Kenyan Society Research Articles

Influence of Credit Management on Financial Performance of Dairy Marketing Cooperatives in Kenya

Agriculture development is the most critical sector for most Sub-Sahara African countries owing to its significance in food security and employment creation. Dairy cooperative societies are central to sustainable development as they are mainly intended to empower the communities especially in rural areas where agriculture is the main stay. According to United Nations estimates, the cooperative movement has brought 800 million people together globally. Dairy farmers have relied more heavily upon dairy cooperative societies to market their milk than have farmers of any other commodity. However, these cooperative societies are faced with various challenges especially after liberation and most cooperative societies in Kenya are under performing as compared to other cooperative societies in similar regions. However, most of the populations in the major production regions live below a dollar a day. This study sought to determine the influence of credit management on financial performance of Dairy cooperatives in Kisii, Nyamira, Bomet and Kericho Counties, Kenya. The study design is descriptive panel research design. Secondary data was used for analysis. The target population was four dairy marketing cooperatives with a total population of one thousand two hundred and forty five (1,245) dairy farmers registered as at December, 2018 by the Commissioner of cooperatives in Kenya in Kisii, Nyamira, Bomet and Kericho counties which also formed the study target units. Census sampling was used to select sample of the population. Secondary data over the ten year-period covering 2009-2018 was obtained. Data was collected using secondary data collection sheet and analyzed using multiple panel regression models. Limitations faced during data collection included high illiteracy levels amongst cooperative members. This was controlled by taking the officials through the facets of credit management to have them understand the concepts under enquiry. The study findings showed that credit management had significant influence on return on investment, a measure of financial performance of dairy marketing cooperatives in Kenya and tests for significance also showed that the influence was statistically significant. The study therefore recommends that all dairy marketing cooperative officials and members be trained on credit management aspects.

Nandi Female Husbands

Gender differences in competitiveness have been hypothesized as a potential explanation for gender differences in education and labor market outcomes. Central to the literature is whether differences in preferences for competition are innate or learned. I study this question in the Nandi society in Kenya. A distinct aspect of this society is the cultural institution of husbands. In Nandi custom, the property of a woman's (the house property) can only be transmitted to male heirs, and so inheritance flows through mothers to the sons. As not every woman gives birth to a male heir, the Nandi solution to sustain the family lineage is for the heirless woman to become the to a younger woman. A woman who marries another woman for this purpose has to undergo an inversion ceremony to change into a man. This biological woman, now socially male, becomes a husband to a younger female and a father to the younger woman's children, whose sons become the heirs of her house. Taking advantage of this unique separation of biological and social roles holding constant the same society, I conduct competitiveness experiments. Similar to the extant evidence from experiments in Western cultures, I find that Nandi men opt to compete at roughly twice the rate as Nandi women. Importantly, however, female husbands (socially males but biologically females) choose to compete at basically the same rate as males, and thus around twice as often as females. These results provide novel support for the argument that social norms, family roles and endogenous preference formation are crucially linked to differences in competitiveness.

Mobile money as an interface between finance and livelihood - Sibel Kusimba, Reimagining Money: Kenya in the Digital Financial Revolution, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 2021, 222 pp., $28 (pbk), ISBN 978-1-503-61441-3

Digital payment tools and mobile money receive growing attention as a possible tool for alleviating poverty and expanding the benefits of market economies. Especially the Kenyan product M-Pesa gained prominence, since Suri and Jack (2016) published a study according to which it paved a way out of poverty for 2% of the country’s households. However, there are more skeptical notions, too. This debate is now gets a good basis in the long-term ethnographic study by Sibel Kusimba. She endows the conflicting assessments with differentiated reports on the contexts of M-Pesa usage in the Kenyan society.

