People In Kenya Research Articles

High Acceptance and Completion of HIV Self-testing Among Diverse Populations of Young People in Kenya Using a Community-Based Distribution Strategy.

Oral HIV self-testing (HIVST) may expand access to testing among hard-to-reach reach adolescents and young adults (AYA). We evaluated community-based HIVST services for AYA in an urban settlement in Kenya. Peer-mobilizers recruited AYA ages 15–24 through homes, bars/clubs, and pharmacies. Participants were offered oral HIVST, optional assistance and post-test counseling. Outcomes were HIVST acceptance and completion (self-report and returned kits). Surveys were given at enrollment, post-testing, and 4 months. Log-binomial regression evaluated HIVST preferences by venue. Among 315 reached, 87% enrolled. HIVST acceptance was higher in bars/clubs (94%) than homes (86%) or pharmacies (75%). HIVST completion was 97%, with one confirmed positive result. Participants wanted future HIVST at multiple locations, include PrEP, and cost ≤ $5USD. Participants from bars/clubs and pharmacies were more likely to prefer unassisted testing and peer-distributers compared to participants from homes. This differentiated community-based HIVST strategy could facilitate engagement in HIV testing and prevention among AYA.

Experiences of Violence and Mental Health Concerns Among Sexual and Gender Minority Adults in Western Kenya.

Purpose: Sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations throughout Kenya as well as other sub-Saharan African countries face systemic discrimination and substantial human rights violations, yet scant literature documents the potentially harmful mental health effects of these experiences. This study sought to understand the relationship among experiences of violence, social support, and mental health among SGM adults in Kenya. Methods: Members of a local LGBT community-based organization collected survey data in Western Kenya from October 2017 to April 2018, recruiting 527 SGM participants through an array of community outreach methods. Respondents in this cross-sectional study completed a survey regarding their mental health and other psychosocial factors. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to assess associations between experiences of violence (SGM violence and intimate partner violence [IPV]) and mental health outcomes (depressive symptoms and post-traumatic stress symptoms [PTSSs]) and to examine the potential moderating effect of social support on these relationships. Results: Relative to those who had never faced violence, participants who experienced IPV and/or violence based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression (SGM violence) reported significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms and PTSSs. Emotional support was associated with lower levels of PTSSs. Social support did not moderate the relationship between SGM violence and mental health symptoms. Conclusions: These findings suggest that there may be a relationship between experiences of violence and poor mental health among SGM Kenyans. More studies are needed to better understand SGM-specific risk factors for poor mental well-being among SGM people in Kenya and the types of interventions that may help mitigate these challenges.

Protecting Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Africa: The Land Rights of Abuja Peoples of Nigeria and Ogiek Peoples of Kenya in Comparative Perspective

Abstract This paper examines the treatment of customary land rights of indigenous peoples by State law in Nigeria and Kenya. Nigeria is chosen as a case study and Kenya has on-going legal reforms in relation to customary land rights. Both Kenya and Nigeria have plural legal systems. The objective is to demonstrate how Kenya has responded to the challenges of protecting customary land rights and how other African States, like Nigeria, should respond to similar challenges.

The politics of implementation: The role of traditional authorities in delivering social policies to poor people in Kenya

The article contributes to understanding the political economy of implementation of social protection programmes at local level. Current debates are dominated by technocratic arguments, emphasizing the lack of financial resources, technology or skills as major barriers for effective implementation. Describing how chiefs, assistant-chiefs and community elders are routinely at the centre stage of core implementation processes, including targeting, enrolment, delivery, monitoring, awareness and information, data collection or grievance and redress, this study on Kenya argues for the need to look more closely into the local political economy as an important mediating arena for implementing social policies. Implementation is heavily contingent upon the local social, political and institutional context that influences and shapes its outcomes. These processes are ambivalent involving multiple forms of interactions between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ institutional structures, which may support initial policy objectives or induce policy outcomes substantially diverging from intended policy objectives.

Entomological and Anthropological Factors Contributing to Persistent Malaria Transmission in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Cameroon.

