Mukuru Kwa Ruben informal settlement is located within the industrial area of Nairobi County. It is characterized by poor dilapidated housing exacerbated by poor drainage conditions and flooding in the area. According to the 2019 census projections, Mukuru kwa Ruben has a population of 527,526. This study aimed at developing a framework to enhance adaptive capacity of communities at the Mukuru kwa Ruben informal settlement to flooding. The study objectives entailed: To determine the drivers and impacts of flooding in Mukuru kwa Ruben, to identify the coping strategies to flood risks, establish their challenges and opportunities in Mukuru kwa Ruben and to develop strategies that will enhance Mukuru kwa Ruben adaptive capacity to flood risk. The study started by reviewing relevant literature on flood vulnerability in urban areas and most specifically in informal settlements of Nairobi. Rainfall data was obtained from Kenya Metrological Department for the period 1985-2017 and various flood management policies and strategies were critically reviewed. Household questionnaires, observation checklists and Key Informant Interview guides were used to collect data from the community. The data collection process was undertaken, followed by the analysis of the data collected. The methods of analyses used for this study entailed: content analysis, trend analysis and desktop reviews. The study findings show that flooding in Mukuru kwa Reuben isn’t necessarily caused by heavy down pour of rainfall but ineffective structural and non-structural measures that if addressed can enhance the adaptive capacity of the community to flood risks. It was also evident that residents of Mukuru kwa Ruben have put more premium on structural adaptation measures that are externally facilitated to soft adaptation measures that can easily be conducted by the community members. Shortcomings in the legislation, policies and strategies on urban settlement flooding were highlighted and appropriate means to tighten the loose ends proposed. The study therefore recommends Integral community stakeholders should conduct mass sensitization on effective low cost adaptive strategies to floods in Mukuru kwa Ruben, form Mukuru kwa Ruben residents association so as to have a representative at the Nairobi disaster committee to represent their plight and relook implementation of flood management strategies especially in urban informal settlements.

Present infiltration of substandard steel reinforcing bars on local market have had a serious concern and suspicion on strength and stability of buildings and other engineering structures that are being built with them. Some buildings have collapsed while others have developed signs of structural failures setting huge number of users into serious fears with subsequent vacation. Besides the failures in Rwanda, there has been disastrous incidences of collapsing buildings in neighboring countries where most of rebars are imported from and investigations have pinpointed substandard steel reinforcing bars. Primary objective of this study was to investigate the quality of steel reinforcing bars available in Rwanda and their performance on structural elements specifically reinforced concrete beams flexural behavior. So far only one research is known to have investigated quality of steel bars available in Rwanda with much focus on steel bars milled from scraps of which the results were equally disappointing. In this research 24 samples of steel reinforcing bars of 12mm and 10 mm ϴ from four different sources available in Rwanda were randomly picked from warehouses. Each source were represented by six specimens, three of which were 12mm ϴ and the other three of 10 mm ϴ. Samples were assessed for their physical features compliance, mechanical and chemical properties were examined and finally RC beam flexural performance behavior investigated through laboratory tests. Results obtained showed that rebars physical feature standard code requirements were not met by 75%, while 48.5% of tested samples failed to meet high yield strength BS and RS EAS code prescription of 460N/mm2 only meeting mild steel bars limits. Of the failed 48.5% only 12.5% were Y12mm while the remaining 87.5% were Y10mm. The ultimate load of RC beams made of Y12 mm were determined to be in range of 114.6 KN to 142.6 KN while their respective flexural strength ranged from 25.7 N/mm2 to 33.4 N/mm2 as compared to design load of 111.8 KN and design flexural strength of 25.1 N/mm2 respectively. The flexural load of RC beam made of Y10 mm was found to be in range of 93 KN to 131.5 KN while their respective flexural strength ranged from 20.89N/mm2 to 32 N/mm2 as compared to design load of 78.2 KN and design flexural strength of 17.6 N/mm2 respectively. It is revealed from research that substandard rebars are still at large but more so with rebars that were not labelled at all which failed at 100%, all sample from S3 were not labelled at all for both Y12mm and Y10mm and failed to meet code requirements. Keywords:

