More than 34% of Somali children are in need of treatment for acute malnutrition. Chronic malnutrition rates, food insecurity limited livelihoods strategies have remained persistently high throughout Somalia (Somaliland, Puntland, and South-Central Somalia) varying according to zone and livelihood system. Recent studies have indicated that underlying causes, such as: lack of diet diversity, inadequate young child feeding patterns, improper hygiene practices, water and sanitation not utilizing health and education facilities are also major causes of continuous under nutrition. The objective of this study was to determine childcare practices of mothers/caregivers and nutritional status of children aged 6-59 months attending Gaalkacyo General Hospital-Somalia. A total of 169 respondents were randomly recruited for the study. A restructured questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic characteristics data, dietary patterns was obtained using food frequency and 24-hour dietary intake and nutrition status was assessed using anthropometric data. Majority of the caregivers were aged 26-35 years (35.5 %), nearly 14.2% were aged 46-49 and small percentage (4.1%) of caregivers were 15-20 years old. Diet restriction was a common practice. The food avoided when child has diarrhea were milk and milk products (27.2%), porridge 10.1%, fruits/fruits juices 4.1% and foods cooked with oil 3.0%. About 64.5% of the children breast fed 8-12 times per a day. While 18.3% of the under-fives were breast fed 4-8 times per a day and 17.2% 4-6 times per a day. Almost all (95.9%) of respondents/caregivers were breastfeeding and gave colostrum to the children. At the time of the study, half of the. of the children (56.8%) were still breastfeeding. The duration of breastfeeding ranged within 21 months (minimum of 6 months to a maximum of 27 months. The mean breastfeeding duration was 19.3 ±5.5 months. All the children (100%) were weaned between 2 months and 6 months. The mean exclusive breastfeeding duration was 4.9± 1.3. The prevalence of wasting was found to be 32.3%, stunting 33.3, and underweight 32.3%.in children under-fives years from the study population. Positive correlation was found to exist between the child’s age and wasting(r=0.074). There was a significant difference between proportion of the children who were underweight and not underweight (p=0.014), stunted and not stunted (p=0.047). Children under-fives attending Gaalkacyo General Hospital were between 4 to five times likely to be malnourished the mother’s education level correlated to the children’s nutritional status with wasting at r=0.064, stunting r=-0.030 and underweight r=-0. 047. There was strong correlation between household sizes and nutritional status with underweight being the highest at r=0.84, wasting at r=0.021 and stunting r=-0. 079. Children’s imbalanced diet correlated and significantly associated with underweight (r=0.018, p=0.012). Majority of the children (84.6%) eat Vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables and white tubers and roots (81.1%), other vegetables and fruits were 63.3%, iron rich foods intakes by 52.1%. Flesh meats consumed by 59.2% while the consumption of cereals was highest from grains, and eggs (54.4%). The many cases of wasting, stunting, and underweight are not limited to one gender as both male and female children are equally at risk of getting malnourished. The study area had water availability constraint, and water treatment was used as a purification mechanism to achieve safety of the water. Conclusively, there is need for hygiene and sanitation practices to be taught at health centers more often especially for those who have children under the age of five. Institution-based training and community-based sensitization on the importance of children vaccination. Health institutions to have a follow-up plan for all the mothers attending antenatal clinic to curb defaulting. This will help in keeping in track with the mother’s nutritional status that can affect the birth outcome of the child. Training of caregivers on the introduction and practice of mixed feeding should also be done. This should be extended to the young child feeding practice when the child is unwell.

Floods are the most common and widespread climate-related hazard in the Lake Victoria region. However, significant delays in ground data availability have made it unfeasible to use traditional flood forecasting systems. Satellite rainfall estimates have been identified as readily and economically available data that can be used as input to run hydrologic models and produce flood-warning systems. The aim of the study therefore is develop a simple and locally viable alternative approach to circumvent the absence of reliable ground measurements by using satellite rainfall estimates for forecasting and management of floods in the study area. The satellite-derived rainfall estimates (RFE) were first evaluated using historical rainfall data for the Nyando basin corresponding to the locations of 35 gauging stations in the basin for the period 1995 to 2005. A Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the basin was used to generate the drainage patterns of the basin. The land cover of the study area and the digital soil map are incorporated in the system. The study applies daily driven satellite-derived rainfall and the pixel based Curve Number method for spatially distributed hydrologic streamflow modelling and flood forecasting. Rainfall–runoff relationships results of the area obtained in a spatial scale are then tested on their capabilities as a flood early-warning system by comparing them with historical streamflow. The approach was further tested using RFE for the period 2006 to 2012. The results for comparisons at daily accumulations of RFE with observed rain gauge data are not satisfactory but they performed reasonably well in detecting the occurrence of rainfall. The products show significant results for 10-day accumulation where regression analysis yielded on average, a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.78. While graphical plots of daily-observed stream flow against simulated streamflow show a poor agreement.

