KENYA - Burnout cases on the increase in academia, says report [University World News, September 2022]

Title:

Burnout cases on the increase in academia, says report

 

Author:

Gilbert Nganga

 

Published:

University World News, 20 September 2022

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220920065018406

 

From the article:

Kenya’s university lecturers are reporting increasing cases of burnout due to their escalating workload and low pay, a new survey by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) shows.  

 

The findings of the study point to deteriorating work conditions in the country’s public and private universities which could further dent the country’s higher education credentials, long plagued by deteriorating quality and underfunding.  

 

The study was conducted in June-July by the UNESCO International Insitute for Capacity Building in Africa (UNESCO-IICBA) in collaboration with researchers in Kenya. 

The impact of open access on knowledge production, consumption and dissemination in Kenya’s higher education system [Scholarly Article - Third World Quarterly, 2022]

Title:

The impact of open access on knowledge production, consumption and dissemination in Kenya’s higher education system

 

Author:

David Mwambaria 

African Leadership Centre, Global Affairs, King’s College London, UK

 

Published:

Third World Quarterly, Volume 43, Issue, 19 May 2022

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2022.2056010

 

Abstract:

Open access (OA) journal publishing is presented in the literature as both an opportunity for and a threat to academics, authors and higher education systems. Institutions with information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure have enabled their academics to freely retrieve accessible content in various disciplines, which in turn increases the rate and quality of publications from these institutions. Using semi-structured interviews with Kenyan faculty, students and librarians and with Kenyan and non-Kenyan publishers, as well as secondary sources, this article examines perspectives often overlooked in this debate. The paper concludes that while OA is considered an important initiative that could enhance knowledge production and consumption in Kenya, it nevertheless presents its own challenges, which should not be overlooked. OA is not a simple solution to individual and institutional challenges or systemic epistemic injustices, which lead to poor-quality knowledge circulating via some OA platforms and have the potential to dampen the global competitiveness of knowledge produced in Kenya and other countries in the Global South.

 

Ambivalent Belonging: Born-Again Christians between Africa and Europe [Scholarly Article - Journal of Religion in Africa, June 2022]

Title:

Ambivalent Belonging: Born-Again Christians between Africa and Europe

 

Author:

Leslie Fesenmyer 

Assistant Professor, Social Anthropology and African Studies, Department of African Studies and Anthropology, School of History and Cultures, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

Published:

Journal of Religion in Africa, 3 June 2022

https://brill.com/view/journals/jra/52/1-2/article-p119_6.xml

Abstract:

Historically entangled with nation, race, and religion, questions of belonging are pressing and affective ones in Africa and Europe. Against the backdrop of anti-migrant hostility, globalization, and autochthonous claims, I consider how born-again Christians in London negotiate belonging between Kenya, their country of origin, and the United Kingdom, their country of residence. As ‘migrants’ and ‘diasporans’, they are seen as not belonging in either national context. Adopting a scalar approach, I argue that their identification as born-again Christians and claim to membership in a global Christian community allows them to ‘scale-jump’ and offers a morally and emotionally meaningful sense of belonging. At the same time, their encounters with various racial and religious Others locally, nationally, and transnationally mediate where they feel at ‘home’. In the face of contradictions and ambivalence, Pentecostalism helps them to navigate competing symbolic, material, and affective concerns as they seek belonging across multiple sociospatial scales.

 

Goal Orientation and Learning Readiness: Evidence Among Freshmen in Selected Kenyan Universities [Scholarly Article - Alberta Journal of Education Research, 2022]

Title:

Goal Orientation and Learning Readiness: Evidence Among Freshmen in Selected Kenyan Universities

 

Authors:

Evelyne Kwamboka Mose 

Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science & Technology Kenya 

 

Peter JO Aloka 

University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

 

Benard Mwebi 

Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science & Technology Kenya

 

Published:

Alberta Journal of Education Research, 10 March 2022

https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ajer/article/view/70594

Abstract:

This study, which adopted an ex post facto research design, investigated the relationship between goal orientation and learning readiness among first year students in three public universities in Kenya. A sample size of 372 first years from the three universities were obtained using both stratified and simple random sampling techniques. The Goal Questionnaire for Students (GQS) and the Learning Readiness Questionnaire (LRQ) were used to collect data. The findings reported Eta squared (.547) which implied that a fairly large proportion (54.7%) of variance in he learning readiness index among the first year students is explained by goal orientation of the students. Results from the study determined that universities should emphasize techniques of performance approach in their guidance programs. 