ACCOUNTING AS A TOOL FOR CORRUPTION CONTROL IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR IN KENYA

The culture of corruption has grown deep roots in the Kenyan society and become endemic. Institutions, which were designed for the regulation of the relationships between citizens and the State, are being used instead for the personal enrichment of public officials. Corruption persists in Kenya primarily because there are people in power who benefit from it and the existing governance institutions lack both the will and capacity to stop them from doing so. This paper looked at the role of accounting on how to control corruption in the Kenyan Public Sector and the rate of existing internal control and accounting standards are helping to reduce the level of corruption. The main objective of the study is to establish whether internal control and accounting standards have significant relationship with corruption control in the public sector in Kenya. The study got primary data using a structured questionnaire while secondary data were obtained from reports. To test for reliability of result from data used, the Cronbach alpha coefficient was applied. Questionnaires were administered to staff in Kenyan ministries. Respondents were selected using stratified random sampling method. Multiple regression analysis result showed that both internal control and accounting standards do not have significant relationship and effect on corruption control in the Kenyan Public Sector. The recommendations of the study showed that management personnel should at least have basic knowledge of accounting while staff in the accounts and finance department needs to proceed regularly on capacity building to upgrade emerging accounting trends. 

Fakes and chemicals: indigenous medicine in contemporary Kenya and implications for health equity

BackgroundAccess to effective biomedical treatments for humans and livestock in Kenya is far from universal. Indigenous healing has a significant role to play in contemporary society in Kenya, yet access is not the only reason for this. Beliefs surrounding the composition of biomedicines, people’s experiences of biomedical care, and issues of counterfeit biomedicines sold over the counter have led to patients seeking care outside of biomedical institutions.MethodsThis study explores local realities of treatment seeking in one rural and one urban study site, for both humans and their livestock, including when, where and how people access certain types of medicines. Using an ethnographic approach to interviews, focus groups and observations, I explore the role that indigenous healing, both herbal and occasionally spiritual, plays within this context with healers and community members.ResultsIndigenous healing remains important for many people due to their mistrust and suspicion of biomedicine and big pharma. Their interactions with the healer or doctor, and the equity of these interactions, influence their decisions whether to access herbal or biomedical care, or a combination of the two. Indigenous healing bridges the gap many people experience when they are unable to access biomedical treatments and effectively creates a broader, more equitable coverage for healthcare. The plurality of reasons surrounding decision making is complex, but it is clear that many people often use indigenous healing, improvements in the regulation of both formulas and practice would assist people to access more effective treatment.ConclusionsIndigenous healing is an important way in which Kenyans in rural and urban areas access healthcare for themselves and their animals. Issues of counterfeit biomedicines have led to broad mistrust and people favour indigenous healing, depending on the illness or severity of symptoms. Indigenous healing is a vital way in which people in underserved rural and urban populations access care. Herbal medicines and indigenous healing are trusted due to the greater transparency in their creation, and the more equitable relationship between indigenous doctor and patient. The study demonstrates that a pluralistic system is appropriate to increasing equity in access to healthcare in both urban and rural settings, as well as the importance of biomedical care providers respecting indigenous healing and viewing it with legitimacy. By taking a One Health perspective to understand the intersection of humans, livestock and the environment, we can better understand critical aspects affecting decision making for treatment and implications for healthcare equity in a rapidly changing world.

Lifetime stress and war exposure timing may predict methylation changes at NR3C1 based on a pilot study inawarrior cohort in a small-scale society in Kenya.

Candidate gene methylation studies of NR3C1 have identified associations with psychosocial adversity, including war trauma. This pilot study (sample sizes from 22 to 45 for primary analyses) examined NR3C1 methylation in a group of Kenyan pastoralist young men in relation to culturally relevant traumatic experiences, including participation in coalitional lethal gun violence. Adolescent and young adult Samburu men ("warriors") were recruited for participation. DNA was obtained from whole saliva and methylation analyses performed using mass spectrometry. We performed a data reduction of variables from a standardized instrument of lifetime stress using a factor analysis and we assessed the association between the extracted factors with culturally relevant and cross-culturally comparative experiences. Cumulative lifetime trauma exposure and forms of violence to which warriors are particularly susceptible were associated with DNA methylation changes in the NR3C1 1F promoter region but not in the NR3C1 1D promoter region. However, sensitivity analyses revealed significant associations between individual CpG sites in both regions and cumulative stress exposures, war exposure timing, and war fatalities. This study supports the importance of NR3C1 methylation changes in response to challenging life circumstances, including in a global south cultural context that contrasts in notable ways from global north contexts and from the starkly tragic examples of the Rwandan genocide and war-associated rape explored in recent studies. Timing of traumatic exposure and culturally salient means to measure enduring symptoms of trauma remain important considerations for DNA methylation studies.