Strategic alliance is flourishing in the hospitality industry. However, the pace of research has not kept up with this evolving phenomenon. Past studies on alliances focused mainly on manufacturing and high technology industries and predominately in Western countries. There has been little attempt to explain and understand the strategic alliances formed in the hospitality industry in Kenya. The objective of the study was to establish the motivation for the formation of strategic alliance and to establish the factors that determine the success rate in strategic alliances by the Sarova Group of Hotels. The research methodology used was a case study. The study sought to have a thorough understanding of the phenomenon from the perspective of Sarova Group of Hotels. The data was gathered through interviews with three respondents who were involved in the formation and management of the alliance. Content analysis was used to analyze the information gathered. The findings revealed that SGH realized that they could not cost cut their way into growth and prosperity, because there is a limit to how much you can grow earnings by improving margins. As such, alliance was seen as one of solution for accessing those capabilities. The alliance was formed with an aim of entering the two properties Saltlick Game Lodge and Taita Hills Game lodge into an alliance with Sarova Group of Hotels. The findings of this study revealed that the success rate of alliance formation is found to be positively impacted by pre and post alliance formation factors. The study also revealed the motive that lead to the formation of strategic alliance: transaction-cost motives; resource-based motives; strategic motivations with regard to competitive position of the firm; learning objectives; and motives relating to risk reduction, new market entry, and first-mover advantage. The research findings show that the highest ranked motive of strategic alliance are “knowledge sharing; cooperative learning and embedded skills”, followed by “improving performance. This fact leads to some interesting findings with the lowest ranked being “adjusting to environmental changes”, followed by “reduced financial and political risk”, and followed by “entering new markets”. The major challenges faced by the alliance are; conflict management among the employees who were not ready for change, differences in target market, image, culture, pace of work and management styles. The study recommends that organizations need to adopt strategic alliances as a policy to strengthen their competitiveness and increase their efficiencies. For hotels which do not have the experience of strategic alliance formation, understanding the motives for alliance formation found in this study may arouse their appreciation of adopting alliances as one of their business strategies and help them enjoy the benefits which alliance may provide.

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted with the objective o f finding out the factors that determine brand loyalty while buying tooth paste, and to find out the most important of these indicators, the study was undertaken in the Westland’s area o f Nairobi A sample o f 200 consumers was targeted to answer the questionnaire and a response rate o f 70% was achieved. A recruitmentguide was used to determine the loyal customers. The primary data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire, and were analysed using frequency distribution, mean scores and standard deviation. Ranking of factors was also done. The data presentations were made using tables. The study findings revealed that there are many factors that customers consider important in making decision o f which toothpaste to buy determine. Some of these factors were Prevent tooth cavities. Fights bad breath. Reduce gum bleeding, Cleans between teeth. Cleans between teeth. Keep fighting germs, prevent exposed root cavities, strengthen weak tooth enamel, prevent gums inflammation, Remove stains. Remove stains, Prevent tartar. Whitens the teeth Ranking of these factors was later done to determine the most important factor. The ranking revealed that the most important factor that is mostly considered to be that of preventing tooth cavities the research was conducted in only in an urban setting and for that reason it would be wise for a similar research to be done in rural areas so as to compare the findings. This would give the findings a more generalized opinion on the whole issue.

Abstract

Land degradation has poised great threats on food production and the sustainability of conservation areas. This has resulted from the depletion of soil organic carbon which forms the basis of soil fertility rendering farmlands unproductive. Efforts to resuscitate the productivity of farmlands have been made by the stakeholders promoting the adoption of soil organic carbon enhancing technologies (SOCETs). This study therefore, sought to investigate the extent of adoption of SOCETs and the factors affecting the adoption of these SOCETs among smallholder farmers and across the geographical space in the study areas in Kenya and Ethiopia. The dataset consists of 381 households in Ethiopia and 334 households in western Kenya. Probit model was used to predict the factors affecting adoption of SOCETs including fertilizer use, manure use, grass strips, crop rotation, intercropping, agroforestry and residue management. This was followed by the spatial modelling of the factors affecting adoption using Random forest to predict adoption spatially, and geographically weighted regression to show the relationship of adoption to each factor across space. The survey results indicated that fertilizer use was the most adopted technology in both Kenya and Ethiopia at 99% followed by intercropping at 80%, manure at 50 %, use of crop residues at 50%, crop rotation at 40% and grass strips at 30%. Factors constraining adoption were identified as those related to access of information, access to inputs and credit, household characteristics and biophysical characteristics such as rainfall, plot erosion and slope. Farmers who had access to information through extension (p<0.01) or involvement in farmer associations (p<0.05) and those who had access to education (p<0.05) had higher adoption of SOCETs. Those who lived closer to the markets (p<0.05) had higher adoption to fertilizer and agroforestry as compared to manure and grass strips. Farmers who perceived their soils to be fertile (p<0.1) had low adoption of SOCETs while those that perceived their plots to be susceptible to erosion (p<0.05) had low adoption to manure and fertilizers. Adoption prediction using the random forest model and further analysis using geographically weighted regression model showed that, factors affecting the adoption of SOCETs affect the farmers’ decision differently across space. Access to information in an area leads to increased adoption to fertilizer which is discouraged by long distance to markets and difficult access to credit reducing adoption. Therefore, farmers with access to information and who live closer to markets had a higher adoption of SOCETs compared to those who live further away. The study therefore, recommends that the government should support the farmers’ initiative by improving transport and market infrastructure. Also, the governments and the non-governmental organizations involved should invest in farmer education and dissemination of information so as to improve the knowhow of the farmers. Finally, the government should leverage micro-credit services to the farmers such as promoting affordable and appropriate credit facilities. The spatial aspect in the adoption of SOCETs should never be ignored by future research as it proves that failure to consider it would lead to wrong impressions and results. Keywords: Soil organic carbon, Kenya, Ethiopia, sustainable land management technologies, land degradation, adoption, small-scale farmers