 

Spatio-temporal patterns of domestic water distribution, consumption and sufficiency: Neighbourhood inequalities in Nairobi, Kenya [University of Nairobi, Kenya, December 2021]

Title:

Spatio-temporal patterns of domestic water distribution, consumption and sufficiency: Neighbourhood inequalities in Nairobi, Kenya 

 

Authors: 

Nyamai Mutono, Jim Wright, Henry Mutembei & S.M. Thumbi  

 

Published:

University of Nairobi, 2 December 2021

https://www.uonbi.ac.ke/news/spatio-temporal-patterns-domestic-water-distribution-consumption-and-sufficiency-neighbourhood

 

From the article:

Whilst there are longstanding and well-established inequalities in safe-drinking water-access between urban and rural areas, there remain few studies of changing intra-urban inequalities over time. In this study, we determined the spatio-temporal patterns of domestic piped water distribution in Nairobi, Kenya between 1985 and 2018, and the implications of socio-economic and neighbourhood inequalities in water sufficiency.

 

KENYA - Cash-strapped Kenyan varsities face closure in World Bank loan deal [The EastAfrican, November 2021]

Title:

Cash-strapped Kenyan varsities face closure in World Bank loan deal

 

Author:

Otiato Guguyu

 

Published:

The EastAfrican, 17 November 2021

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/universities-face-closure-in-world-bank-loan-deal-3621896

 

From the article:

Kenya has come under pressure from the World Bank to close and merge the cash-strapped public universities and loss-making parastatals in what would see thousands of public servants lose their jobs.  

 

The multilateral financier reckons that Kenya should merge the institutions of higher learning because of duplication of courses and the need to cut spending.

 

KENYA - Why it’s time to break the cycle of reform and protest at Kenya’s universities [The Conversation, August 2021]

Title:

Why it’s time to break the cycle of reform and protest at Kenya’s universities

 

Author:

Ishmael Munene 

Professor of Research, Foundations & Higher Education, Northern Arizona University

 

Published:

The Conversation, 2 August 2021

https://theconversation.com/why-its-time-to-break-the-cycle-of-reform-and-protest-at-kenyas-universities-165086

 

From the article:

Constant disruption of learning due to students’ protests has defined university education since Kenya’s independence. Up until the 1990s, such protests were triggered by larger socio-political issues such as democratisation, human rights and economic equality. Since then, the spate of university student protests, averaging five every year, has followed changes that raise the costs of attending university.  

 

Due to its status as the premier university in Kenya, reforms at the University of Nairobi are likely to cascade to other public universities. So too are the reactions of students and staff.

 

Climate change and small-scale agriculture in Africa: does indigenous knowledge matter? Insights from Kenya and South Africa [Scholarly Article - Scientific African, June 2021]

Title:

Climate change and small-scale agriculture in Africa: does indigenous knowledge matter? Insights from Kenya and South Africa

 

Authors:

Amos Apraku, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Department of Languages and General Studies, Sunyani, Ghana

& 

John F Morton, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Kent ME4 4TB, United Kingdom

& 

Benjamin Apraku-Gyampoh, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology; Department of Fisheries and Watershed Management, Kumasi, Ghana

 

Published:

Scientific African, 16 June 2021, e00821

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227621001253

[This article is in Press. In other words, the article is accepted and peer reviewed, but not yet assigned to a volume/issue]

 

Abstract:

Africa is highly vulnerable to changes in global climatic conditions due to its low adaptive capacity and sensitivity to changes in climatic variables, particularly in the agricultural sector. A key attribute of studies on climate change coping strategies and adaptation mechanisms in Africa is that they lack local specificity. Within a discourse dominated by large-scale attempts to measure the extent of climate change and its impacts with methods drawn from physical and biological sciences, there is little focus on how locally-specific knowledge and practices help communities to cope with effects of adverse environmental conditions on their agriculture at the farm level. From a sample of 115 respondents drawn from South Africa and Kenya and through interviews, discussions and interactions, this paper demonstrates that local residents deploy their indigenous knowledge in predicting seasonal weather and rainfall patterns, determining wind speed and direction, preserving grains for planting purposes and various traditional farming support systems to lessen the impacts of climate change on their agricultural activities. The paper concludes that merging local knowledge with modern science in Africa could help develop a syncretic agronomical knowledge among farmers in handling climate change.