The aim of this research study was to determine the capacity of Community Based Organizations (CBO) in provision of health insurance to the urban poor. This was a descriptive survey. It focused on identifying the presence of factors that influence the success of Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI) in the CBOs studied. The study was conducted within the sprawling Kibera slums of Nairobi and was based on 91 CBOs as registered by the Kibera Division Community Development Assistant (2007). The respondents were drawn from 31 CBOs sampled from the 91 CBOs out of whom only one CBO failed to return the questionnaire delivered to them by the researcher. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the relevant data which was used to summarize the findings and draw conclusions. The rate of response was impressive and data collected was used to draw meaningful conclusions and recommendations. The study concluded that the CBOs within Kibera Slums possess the factors that influence the success of CBHI. Members of some of the CBOs were found to have health insurance cover mostly through micro finance organizations such as savings and credit societies where individual CBOs join as corporate members to enhance the saving capacity and accessibility to credit facilities. All individual CBO studied, however, faced the problem of lack of adequate volume of exposure and acknowledged financial constraints and poverty as the major impediments to their growth. The level of members contributions for at least two third of the CBOs was adequate to sustain CBHI. The study recommends that the CBOs cooperate with each other by coming together to form larger CBOs that would have adequate volumes or join the conglomeration of CBOs that are already offering CBHI besides other activities. Deliberate measures also have to be taken to assist the CBOs alleviate poverty among other risk control measures while the government and other agents should put more effort in improving the health facilities in the slums and partner with CBOs in health financing.

Nutritioneducationisoneoftheimportantcomponentsofantenatalcare.Itisawidelyused strategy to improve nutritional knowledge of pregnant women seeking ante natal care more so in governmentrunhealthcarefacilities. A lot of studies to assess the level of nutritional knowledge on pregnant women attending antenatal care in government health facilities have been done but little data exists on the antenatal care situation at Mbagathi hospital given that it’s one of the key government run level five hospital facility in Nairobi County that serves a population of about 3.1 million urban dwellers. The broad objective of this study was to determine the nutritional knowledge and dietary practices of pregnant women receiving nutrition education while attending antenatal care at Mbagathi hospital Nairobi county. The study used a descriptive cross-sectional study design for collection and analysis of data and. Total of 195 pregnant women receiving nutrition education while attending antenatal care in Mbagathi hospital Antenatal clinic were recruited into the study through systematic sampling. The study, using a semi structured questionnaire, assessed the level of nutritional knowledge and dietary practices of attendees of ante natal clinic. Anthropometric measurement of the Middle-upper arm Circumference (MUAC) was used to assess the nutrition status of the women. The study used Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 software for data entry and analysis. Descriptive statistics (mean, median, frequency and standard deviation) described the background characteristics of the study sample while inferential statistics, (P-Value of <0.05 at 95% confidence interval), were employed to determine associations and relationships between two or more variables. Majority (69%) of the participants were within the age category of between 21- 30 years and the mean age was 27 (±=5.38) years. Over three quarters (79%) were married while 21% were not. Slightly below half of the women, 43%, had attained secondary education 17% had primary education while 9% had University education. Slightly over a third (35%) were housewives, 31% self-employed and 12% were salaried workers. The mean household size was 3.18 (±=1.47) Over 50% of the respondents were in their third trimester of pregnancy, 34% in the second and 7% in the first trimester. Only 39% had made between three and four antenatal visits, with the mean number of visits was 3.7. Nearly all (94%) participants had blood pressure readings taken, 71% had a concurrent illness (colds and flus, urinary tract infections, Malaria), 8% had a diagnosis of High Blood Pressure, 4% had gestational diabetes while 2% had iron deficiency anemia. On assessment of nutritional knowledge, 84% displayed adequate levels of nutrition knowledge with regards to aspects of nutrition during pregnancy like variety of foods; amount of food during pregnancy; energy sources; micronutrient supplement for pregnant women, necessity for supplementation and duration; micronutrients, iron and calcium and consequences of deficiency during pregnancy while 13% had poor knowledge score. The level of nutritional knowledge was strongly associated with the number of antenatal care visits attended (p=0.03), nutrition status (p=0.018) and the mean dietary diversity score (p=0.03) of the participants. Assessment of dietary diversity showed that having consumed at least five food groups, 63% met the minimum dietary diversity score for women. There was a significant association between household size and dietary diversity score (p=0.033). Majority (65%) of pregnant women from household sizes of 1 to 4 members displayed adequate dietary diversity. However, there was no association between dietary diversity with education status, marital status, occupation and level of income. Nutrition status was assessed by taking the reading of the middle upper arm circumference (MUAC) using an adult MUAC tape. The respondents had MUAC measurement of ranging from 22.8cm to over 30cm, with 62% of the pregnant women had normal nutritional status with a MUAC reading of between 22.8-30.7cm, 27% of the women were obese with a MUAC readings of >30cm while 11% with MUAC reading of <22 cm were underweight. From the research findings, pregnant women who receive nutrition education while attending antenatal care ante natal care at Level 5 hospitals in Kenya have adequate maternal nutrition knowledge and dietary diversity score. The more the number of ante natal visits a pregnant woman makes, the higher the level of nutritional knowledge. This study recommends that the Government of Kenya, Ministry of Health and partners should continuously and consistently create more awareness of the existence of antenatal care service and its benefits to pregnant women. Health workers at antenatal clinics should also pay particular attention to underweight and overweight pregnant women since they have poor nutrition knowledge the health workers should go an extra mile to find out why they are unable to make the right food choices