IntroductionIn order to improve our understanding of the fundamental limits of core interventions and guide efforts based on prioritization and identification of effective/novel interventions with great potentials to interrupt persistent malaria transmission in the context of high vector control coverage, the drivers of persistent disease transmission were investigated in three eco-epidemiological settings; forested areas in Cameroon, coastal area in Kenya and highland areas in Ethiopia.MethodsMosquitoes were sampled in three eco-epidemiological settings using different entomological sampling techniques and analysed for Plasmodium infection status and blood meal origin in blood-fed specimens. Human behavioural surveys were conducted to assess the knowledge and attitude of the population on malaria and preventive measures, their night activities, and sleeping pattern. The parasitological analysis was conducted to determine the prevalence of Plasmodium infection in the population using rapid diagnostic tests.ResultsDespite the diversity in the mosquito fauna, their biting behaviour was found to be closely associated to human behaviour in the three settings. People in Kenya and Ethiopia were found to be more exposed to mosquito bites during the early hours of the evening (18-21h) while it was in the early morning (4-6 am) in Cameroon. Malaria transmission was high in Cameroon compared to Kenya and Ethiopia with over 50% of the infected bites recorded outdoors. The non-users of LLINs were 2.5 to 3 times more likely to be exposed to the risk of acquiring malaria compared to LLINs users. Malaria prevalence was high (42%) in Cameroon, and more than half of the households visited had at least one individual infected with Plasmodium parasites.ConclusionsThe study suggests high outdoor malaria transmission occurring in the three sites with however different determinants driving residual malaria transmission in these areas.

Formation of Jomo Kenyatta as a Politician. The First Years of the Presidency

The purpose of the article is to trace the formation of Jomo Kenyatta as a politician who led the anti-colonial struggle in Kenya, to identify the problems he faced during this struggle, as well as methods of solving them, to analyze the social and political activities of the African leader as President of Kenya, the reasons for the emergence of opposition within the country, as well as foreign policy activities. Considering that the factual part of Kenyatta’s biography has been fairly well studied, the author simultaneously set the task of comparing the approaches of Russian and foreign (mainly British) researchers in assessing his activities in different years. The relevance of the topic lies in the fact that in many countries of the African continent the memory of the leaders of the period of liberation is still an important instrument of national solidarity. This fully applies to Kenya, where Jomo Kenyatta, in the memory of all segments of the population, is still the “father of the nation”, one of the symbols uniting the people of Kenya, despite the fact that his role in the life of the country is assessed ambiguously.

Positive and Healthy Living Program Manual Development for Young People Living With HIV at the Comprehensive Care Center at the Kenyatta National Hospital: An Open Pilot Implementation Trial.

Background: Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) remains a great challenge among young people in Kenya. Young people living with HIV are faced with a lot of challenges that are often overlooked and may have an impact on their treatment adherence and overall well-being. This calls for interventions that are age-appropriate and which tap into the psychosocial problems they experience. This is a protocol of a proposed study aimed at developing a facilitator-led peer support manual called the “Positive and Healthy Living Program” that will be the basis for running support groups with young people at the Comprehensive Care Center (CCC) at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).Methods: We will carry out our study in two phases. The first phase will focus on the development of the manual and training of peer-facilitators. The second phase will make use of a pilot trial research design using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. It will be carried out among 10–24 year-olds attending CCC at KNH, and will consist of three groups: Tumaini Group (10–14 years), Amani Group (15–19 years), and Hodari Group (20–24 years). The groups will participate in an eight-session support group, whose activities will focus on four domains: social-recreation, psychotherapy, peer-modeling, and psychoeducation. Quantitative data will be collected using laboratory measures of Viral Load and CD4 as well as socio-psychological assessment tools. Qualitative data will be collected through interviews with the young people and peer facilitators. We will conduct a descriptive analysis which will describe the key features of the dataset and bivariate analyses will examine the association between variables. The change will be measured at baseline and post-treatment. The interviews will be coded into themes and we will generate experiential categories from the data around the effectiveness of the program, the peer facilitators' experience of providing support, how the young people respond to the program, and its influence on their overall well-being.Discussion: We expect that the peer facilitators will find this manualized treatment acceptable and the eight-sessions group intervention will be feasible for the three age groups. We hypothesize that there will be improvements detected with regards to reported adherence and viral load, self-esteem, depression, and psychological functioning.