 

KENYA - Child’s grave is the oldest human burial found in Africa [National Geographic, May 2021]

Title:

Child's grave is the oldest human burial found in Africa

 

Author:

Jamie Shreeve

 

Published:

National Geographic, 5 May 2021

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/childs-grave-is-the-oldest-human-burial-found-in-africa

 

From the article:

In a tour de force of discovery, recovery, and analysis, an interdisciplinary research team has uncovered the earliest known human burial in Africa. The grave, found less than 10 miles inland from southeast Kenya’s lush ocean beaches, contained the remains of a two- to three-year-old child buried with extraordinary care by a community of early Homo sapiens some 78,000 years ago. 

 

KENYA - Level of awareness and factors associated with exposure to occupational health hazards among street cleaners in Eldoret Town, Uasin Gishu County [Scholarly Article - East African Medical Journal, May 2021]

Title:

Level of awareness and factors associated with exposure to occupational health hazards among street cleaners in Eldoret Town, Uasin Gishu County

 

Authors:

A.A. Munubi, J.N. Mangeni & S.K. Musyoki 

 

Published:

East African Medical Journal, Volume 98, Number 3 (21 May 2021)

https://www.ajol.info/index.php/eamj/article/view/207467

 

Abstract:

Objective: 

Street cleaners are unprotected from a range of health hazards in their day-to-day activities of removing harmful pollutants from the streets. The main aim of this study was to assess the level of awareness and factors associated with exposure to occupational health hazards among street cleaners in Eldoret Town, Uasin Gishu County. 

 

Setting: 

The study was conducted in Eldoret town, Uasin Gishu County. 

 

Design: 

The study adopted a cross sectional survey research design. 

 

Participants: 

The study’s participants were street cleaners. Since the target population was small, census design was adopted. Data were collected using questionnaires. Data analysis was done using both descriptive and inferential statistics. 

 

Results: 

The study targeted 70 street workers who all of them participated in the study. This gave a response rate of 100%. Study results revealed that 55(78.6%) of the respondents were exposed to health hazards daily. Further, majority 52(74.3%) of street cleaners were not aware of administrative procedures regarding the management of hazard exposure. In addition, 55(78.5%) of street cleaners are not aware of well-developed preventive maintenance programs. The main factor associated with exposure to hazards is level of education (ꭓ2=21.417, df=8, ‘p=0.000). 

 

Conclusions: 

The study concluded that the level of awareness on health hazards and prevention measures among street cleaners in Eldoret town, was low. The level of education is associated with exposure to these health hazards. There is need for training of cleaners on the personal protective equipment usage and its importance so as to promote awareness and reduce occupational hazards.

 

KENYA - Mentorship programmes in Kenya can make graduates more employable. Here’s how one works [The Conversation, April 2021]

Title:

Mentorship programmes in Kenya can make graduates more employable. Here's how one works

 

Author:

Dr Chao Mbogho

Educator, Researcher, Mentor, Kenya Methodist University

 

Published:

The Conversation, 7 April 2021

https://theconversation.com/mentorship-programmes-in-kenya-can-make-graduates-more-employable-heres-how-one-works-157530

 

From the article:

Several studies have shown that besides technical education, “soft skills” are critical for graduates to succeed as innovators, entrepreneurs, and in the formal workplace. These include problem-solving, teamwork and communication.

Dynamics of inflation and its impact on economic growth in selected East African Countries: Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya [Scholarly Article - Journal of African Studies and Development, 2021]

Title:

Dynamics of inflation and its impact on economic growth in selected East African Countries: Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya

 

Authors:

Abdelkreem Youse

St Mary's University, Ethiopia

&

Sisay Debebe

Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

 

Published:

Journal of African Studies and Development, 31 January 2021

https://academicjournals.org/journal/JASD/article-abstract/C7A813C66032

 

Abstract:

Despite Ethiopia's, Sudan's, and Kenya's fastest-growing economies' performance over the last two decades, the overall average inflation rate remains double digits. It subsequently incorporates a detrimental impact to support economic growth in an extended period. This study aims to assess the dynamics of inflation and its impacts on economic growth Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan using time-series macroeconomic data collected from the African Development Bank. The research used the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) econometrics model and investigated the presence of cointegration and long-term relationships between macroeconomic factors. The result indicates that the exchange rate and the supply of the long-run economic growth rate influence Ethiopia's money supply. Inflation rates and foreign direct investments have impacted economic growth rates in Kenya and Sudan. The economic growth rate in all counties is generally influenced by both the availability of money and the exchange rate—also, real per capita GDP affecting the economic growth rate of Sudan and Ethiopia. Policies on introducing new technologies, building capacities in public and private sectors, youth and gender parity, mobilizing domestic resources, and public participation are recommended for Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan.