Election reporting and githerinization of Kenya’s media

Kenya’s media landscape has greatly transformed since the reforms of the 1990s, resulting in increased private ownership of media. The relationship between the media, politics and the citizen has been the most affected by these transformations. Using examples from Kenya’s 2017 elections, this article attempts to show how this relationship has changed and the opportunities and challenges for modern political communication. This article argues that although new trends in political communication have resulted in complex and dynamic political campaigns, they have also resulted in the atomization and alienation of the citizen in the democratic enterprise. This analysis is made against the backdrop of the political economy of the media theoretical perspective and, to an extent, emerging literature on media and globalization and attendant forces on the Kenyan society in general.

Psychology of Perverse Sexual Behaviour: Socio-Psychological Crisis in Kenya

One of the greatest social crisis in the world today is sexuality. Kenya is one of the developing countries whose social and economic institutions have been adversely affected by sexual perversions. The media, religion, academic, police and legal reports indicate shocking revelations about the extent to which sexual perversions have engulfed Kenyans. Rape, bestiality, paedophilia, incest, sex-oriented violence and insults characterize the social landscape of the country with dire implications on the family, health, religious, economic, political and other vital institutions of the society are ever reported. Cases of priests/pastors/imam defiling their ‘flock’; teachers sexually assaulting their students; prostitution and promiscuity; fathers raping their daughters; jobs being awarded on sexual advances are not uncommon. Consequently, people are dying of sexually-oriented diseases; hospitals are full of sex health problems; families are breaking because of sex and sex-related challenges; streets are full of abandoned children; leaders have lost to their enemies because of sex; companies have been rundown because of sex; professionalism has waned because sex has replaced merit; students are passing examinations because of sexually transmitted marks; the environment is polluted because of sex; even religious books warn that many may miss the Kingdom of God because of sex-related sins. Sex sin is everywhere. It is not limited to the bedroom anymore, but to the television, movies, billboards, office buildings, hotels, kitchen, cars, classrooms, in the field, corridors, in conferences, toilets, churches, mosques, streets, and in the bush, just to name a few of the spaces. This paper provides some empirical and conceptual observations, which suggests ‘a sex crisis’ that is reflected in the kind of sexual patterns observed in the Kenyan society today. The current social and moral policies emphasize equity, human rights and freedom. However, there is a lack of or little on self-control and morality mechanisms in social control systems especially in relation to rapid socio-cultural changes that have led to identity and personality crisis. This has led to the prevalence of sexual patterns that advance egocentrism rather than the common good. Consequently, the paper recommends a reflection on what actually happened to the sex moral values in Kenya and suggests what the society’s leadership should do to inform policy-oriented strategies that can tame the current situation.

Corporate Growth Strategies and Performance of Selected Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies in Nairobi City County, Kenya

The dynamic nature of business operating environment has called on business leaders to be strategic in their leadership roles if they are to sustain their competitiveness into the unforeseen future. Growth is important in Sacco’s because it is future oriented establishing ways in which the organizational operations can be aligned to future changes in the business environment to ensure that competitiveness is sustained. The SACCOs in Kenya have experienced problems in the past; some even shutting down therefore there is need for customer growth to be enhanced so as to increase their incomes so as to sustain the business. These SACCOs have to look for leaders and managers who can develop future targets, direct and lead other staffs towards meeting the firm’s objective and gaining a competitive edge. The aim of this study was an assessment of corporate growth strategies and performance in savings and cooperative societies in Kenya, Nairobi County. The study sought to determine the influence of market expansion, diversification strategies and acquisition strategies. The study target population was 41 licensed SACCOs in Nairobi County. The study used primary data to collect information, and the data collection instrument was a questionnaire which was given to the 41 operations managers in the 41 selected SACCOs. The data collection procedure was done by the researcher and drop-and-pick strategy will be applied. The data was coded and keyed in Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS Version 23.0), and was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. For descriptive statistics was through mean scores, standard deviations, frequencies and percentages, while the inferential statistics was through regression analysis to establish the relationship between strategic leadership and customer growth. The findings were presented in tables and charts for easy understanding, interpreting, and describing the data. The study established that market expansion, diversification strategies and acquisition strategies as corporate growth strategies had a positive and significant effect on the performance of SACCOs in Nairobi City County. The study concluded that the SACCOs significantly employed market expansion strategies through improved branch network, customer base enhancement, new distribution channels and technological innovation. The study concluded that the SACCOs embraced a hybrid of the main diversification strategies, diverse products and services significantly. It was concluded that to a little extent the selected SACCOs in Nairobi City County have employed acquisition as a corporate growth strategy. The study recommends that the SACCOs should embrace integrate technology in the implementation of corporate growth strategies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. Further studies should be undertaken to establish the effect of corporate growth strategies on the performance of other SACCOs in other regions to establish the disparities or similarities among the financial sector players.