Open Ethnographic Archiving as Feminist, Decolonizing Practice

Dubbed Silicon Savannah, Nairobi has become a hot spot of tech development that promises to “save Africa.” Qualitative research—carried out by a tangle of private, academic, and non-profit organizations—is part of the work, promising to reveal how people in Kenya are building and benefiting from a dazzling array of digital products. Amidst the enthusiasm, longstanding problems with ways in which research data in Nairobi is conceived, collected, and shared are easily glossed over. This article advances thinking about the politics of qualitative data, unraveling normative concepts like ethics and transparency by both examining existing data practices and modeling alternatives. I describe the sociotechnical infrastructure underlying the ethnographic project, detailing tactics for deploying an instance of open source software—the Platform for Experimental, Collaborative Ethnography (PECE)—to draw research interlocutors into collaborative effort to understand and build decolonized qualitative data infrastructures. Through such processes I learned that collaborating on data not only refreshes the social contract of qualitative work; it can also enhance its robustness and validity. I advise scholars to better document our own knowing practices in order to attend to the inevitability of margins created through all data practices, including our own

Bleeding Bodies, Untrustworthy Bodies: A Social Constructionist Approach to Health and Wellbeing of Young People in Kenya.

The Sustainable Development Goals provide a global development agenda that is meant to be inclusive of all people. However, the development needs for vulnerable populations such as youth are not reflected within the policy agenda of some developing countries. One of the reasons for this is that research that explores health and wellbeing concerns for young people are sparse in the region and where they exist, the focus has been on marginalized subgroups. To address this gap, this cross-sectional study explored the health and wellbeing of youth in Kenya. We conducted 10 focus group discussions and 14 in-depth interviews with youth ages 15 to 24 years. A thematic analysis of the data revealed that structural factors are important influencers of youth perceptions and their social constructions of health and wellbeing. Kenyan youth are concerned about the health status and healthcare services in their communities, as well as issues of community trust of youths and perceived risks of political misuse and emotional suffering. Our findings suggest that youth transitioning into adulthood in resource-constrained areas experience feelings of powerlessness and inability to take charge over their own life. This impacts how they perceive and socially construct health and wellbeing.

Biogas from Different Parts of a Banana Plant: A Case Study of the Banana Plant from Kisii County

Bananas are the main source of stable food among the Kisii people in Kenya. Apart from the banana fruit, the other parts are usually thrown to waste although can be used in a useful manner like to generate biogas. This research sought to investigate biogas production potential from different parts of a banana plant in Kisii County, Kenya. In the study, 2 kg of banana leaves, pseudo-stem, fruit bunch stalk (FBS) and peels were collected as feed-stocks for a laboratory-scale anaerobic digester to produce biogas. The experiment was carried out in a multi-stage anaerobic digestion system operated under mesophilic temperature (30-35°C). Various process parameters were measured including total solid, volatile solid and volume of biogas produced. After completion of 21-day digestion at an average temperature of 33°C, specific Biogas yields reached were about 16.5 litres/kg (leaves), 13.5 litres/kg (pseudo-stem), 12.7 litres/kg (fruit bunch stalk) and 15.1 litres/kg (peels). The optimum daily production of biogas was between the 13th-15th day. Cumulatively, it was observed that after the 15th day, almost all of the biogas had been released from the digester. By doing a simple computation based on energy calculation, it was found that 61% of the energy expected from a similar quantity by other researchers. The study showed that banana leaves have highest potential for biogas as compared to the other parts.

‘Constitution-making from the middle’

Today, Kenyans mark a great milestone - the 10th Anniversary of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010. The people of Kenya celebrate the Constitution because it is progressive, autochthonous and more importantly, it is about justice. Any good law is about justice, and for justice.

The incidence of infection, diagnosis and treatment of H. pylori in developing countries on the example of Kenya

Introduction: One of the most common causes of bacterial infections in the world is Helicobacter pylori. It has developed mechanisms that allow it to survive in the acidic pH of the stomach. The bacterium contributes to the incidence of gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer. Infected is about 50% of the world population, while in Africa the proportion is as high as 80%. Despite this there are still number of African guidelines for infection prevention and eradication of the bacterium. Most infections concerns children, adolescents and the elderly. Data on the diagnosis and treatment of patients in Kenya are inconsistent. [1] Doctors are based on international recommendations. No general insurance and a low level of affluence prevent diagnosis of patients at the level of developed countries. Access to endoscopy, and cultures have only wealthy people in big cities. Purpose: Examine the percentage of Helicobacter pylori infection among the people of Kenya, the analysis of the causes of its high value, comparing the diagnosis and treatment with European standards. Material and methods Analysis of causes of hospitalization in 227 hospital patients in Kenya. The majority of them has made winning the test of H. pylori antigen in stool. Analysis of the results of research carried out in 2010Subdepartment Medical Microbiology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Nairobi, Kenya, where the diagnostic methods was rapid urease test and histological tests. Conclusions The proportion of patients infected with H. pylori in Chuka is 51.9%. Cause of inflammation of the stomach in almost 1/3 of hospitalized patients may be awareness of hygiene and drinking water unsuitable for consumption. Standards of treatment of patients infected with H. pylori do not differ from European guidelines.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'oThe Perfect Nine: The Epic of GÄ©kÅ©yÅ© and MÅ©mbi