KENYA - This app is preparing Kenya's herders for extreme weather [World Economic Forum, Feb 2021]

Title:

This app is preparing Kenya's herders for extreme weather

 

Author:

Kagondu Njagi

Published:

World Economic Forum, 23 February 2021

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/02/weather-app-kenya-pastoralists

From the article:

* As climate change causes difficult weather conditions, access to village-level drought updates and advice from smartphones is helping Kenya's herders. 

 

* An app called 'myAnga' (my weather) contains the information, which is provided by virtual weather stations. 

 

* Daniel Kapana, chairman of the Merille Livestock Market, has suggested that the app should be improved with infographics and illustrations, so people who cannot read are able to use it.

University of Pretoria, Thesis (LLD), February 2020 - The relation between access to water poverty and patriarchy : the case of women slum dwellers in Kibera Kenya (by M. A, Odeny)

Title:

The relation between access to water poverty and patriarchy : the case of women slum dwellers in Kibera Kenya 

 

Author:

Odeny, Millicent Akinyi

 

Published:

University of Pretoria, Thesis (LLD), February 2020

[A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirement of an award of The Degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) in the Faculty of Law at The university of Pretoria.]

https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/76755

 

Research problem:

"The lack of access to adequate, safe, close, and affordable water and sanitation in Kenya motivates this thesis. The main research problem that I investigate is the position of women slum dwellers in Kibera, Kenya, concerning access to water and sanitation and how access to water is affected by their status as impoverished women. I aim to unearth the relation between access to water, poverty, and patriarchy to underscore the impact of inadequate access on women slum dwellers of Kibera and the coping mechanisms employed to alleviate the problem."

KENYA - Incidence, Depth and Severity of Multiple Child Deprivations in Kenya [Scholarly Article - African Journal of Economic Review, November 2020]

Title:

Incidence, Depth and Severity of Multiple Child Deprivations in Kenya 

 

Authors:  

Isaiah Kiprono Byegon, Jane Kabubo-Mariara & Anthony Wambugu 

 

Published: 

African Journal of Economic Review, Volume 9, Number 1, 21 November 2020 

https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajer/article/view/201727  

 

Abstract: 

This paper measured multidimensional child deprivation of basic needs using data from 1993 to 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys. The Bristol approach multiple nonmonetary indicators of deprivation and the Alkire and Foster method for multidimensional poverty measurement are applied. The results show that the highest deprivation rates are in information, shelter and sanitation dimensions of child well-being. The lowest deprivation rates are in health and education dimensions. Deprivation rates are highest in North-Eastern and Eastern regions of Kenya. Third, deprivation rates in various dimensions and multidimensional child poverty declined between 1993 and 2014. These results suggest that provision of social halls community social halls with media centers, library/entertainment centers would enable children access information. In addition, government can consider zero rating building materials, and promoting research on appropriate building technologies to increase affordable housing. Investment by County governments in enhancing access to safe drinking water would reduce deprivation rate in this dimension. Child nutritional deprivation can be addressed through food supplements in the short-term and humanitarian assistance (relief food, tokens) for households with vulnerable children. Investments by National and County governments in collaboration with stakeholders will reduce deprivation rates in access to safe sanitation facilities.

 

Brokerage in the borderlands: the political economy of livestock intermediaries in northern Kenya [Scholarly Article - Journal of Eastern African Studies, 16 November 2020]

Title:

Brokerage in the borderlands: the political economy of livestock intermediaries in northern Kenya

 

Authors:

Ong'ao P. Ng'asike, Tobias Hagmann & Oliver V. Wasonga

 

Published:

Journal of Eastern African Studies, 16 November 2020

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17531055.2020.1845041

 

Abstract:

This article argues that brokers are key actors in the cross-border livestock trade between Kenya and Somalia, where formal regulations are weak or absent. We elucidate the economic and social rationales for livestock brokerage as well as a series of brokering practices taking place at the intersection of profit making, kinship and trust. Besides producing social capital based on trust, brokers facilitate the formalization of livestock trading by linking livestock production sites in southern Somalia to consumer markets in Kenya. Brokers thereby take on various roles and functions that contribute to integrating markets across fragmented territories. Based on extended fieldwork conducted in and around Garissa livestock market as well as in Nairobi, the paper outlines the political economy of livestock intermediaries in the important Somali-Kenyan cross-border livestock trade.