Semiotic Analysis of Gender Constructions among Facebook Users in Kenya

This study aimed at examining how male and female identities are constructed using visual images posted in particular Facebook Groups frequented by Kenyans. To this end, the theory of Visual Social Semiotics by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996; 2006) was employed in the interpretation of data. A descriptive qualitative approach was employed where particular features of the images were identified, described and interpreted. A total of six images were purposively selected from five Facebook Groups and a content analysis, with a checklist used to identify relevant features for analysis. The study found out that there is a major change in the identities of both males and females. Even though there was a desire by men to retain their dominant position, the images showed a shift from the traditional muscular, strong, powerful and macho male towards a vulnerable, weak and prone-to-criminal acts man. Female’s identities have also changed from the traditional one, who was always associated with the kitchen, child birth towards a more assertive, powerful and professional identity. As a result, the study recommends that the Kenyan society ought to take a more serious look into the welfare of the boy-child as it appears that the boy child has been left behind by a more-empowered Kenyan girl.

Representing school arson in Kenya: An analysis of newspaper reporting

Arson is a recurrent problem in Kenyan secondary schools. Although school violence – notably gun violence – has received significant attention, there has been less academic attention paid to school arson, especially in Africa. This study explores how newspaper reports in Kenya framed school arson and links these framings to broader questions about the understanding and production of Kenyan identity. A thematic analysis of 334 newspaper reports revealed multiple understandings of school arson. Print media discourse afforded journalists an opportunity to make a commentary on the post-colonial globalized Kenyan society. We discuss the implications of this for understanding post-colonial media in Africa.

Devolution and the politics of communal tenure reform in Kenya

Abstract Increased legal access and the devolution of natural resource administration are generally seen as sources of power for local communities and their institutions. However, beyond this widely held expectation, the politics of land reform suggest that legal recognition of rights and devolution is not the only issue with implications for communal tenure reforms. Misconceptions about communal tenure, which are rooted in history, and their appropriation by local elites in the processes of communal tenure reform are characteristic of both colonial and post-colonial governments in Kenya. Although typically articulated and promulgated to enhance political representation and to devolve control over resources to the local level, unresolved issues in the reform process have worked to undermine the legitimacy of communal land rights in contemporary Kenyan society. A case study of the post-2010 community land legislation process demonstrates the continuing relevance of historically conditioned political and ideological representations of communal tenure built during the colonial period and reproduced in policy in independent Kenya. This paper offers reflections on the centrality of sustained communal tenure misconceptions, fetishization of formal governance institutions, and the institutional and power configurations that primarily benefit powerful stakeholders as sources of the current breakdown in the implementation of community land law.

RESOURCE STRUGGLE, RESULTANT REALITIES AND THE FUTURE OF MARAGOLI LAND USE

Land has remained one of the most basic and valuable economic resource right from the pre-colonial to the post independent Kenyan society. The success or failure of every society is always pegged on how prudent the society manages the resources within its reach in the midst of changes, challenges and opportunities that time and space avails every single moment. Being part of the Kenyan society, the Maragoli community has never been left out of the land question that has troubled Kenya over time. The pre-colonial Maragoli society had a land tenure system which was characterized by communal control of land together with its resources and practiced individual land ownership. Though land was communally owned at the general level, it was individually owned and tilled at the family level. The basis of land administration was the customary law executed by the elders who had the overall powers over the production resource. Through colonial policies such as alienation of the Africans’ land, confiscation of livestock, introduction of taxes and the cash economy; all these mechanisms brought about disequilibrium in the Maragoli pre-colonial land use. With this in mind therefore, this paper examined the nature and realities in resource struggle and the future of such struggles especially in regard to land use in the post-independence Kenya, using the case of the Maragoli. Through the articulation theory, this paper demonstrates that the interaction between the pre-colonial Maragoli land use practices and the colonial land policies greatly impacted on the Maragoli socio-economic and political structures. Due to the cash crop economy, the traditional Maragoli communal attitudes towards land as a resource are fading out resulting into individual emphasis on land use. This individual emphasis on land use is the major cause of uneconomical subdivision of land, insecurity and increased poverty. It is from the above perspective that the paper analyses the post-independence Maragoli land situation, some of the key causes of uneconomical subdivision of land and the possible solutions.