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o The Perfect Nine:The Epic of Gĩkũ̃yũ and Mũmbi Trans. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. New York. New Press. 2020. 240 pages. NGŨGĨ WA THIONG’O’s first venture into epic poetry is a triumph of the form, which resounds with the lyrical heartbeat of the Gĩkũyũ people in Kenya as Ngũgĩ chronicles their mythic history. An origin story told in flowing verse narration, The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi tells the tale of the Perfect Nine—the ten daughters of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi—who become the mothers of the ten Gĩkũyũ clans. The epic recounts their parents’ efforts to find, from among ninety-nine suitors, the proper partner for each daughter. These efforts lead to a perilous, ogre-filled adventure to the Mountain of the Moon as the daughters and their potential husbands retrace Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi’s original journey to Mũkũruweinĩ, their home. Ngũgĩ retells this epic story from a strongly feminist perspective, with the Perfect Nine being the heroines of their own legend. Ngũgĩ composes a wisdom-dense narrative with a rhythm befitting the swirling motion of mythos: “Now is Now and it is not Now because Time does not stop. / Yesterday is Yesterday and it is not Yesterday because Time did not stop. / Tomorrow is Tomorrow and it is not Tomorrow because Time will not stop.” The pulsing cadence of Ngũgĩ’s writing imitates ripples on the surface of a pond—smooth undulations that carry the reader further and further, deeper and deeper into the story while never forgetting their point of origin in Kenyan mythic tradition. It is this rhythmic progression of the narrative that lends The Perfect Nine a certain dreamlike quality. The story feels both ancient and immediate as the chronicle drifts seamlessly between reverie and suspense. This simultaneous temporality reminds the reader of the history of the Gĩkũyũ people—recorded in ancient tales but still very much alive. This history lives within every verse of the epic, as, along with the fantastical adventures of the Perfect Nine, Ngũgĩ’s epic poem records ancient Kenyan customary practices , such as those ceremonies surrounding a Gĩkũyũ wedding. In this way, The Perfect Nine not only immortalizes the myth of the ten daughters of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi but also acts as a document that preserves Gĩkũyũ cultural traditions and breathes a vibrant gust of passion and verve into Gĩkũyũ history. Ngũgĩ crafts a beautiful retelling of the Gĩkũyũ myth that emphasizes the noble pursuit of beauty, the necessity of personal courage, the importance of filial piety, and a sense of the Giver Supreme—a being who represents divinity, and unity, across world religions. All these things coalesce into dynamic verse to make The Perfect Nine a story of miracles and perseverance; a chronicle of modernity and myth; a meditation on beginnings and endings; and a palimpsest of ancient and contemporary memory, as Ngũgĩ overlays the Perfect Nine’s feminine power onto the origin myth of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya in a moving rendition of the epic form. Alex Crayon University of Oklahoma Kapka Kassabova To the Lake: A Balkan Journey of War and Peace Minneapolis, Minnesota. Graywolf Press. 2020. 416 pages. EURASIA’S MOST TUMULTUOUS chapters are preserved in the waters of two prehistoric lakes. In 2017 Kapka Kassabova ’s Border examined the cultural conflux of Turkey, Greece, and Bulgaria along the latter’s southern border. Her ability to extrapolate historical context and modern implications through the people living and working along the eponymous divide gave the novel an unparalleled spark of life. With her most recent outing, To the Lake, Kassabova shifts her focus to her childhood home of Ohrid, whose namesake, alongside the neighboring Lake Prespa, marks the crossroads of Albania, Greece, and North Macedonia. The changed setting yields a text that feels somehow more autobiographical without detracting from Kassabova’s exceptional characterization. Ohrid and its adjacent lake, Prespa, serve as a thesis to...

Moving to Retain Class Status: Spatial Mobility among Older Middle-Class People in Kenya

Recent scholarship on the African middle classes focuses on a middle-aged cohort and generally assumes that social status remains stable over the life course. This contribution argues that a struggle to retain one’s social class across the life course is part of middle-class life in Kenya. I focus on those who currently lead a decent life in the city and prepare for their life after retirement. My ethnographic data suggest that the middle classes cannot afford life in the city once there is no regular income. I argue that entitlements and resources need to be saved and invested during an economically productive phase to lead a decent life after retirement outside the cities.