Kenya - Alphabet’s Loon launches its balloon-powered Kenyan internet service

Title:
Alphabet’s Loon launches its balloon-powered Kenyan internet service

Author:
Darrell Etherington

Published:
TechCrunch, 7 July 2020
https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/07/alphabets-loon-launches-its-balloon-powered-kenyan-internet-service/

From the article:
Alphabet’s Loon  has officially begun operating its commercial internet service in Kenya. This is the first large-scale commercial offering that makes use of Loon’s high-altitude balloons, which essentially work as cell service towers that drift on currents in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

University of Nairobi, Kenya - Law students approach courts to challenge online exams

Title:
Law students approach courts to challenge online exams

Author:
Wachira Kigotho

Published:
University World News, 1 July 2020
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2020070108564996

From the article:
Eighty law students of Kenya’s University of Nairobi have gone to court challenging the use of online learning platforms for classes and scheduled examinations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

Through their two colleagues, Daniel Chege Kamau and Kelvin Mugambi Kubai, the students are pleading with the court to stop the university from holding virtual online classes, or even scheduling examinations and other academic evaluations through the same platforms.

BBC News Video, 25 June 2020 - Preventing a plague: Fighting Kenya's locusts

Title of video:
Preventing a plague: Fighting Kenya's locusts

Published:
BBC News, 25 June 2020
[Video 7:30]
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-53170894/preventing-a-plague-fighting-kenya-s-locusts

Description:
There are increasing fears for food security in East Africa, with mounting evidence of a new wave of desert locusts.

Earlier in the year, billions of the insects destroyed crops across the region – with the UN warning a second generation would be even more destructive.

Now, despite international efforts, those fears appear to be coming to pass.

When the first wave hit, Albert Lemasulani gave up his life to fight the swarms - leaving his family, his goats and his newborn son behind to try and prevent a plague.

medRxiv, 28 May 2020 - A vulnerability index for COVID-19: spatial analysis to inform equitable response in Kenya

Title:
A vulnerability index for COVID-19: spatial analysis to inform equitable response in Kenya

Authors:
Peter M Macharia, Noel K Joseph & Emelda A Okiro

Published:
medRxiv, 28 May 2020
[Keep in mind that this article has not been certified by peer review.]
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.27.20113803v1

Abstract:
Background: Response to the COVID-19 pandemic calls for precision public health reflecting our improved understanding of who is the most vulnerable and their geographical location. We created three vulnerability indices to identify areas and people who require greater support while elucidating health inequities to inform emergency response in Kenya. 

Methods: Geospatial indicators were assembled to create three vulnerability indices; social (SVI), epidemiological (EVI) and a composite of the two (SEVI) resolved at 295 sub-counties in Kenya. SVI included nineteen indicators that affect the spread of disease; socio-economic inequities, access to services and population dynamics while EVI comprised five indicators describing comorbidities associated with COVID-19 severe disease progression. The indicators were scaled to a common measurement scale, spatially overlaid via arithmetic mean and equally weighted. The indices were classified into seven classes, 1-2 denoted low-vulnerability and 6-7 high-vulnerability. The population within vulnerabilities classes was quantified. 

Results: The spatial variation of each index was heterogeneous across Kenya. Forty-nine north-western and partly eastern sub-counties (6.9 m people) were highly vulnerable while 58 sub-counties (9.7 m people) in western and central Kenya were the least vulnerable for SVI. For EVI, 48 sub-counties (7.2 m people) in central and the adjacent areas and 81 sub-counties (13.2 m people) in northern Kenya were the most and least vulnerable respectively. Overall (SEVI), 46 sub-counties (7.0 m people) around central and south-eastern were more vulnerable while 81 sub-counties (14.4 m people) that were least vulnerable. 

Conclusion: The vulnerability indices created are tools relevant to the county, national government and stakeholders for prioritization and improved planning especially in highly vulnerable sub-counties where cases have not been confirmed. The heterogeneous nature of the vulnerability highlights the need to address social determinants of health disparities, strengthen the health system and establish programmes to cushion against the negative effects of the pandemic.