Film as an Artefact

Films are important sites to access materials about a community's history and heritage. This paper, from an Afrocentric point of view and guided by post-colonial literary criticism, interrogates the two films; Nairobi Half Life and The Kitchen Toto with a view to establish the extent to which filmic representations can reflect the society. It looks at how the forces that were /are present in colonial and post-colonial Kenya have been developed in the two films. The paper, specifically looks at the issues of governance and identity in the Kenyan society and focuses on how the forces present in the colonial and post-colonial Kenyan government divided people in terms of ‘us’ and the ‘other’ (colonizer-colonized in The Kitchen Toto and haves and have-nots in Nairobi Half Life) with the process of ‘othering’ resulting into alienation and loss of identity. It traces the protagonists’ conscious struggle and move to relocate themselves from the strictures and imprisoning experiences of ‘othering’, appraising the protagonist’s denial of this alienation in his acceptance of homecoming. Thus the issue the study tackles is that of Kenyans loss, the subsequent alienation from their culture and their own selves and the struggle to reclaim these selves once the realization of that loss is made. The paper lays bare social issues such as how socio-economic issues can contribute to one becoming a criminal; in Nairobi Half Life, and how a specific class/group of people in the society can be ‘criminalized’ in The Kitchen Toto. The conclusion reveals that the protagonists find their identity and fulfilment in the totality of their religions, culture ancestral heritage and a sense of belonging. The paper is based on the argument that films mirror the society.

Windows and mirrors: three images of the US science curriculum as reflected through Kenya’s Jua Kali

In this article, the authors draw on their experience in an international, cross-cultural visit to ponder similarities and differences in educational systems in both the USA and Kenya. During the visit, one feature of Kenyan society that stood out and became a frequent topic of discussion was the existence of the Jua Kali. Presenting their ponderings through the metaphor of windows and mirrors, the authors use the Jua Kali to (a) muse about the impact of school structure and science curriculum on Kenyan society and (b) reflect on the impact of school structure and science curriculum on US society. Through these muses and reflections, the authors suggest that science curriculum in the USA is structured to be irrelevant and inefficient, and it does not yield the results that it promises. The authors conclude by drawing from the history of the science, technology, and society movement to advocate for small-scale, local reform efforts.

#weareone: blood donation, terrorism and dreams of inclusion in Kenya

AbstractThis article examines responses to the terrorist attack on the Westgate Shopping Centre in Nairobi in September 2013 in order to investigate the role played by blood donation, as an expression of national dreams, in the political imaginary of contemporary Kenya. It considers the symbolic effectiveness of calls for blood donation made by political figures in the aftermath of the attacks. Such calls drew on a tradition of donation drives begun in the early years of independence, which emphasized the modernizing imperative of the new state and the importance of unity, hard work and self-sacrifice in building the nation. However, the reaction to Westgate, including calls for blood donation, also needs to be understood with reference to the response of American and other leaders to equivalent terrorist attacks in more recent years. These elite dreams found resonance among ordinary citizens and blood donation recruiters. But they were also subjected to trenchant critiques that sought to expose the reality of the transfusion system, as well as the inequality and injustice that mark the general healthcare system and Kenyan society as a whole. These shortcomings were also highlighted by mobilization drives organized by Kenya's Somali and Asian communities both before and during the Westgate crisis. The latter are presented by their organizers as a means of overcoming historic exclusion and discrimination.

