urban areas. This calls for policies and interventions at the county level that are cognizant of pastoral household special needs as they increasingly migrate to urban and peri-urban areas

Insider threat to information security is increasingly becoming a challenge to information security managers. One of the biggest challenges is not a lack of strong and robust policies, but that of ensuring full or highest rate of compliance with the policies. This is more compounded by the threats posed by insiders who have unfettered access to information systems assets. It is no surprise then that despite heavy investments in ensuring information security infrastructure, institutions still face the highest rates of information security breaches. Numerous studies have been conducted to provide insights and models on information security mitigations. However, very few studies have considered the policy compliance culture phenomenon. Among those who have considered the mixed methodology approach, none of the scholarly studies have considered grounded theory methods. The overall objective was to establish the relationship existing between organizational culture and information security compliance culture. As part of the Specific objective, the study intended to; 1) explore the relationship that exists between organizational culture and the actual information security compliance culture in universities in Kenya, 2) explain the relationship that exists between organizational culture and the actual information security compliance culture in universities in Kenya through theory generation, 3) and validate the theoretical model that predicts information security compliance culture. The study employed an exploratory sequential mixed-method research design. This followed the QUAL-Quan principles. The population of this study was the Universities in Kenya. The study was divided into two phases namely, the model development phase and the model validation phase. The model development phase was designed to achieve two objectives namely: exploring the factors that impact information security compliance culture and explaining the relationships between the emerging factors and information security compliance culture through theory generation. The model validation phase was designed to test and validate the emergent theory through a semi-structured questionnaire. The model development phase adopted a grounded theory methodology while the model validation phase adopted the survey questionnaire approach. The resulting theory was analysed and discussed in terms of model development and model validation. In the model development phase, several themes emerged which upon consolidation, were grouped into 4 main thematic groupings namely, demographic-oriented themes, organizational-oriented themes, individual-oriented themes, and information security compliance culture-oriented themes. The organizational oriented themes were further sub-grouped into the organizational level factors and moderating factors. The same was also done for individual-oriented themes to generate the individuallevel factors and the factors moderating the individual-level factors. The study thereafter generated a theoretical model that explained a relationship between organizational initiatives, independent behavioral trends, management support, individual demographic interventions, and external organizational interventions towards information security compliance culture (ISCC). The model validation phase produced findings that supported the emergent theoretical model by having factor loadings that significantly supported the model among other parameters that were tested. The study makes a main theoretical model contribution which is highlighted based on the model developed in phase one and the validated theoretical model. The model is adaptable to future researchers interested in covering information security compliance studies. The other contribution that this study makes is the methodological contribution which is also discussed in line with the efficiency of the procedures this study efficiently adopted. Further, the application of mixed methods as adopted in this study will provide insights to future information systems researchers to consider when deciding on how to conduct behavioral related studies. In terms of practice, the emergent theoretical model will be beneficial to practitioners in formulating checklists geared towards strengthening information security compliance regimes within their policy directions. This study is important because it provides a theoretical direction and methodological directions for future exploration of information securityrelated studies. Keywords: Insider Threats, Information Security, Compliance Culture, Mixed Methods, Grounded Theory.

In response to intense global business competition, companies have implemented "new" operational philosophies to enhance competitiveness. Such World Class Manufacturing (WCM) practices include Kaizen, Just in Time, Total Quality Management and Business Process Reengineering. This study investigates level of adoption of these World Class Manufacturing practices among quoted companies in Kenya; assesses the benefits and challenges that implementers face in the implementation process. The study finds 94% of firms applying the WCM practices with Total Quality Management (TQM) ranking highest across all sectors. Firms realized cost reduction, improved product quality and reduced lead time upon adopting the practices. However, company culture and staff attitude posed the most challenges in implementation process. The study further finds extensive adoption in the industrial and allied sector but lesser adoption of WCM practices in both Commercial and Service, and Finance and Investment sectors.