This paper examines the effects of FDI flows on Kenyan economic growth over the period 1985-2011. The analysis applies ordinary least square (OLS) regressions technique with net FDI inflows as the main variables of interest. The study finds that FDI impacts positively on Kenyan economic growth although insignificantly with suggested thresholds in literature: trade openness and human capital stock reducing its potential benefit to economic growth in Kenya. Based on these findings, the study suggests that Kenya should embark on policies that promote sound macroeconomic policies to: increase and diversify exports; to provide avenues of utilising the idle or unproductive labour and; to reduce the cost of capital. In addition, the study recommends further research on: whether the source of FDI matters and; the effects of incentives offered so as to capture all the dynamics associated with FDI and economic growth in Kenya.

Disputes have become a common problem afflicting the construction industry and they have the tendency to cause undesirable effects if not effectively resolved. Such effective resolution requires timely and economical resolution, with final outcomes that are satisfactory to the disputants involved. Arbitration has for a while been the preferred resolution method. However, it has recently been the subject of discussion both in industry and academia because of incessant delays, high costs and increasingly unacceptable awards. Although studies have attempted to identify the various causes of ineffective arbitration, they have not only been descriptive but also relied on anecdotes and subjective opinions. Consequently, the studies’ findings have little explanatory power, making it difficult to confront the underlying causes of arbitral ineffectiveness. The aim of this comparative case study was to develop a framework for effective arbitration of construction disputes in Kenya. A review of the related literature brought out ten determinants of arbitral effectiveness, including award favourability, perceived award fairness, perceived procedural fairness, perceived quality of the decision-making process, perceived quality of treatment, perceived adequacy of the size of the tribunal, approaches to the presentation of evidence, competence of the tribunal, distribution of control and complexity of the dispute. These factors were conceptualised into a structural model. Qualitative data collection and analysis were then undertaken to establish the relationships among the factors. Thirteen semi-structured interviews of participants in five construction disputes in Kenya helped to explain the factors influencing the effectiveness of construction arbitration, which formed the basis upon which the framework was developed. Pattern-matching analysis helped to reveal that out of the ten identified factors, only award favourability was found to directly influence arbitral effectiveness. Four other factors including the approaches to the presentation of evidence, the competence of the tribunal, distribution of control and complexity of the dispute also influenced arbitral effectiveness among the cases, but through award favourability. In this study, the researcher makes a distinct contribution to knowledge by demonstrating that award favourability and the control model of procedural justice are the components of organisational justice that did influenced arbitral effectiveness in the cases studied. Thus, disputants in the cases were more interested in material gains than in maintaining and sustaining their business relations, explaining why the awards were challenged, hence straining their relationships. This instrumental nature suggests that these disputants were less interested in fairness of the process and its outcome, explaining why the influence of award fairness, procedural fairness and interactional justice on arbitral effectiveness was not supported. Despite the ineffectiveness of the cases, participants maintained that they would still refer future construction disputes to arbitration, mainly because of its procedural and interactional justice. Finally, a schematic framework was synthesized from the data analysis results. The framework requires implementation of institutional, legal and policy interventions for effective construction arbitration. The proposed interventions include a review of the training curricula to impart soft skills on effective construction arbitration, review of the arbitration rules, standing panels to match arbitrators to the various case complexities and the need for arbitrators to proactively manage their cases. There is also a need for disputants to customize the dispute resolution clauses during the contract drafting stage to incorporate desired