The impact of public private partnership in the role of coffee farmers’ cooperative societies in Kenya

The impact of public private partnership in the role of coffee farmers’ cooperative societies in Kenya

Relationship between ISO 9001 Certification and the Number of NonConformities Identified during System Audits in Selected Public Universities in Kenya

The quest for International Standard Organization (ISO) 9001 certification as an international quality tool has been embraced for process improvement and positive perception by customers. With ISO 9001 certification, an institution is anticipated to offer exemplary goods or services that meet client prerequisites, needs and expectations thus enhance organizational performance. As evident in previous studies, despite ISO 9001 certification, cases on wastages, missing student marks and time wastage were indicators of non-conformance. There was no clear evidence of past studies on the relationship between ISO 9001 certification and organizational performance with special interest on number of non-conformities identified during systems audit being a component of organizational performance. The purpose of the study was therefore to establish the relationship between ISO 9001 certification and the number of non-conformities identified during system audits in selected public Universities in Kenya. Explanatory research design was used in the study. The research targeted a population of 433 respondents from which a sample size of 205 respondents was selected using purposive and simple random sampling designs. A questionnaire was used to collect data. To answer the objectives of the study, simple linear regression analysis was performed. From the model, (R2 = .600) shows that ISO 9001 certification account for 60% variation in number of non-conformities identified during system audits. There was a positive significant relationship between ISO 9001 certification and number of non-conformities identified during system audits (β=0.611 and p <0.05). Therefore, a unit increase in ISO 9001 certification led to reduced number of non-conformities identified during system audits. The ISO 9001 certification had a significant influence on the number of non-conformities identified during system audits. For every adoption of the ISO 9001 certification in public universities the number of non-conformities identified during system audits reduced. The study concludes that ISO 9001 certification had a significant positive influence on the number of non-conformities identified during system audits. Thus, for every adoption of the ISO 9001 certification in public universities the number of non-conformities identified reduced. The study recommends that there is need for management of public universities through the department of quality management to address the non-conformities raised during system audits, need for university management to raise awareness on the importance of standardization and conformity assessment and to entrench the culture of quality in the Kenyan society by promoting practical usage of standards and development of quality related curricula in public universities.

Language and Representation: Framing of HIV/AIDS Discourse in Gikuyu “Mukingo” Songs and Common-Talk by Public Transport Operators in Nyeri Town

This paper aims to uncover representations and framings of the HIV/AIDS phenomenon. The paper asks: What are the representations and framings of the HIV/AIDS phenomenon in HIV/AIDS discourse in Gikuyu AIDS "Mukingo" songs and common-talk by public transport operators in Nyeri town? Although HIV and AIDS are biomedical and social phenomena that affect Kenyan society to the core, HIV/AIDS discourse has not been investigated adequately, especially with regard to how its discourse is represented in the African languages. The language and topics of research on HIV/AIDS, based on Western perceptions of reality, continue to exclude and marginalize the Third World’s own perceptions of reality and what counts as knowledge in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The paper is hinged within the frameworks of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Systemic Functional Linguistics Theory (SFL) as the theoretical orientations to the study of HIV/AIDS discourse. To get the needed data, the paper used purposive, and snowball sampling was used due to the mobile nature of public transport operators. Structured interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGD) was also used for data collection. Data analysis was done using a traditional thematic analysis. Unpacking the social constructions of HIV/AIDS in this paper sheds light on the ways in which laypeople construct “common sense assumptions”, of the epidemic in the public realm.

An Argument for the Continued Validity of Woman-to-Woman Marriages in Post-2010 Kenya

AbstractWoman-to-woman marriage is a form of customary marriage between two women, predominantly found in Africa. These customary marriages have been and to some extent still are conducted by various communities across Africa, including in Kenya. Communities such as the Kamba, Kisii, Nandi, Kikuyu and Kuria practise woman-to-woman marriages for a variety of reasons. The legal status of woman-to-woman marriages in Kenya is uncertain due to the provisions of article 45(2) of Kenya's Constitution of 2010 and section 3(1) of the Marriage Act of 2014, which stipulate that adults only have the right to marry persons of the opposite sex. However, a holistic and purposive reading of the constitution, taking into consideration its recognition of culture and the protection of children as important values in Kenyan society, and considering the historical context within which the provisions concerning same-sex marriages were included, leads to the conclusion that these provisions were not intended to proscribe the cultural practice of woman-to-woman marriage in Kenya. The constitutional validity of woman-to-woman marriage opens the door to a more expansive and fluid understanding of “family” in Kenya.