This study examines how femininity has been constructed in the songs of Bosco Mulwa. The objectives of this study are: Interrogating the aspects of femininity through language that the artist incorporates in the songs to construct femininity in different contexts and exploring the elements of performance and their development in interpreting style within the construction of femininity. The study is guided by three theoretical frameworks: intersectionality theories, performance theories and ethino poetics theories. The study is divided into three chapters. Chapter one forms the background of the study, chapter two interrogates the aspects of femininity through language that the artist incorporates in the songs to construct femininity in different contexts and chapter three explores the elements of performance and their development in interpreting style within the construction of femininity.

The tanning industry utilizes chrome salts for tanning despite them being considered environmental pollutants. Vegetable tanning is considered to be a greener alternative to chrome tanning with mimosa extract being the most commonly used. The presence of inadequate acacia trees in Kenya for mimosa production means that the country majorly relies on imports which results in an increase in their prices leading to an increase in cost of production. This study was formulated to determine the viability of coffee pulp as a source for vegetable tannins. Twelve samples were collected from Yadini coffee factory in four different days. The tannin content was quantitatively determined by the hide powder method. The quality of the leathers was determined by carrying physical tests on tanned goatskins according to IUP methods. A statistical t test was used for comparison of coffea arabica pulp and mimosa tannin content and physical properties of resultant leathers. It was established that C. arabica pulp had a tannin content of 5.04% and a tanning strength of 2.26 compared to mimosa extract with a tanning content of 64% and a tanning strength of 2.82 with the two tannins being of the condensed type. This showed that there was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the tannin content and tanning strength of mimosa and C. arabica tannins. The physical characteristics of C. arabica pulp tanned leather was 14.72±2.22N/mm2 and →19.09±1.60N/mm2 tensile strength, 62oC shrinkage temperature, 48.00±14.15 N/mm, →38.12±3.13N/mm tear strength, grain crack and grain burst of 4.52±0.31mm and 5.93±0.28mm respectively and a change in colour at 100000 flexes for flex endurance. Mimosa tanned leather had 24.19±2.25N/mm2 and →27.20±3.26N/mm2 tensile strength, 83oC shrinkage temperature, 75.97±8.68N/mm, →→72.08±8.19N/mm tear strength, grain crack and grain burst of 7.47±0.09mm and 8.25±0.15mm respectively. There was no damage at 100000 flexes for flex endurance. The t test used for comparison showed that there was a significant difference (p<0.001) for tensile strength, tear strength, shrinkage temperature, ball burst and flex endurance. The study concluded that the tanning strength of coffee pulp was more than the minimum 1.5 recommended for vegetable tanning materials. The physical properties exceeded the minimum recommended limits although they were less comparable to mimosa tanned leather. It was recommended that further research to be conducted on the penetration of C. arabica pulp tannins in the pelt as the coffee tannins in their natural form did not penetrate making their use in tanning in this state difficult.

