Market In Kenya Research Articles

Impact of RFID Technology on Tracking of Export Goods in Kenya

In this paper the impact of RFID based tracking to address the challenges of diversion of export goods into the local market in Kenya is discussed. Goods would be moved out of the export factories on pretext that it was destined to foreign markets, however, along the way the goods would be dumped and documents falsified to indicate that goods had left the country, thus evading taxes and gaining unfair advantage. An RFID based In-Transit Visibility system was designed and piloted to address the challenges. The system was used to track export cargo from the factories to the port or frontier offices. The system design, workings and pilot results are discussed in this paper. Results from the pilot demonstrated that RFID based tracking has a great impact on curbing diversion and considerable benefits to transporters and other stakeholders through increased efficiency and reduced turn-around time.

Engineering, institutions, and the public interest: Evaluating product quality in the Kenyan solar photovoltaics industry

Solar sales in Kenya are among the highest per capita among developing countries. While this commercial success makes the Kenya market a global leader, product quality problems have been a persistent concern. In this paper, we report performance test results from 2004 to 2005 for five brands of amorphous silicon (a-Si) photovoltaic (PV) modules sold in the Kenya market. Three of the five brands performed well, but two performed well below their advertised levels. These results support previous work indicating that high-quality a-Si PV modules are a good economic value. The presence of the low performing brands, however, confirms a need for market institutions that ensure the quality of all products sold in the market. Prior work from 1999 indicated a similar quality pattern among brands. This confirms the persistent nature of the problem, and the need for vigilant, long-term approaches to quality assurance for solar markets in Kenya and elsewhere. Following the release of our 2004/2005 test results in Kenya, the Kenya Bureau of Standards moved to implement and enforce performance standards for both amorphous and crystalline silicon PV modules. This appears to represent a positive step towards the institutionalization of quality assurance for products in the Kenya solar market.

New Roles for Marriage in Urban Africa: Kinship Networks and the Labor Market in Kenya

This paper explores new roles that traditionally rural kinship networks organized around the marriage institution might play in improving labor market outcomes in urban Africa. Using new data from Kisumu, Kenya, and controlling for selection into marriage, we find that marriage significantly increases employment levels and incomes in our sample of migrants. At the same time, marriage increases the remittances that migrants send to the extended family, consistent with the view that the benefits of the network come with additional social obligations. These obligations appear to be borne disproportionately by high-ability individuals, who consequently defer marriage. The negative selection into marriage that we uncover has consequences for the future viability of the urban networks, with implications for long-term growth and distribution in this economy.

‘Milking The Elephant’: Financial Markets as Real Markets in Kenya

AbstractFinancial liberalization policies in the 1990s were intended to raise formal sector interest rates, enhance competition and expand access for users. This article investigates patterns of provision and use in a local financial market in Karatina, Kenya, at the end of the 1990s after a period of financial and economic liberalization. It takes a holistic approach, examining both formal and informal financial arrangements and microfinance interventions. This is because the role of the informal financial sector is particularly important for poor people and has received relatively little attention in the discussion of the consequences of reform. The author does this using a ‘real’ markets approach that sees markets as socially regulated and structured. Significant provision by the mutual sector (formal and informal), and poor lending performance by the banking sector is explained through an examination of the characteristics of the services on offer and their embeddedness in social relations, culture and politics.

Temporal Periodicity and Locational Spacing of Periodic and Daily Markets in Kenya.

R. A. Obudho — Fréquence et localisation des marchés périodiques et quotidiens du Kenya. Classification des marchés kenyans selon leur localisation (urbaine/rurale), leur périodicité (quotidien/hebdomadaire, pluri-hebdomadaire, saisonnier), leur fonction économique (gros/détail, produits vivriers/d'exportation) et socio-culturelle, cette dernière étroitement liée à l'organisation ethnique. L'évolution économique et démographique tend à transformer les marchés périodiques en marchés quotidiens, avec une multiplication corrélative des boutiques permanentes (duka).