Abstract

Use of botanical environmentally friendly and biodegradable insect repellents as opposed to chemical insecticides is increasingly becoming important as an alternative method of insect control. Housefly (Musca domestica L.) has potential of transmitting pathogen which causes diseases such as parasitic worms, anthrax, tuberculosis, bacillary dysentery, cholera and typhoid. Human diseases can be treated and prevented by essential oils with biological properties which have been derived from aromatic plants. In this study antimicrobial activities and housefly repellence of P. citrosum and R. officinalis was evaluated separately and in products formulated from the extracts. Extraction of essential oils was by hydro-distillation. Condensed oil extracts were collected in n-hexane and insect behavioural response tested using adult houseflies (Musca domestica L.). N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET) acted as the positive control with acetone acting as the negative control. The bioactive oil was then analysed using GC-MS. The characteristic volatiles obtained from the two oils showed different compositions. P. citrosum oil comprised mainly of linalool, geraniol, m-camphorene, 2-naphthalenemethanol-1,2,3,4,4a,5,6,7-octahydroalpha, geranylangelate while R. officinalis comprised mainly of α-Pinene, Eucalyptol, α-Terpinenol. Dose-response evaluations of these oils showed that R. officinalis oil (LD50 = 0.299 mg) was more repellent than that of P. citrosum (LD50 = 0.445 mg). The Disk diffusion method was used to carry out the antimicrobial activities of the R. officinallis and P. citrosum. The outcomes showed that the P. citrosum essential oils had antimicrobial activity against Candida albicans, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis at a low concentration of 0.5 % v/v and that the activity was concentration dependent. R. officinalis essential oils, on the other hand, exhibited active antimicrobial properties against Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonus aeruginosa. The study showed that P. citrosum was more effective than gentamicin and nitrofuractoin drugs against Staphylococcus aureus at a higher concentration of 6 % v/v. Oil extracts from R. officinalis also illustrated similar trends and were similar to the positive controls against the tested microbes. These results provide scientific justification for traditional use of R. officinalis oil and Pelargonium citrosum essential oils for the control of housefly and other common insects in the household

Most companies today realise the importance of having a motivated workforce as it enables them to perform better at work and in the long-term, helps to boost growth of the organisation. The companies therefore strive to provide better working environments, employment contract terms, and welfare provisions as well as providing opportunities for employees to grow and nurture their talents. All this is done to attract and retain the best employees in the market. This research therefore seeks to answer the question: what is the effect of leasing out employees of Bamburi Cement Limited Kenya to partner organizations on their motivation. The research was conducted at Bamburi Cement Ltd to determine the factors that influence employee motivation among its staff. BCL has 550 permanent employees based in their Athi River, Upper Hill and Mombasa branches. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires. The questionnaire which has two sections contained both close-ended and open-ended questions. The first section of the questionnaire contained questions on the bio-data of the respondents and the second section contained questions relevant to the objective of the study. Data was analysed and presented using descriptive statistics such as means, frequencies, percentages and standard deviations. From the study it can be concluded that there are several factors that affect employees’ motivation in organizations which include supervision, employee development, pay and benefit, reward and recognition, work environment and these are well practiced in Bamburi cement Limited.

The purpose of this research was to contribute to the extant knowledge on the relationship between AMT, competitive advantage, organizational resources, and performance of large manufacturing companies in Kenya. The study investigated the mediating and moderating roles of competitive advantage and organizational resources on the relationship between AMT and performance of large manufacturing companies in Kenya. A review of conceptual and empirical literature was done and four hypotheses were formulated to aid the research. The positivist research philosophy and descriptive cross-sectional research design was employed. The population of the study was a census of 55 manufacturing companies that apply design technologies, manufacturing technologies and planning technologies in their operation and were members of Kenya Association of Manufacturers as at December 2020. Primary data was collected using a structured self-administering Likert questionnaire anchored on a five-point scale while secondary data was collected online from the company’s annual reports. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze collected data, while regression analysis was used to test the study hypotheses. Results revealed that AMT statistically predicts performance of large manufacturing companies in Kenya. Results show that competitive advantage statistically predicts performance but partially mediates the relationship between AMT and performance of large manufacturing companies in Kenya. Results also show that although organizational resources statistically predict performance it is not significant on moderating the relationship between AMT and performance of large manufacturing companies in Kenya. Further, the joint effect of AMT, competitive advantage and organizational resources on performance was found to be statistically significant. The study contributes to theory building by demonstrating that AMT is one of the strategies that can be implemented by manufacturing companies to meet their stakeholder needs and improve performance and since resources do not moderate the relationship between AMT and performance, organizations with different resources would observe similar impact on their performance when they apply AMT in their operations. The value of resource-based theory and contingency theory in strategy were confirmed as resources were found to statistically predict performance. Further, the combined effect of AMT, competitive advantage and organizational resources was found to be significant in predicting performance than either of the variables independently, confirming synergy between the variables and their positive impact on performance of large manufacturing companies in Kenya. This study may have been constrained by using one respondent per organization and combining many industries at different levels of AMT adoption. Future researchers could involve more respondents across management hierarchy in each organization involved in a similar study to further validate their findings by focusing on firms at same level of AMT adoption that apply similar technologies in their manufacturing process. The implications of the study include: AMT, competitive advantage and resources have varying effects on performance; AMT can be used as a manufacturing strategy by organizations to improve their performance; and senior Managers need to carefully appraise investments in AMT which on their own do not lead to improved organizational performance as other variables that were not in the current study also affect the relationship between AMT and performance.