Kapka KassabovaTo the Lake: A Balkan Journey of War and Peace

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o The Perfect Nine:The Epic of Gĩkũ̃yũ and Mũmbi Trans. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. New York. New Press. 2020. 240 pages. NGŨGĨ WA THIONG’O’s first venture into epic poetry is a triumph of the form, which resounds with the lyrical heartbeat of the Gĩkũyũ people in Kenya as Ngũgĩ chronicles their mythic history. An origin story told in flowing verse narration, The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi tells the tale of the Perfect Nine—the ten daughters of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi—who become the mothers of the ten Gĩkũyũ clans. The epic recounts their parents’ efforts to find, from among ninety-nine suitors, the proper partner for each daughter. These efforts lead to a perilous, ogre-filled adventure to the Mountain of the Moon as the daughters and their potential husbands retrace Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi’s original journey to Mũkũruweinĩ, their home. Ngũgĩ retells this epic story from a strongly feminist perspective, with the Perfect Nine being the heroines of their own legend. Ngũgĩ composes a wisdom-dense narrative with a rhythm befitting the swirling motion of mythos: “Now is Now and it is not Now because Time does not stop. / Yesterday is Yesterday and it is not Yesterday because Time did not stop. / Tomorrow is Tomorrow and it is not Tomorrow because Time will not stop.” The pulsing cadence of Ngũgĩ’s writing imitates ripples on the surface of a pond—smooth undulations that carry the reader further and further, deeper and deeper into the story while never forgetting their point of origin in Kenyan mythic tradition. It is this rhythmic progression of the narrative that lends The Perfect Nine a certain dreamlike quality. The story feels both ancient and immediate as the chronicle drifts seamlessly between reverie and suspense. This simultaneous temporality reminds the reader of the history of the Gĩkũyũ people—recorded in ancient tales but still very much alive. This history lives within every verse of the epic, as, along with the fantastical adventures of the Perfect Nine, Ngũgĩ’s epic poem records ancient Kenyan customary practices , such as those ceremonies surrounding a Gĩkũyũ wedding. In this way, The Perfect Nine not only immortalizes the myth of the ten daughters of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi but also acts as a document that preserves Gĩkũyũ cultural traditions and breathes a vibrant gust of passion and verve into Gĩkũyũ history. Ngũgĩ crafts a beautiful retelling of the Gĩkũyũ myth that emphasizes the noble pursuit of beauty, the necessity of personal courage, the importance of filial piety, and a sense of the Giver Supreme—a being who represents divinity, and unity, across world religions. All these things coalesce into dynamic verse to make The Perfect Nine a story of miracles and perseverance; a chronicle of modernity and myth; a meditation on beginnings and endings; and a palimpsest of ancient and contemporary memory, as Ngũgĩ overlays the Perfect Nine’s feminine power onto the origin myth of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya in a moving rendition of the epic form. Alex Crayon University of Oklahoma Kapka Kassabova To the Lake: A Balkan Journey of War and Peace Minneapolis, Minnesota. Graywolf Press. 2020. 416 pages. EURASIA’S MOST TUMULTUOUS chapters are preserved in the waters of two prehistoric lakes. In 2017 Kapka Kassabova ’s Border examined the cultural conflux of Turkey, Greece, and Bulgaria along the latter’s southern border. Her ability to extrapolate historical context and modern implications through the people living and working along the eponymous divide gave the novel an unparalleled spark of life. With her most recent outing, To the Lake, Kassabova shifts her focus to her childhood home of Ohrid, whose namesake, alongside the neighboring Lake Prespa, marks the crossroads of Albania, Greece, and North Macedonia. The changed setting yields a text that feels somehow more autobiographical without detracting from Kassabova’s exceptional characterization. Ohrid and its adjacent lake, Prespa, serve as a thesis to...

Safe Anesthesia Care in Western Kenya: A Preliminary Assessment of the Impact of Nurse Anesthetists at Multiple Levels of Government Hospitals.

Only 20% of the surgical burden in eastern sub-Saharan Africa is currently met, leaving >17 million surgical cases annually in need of safe surgery and anesthesia. Similarly, there is an extreme shortage of anesthesia providers in East Africa, with just 0.44 anesthesiologists per 100,000 people in Kenya compared to 20.82 per 100,000 in the United States. Additionally, surgical access is not equally distributed within countries, with rural settings often having the greatest unmet need. We developed and tested a set of tools to assess if graduates of the Kenya registered nurse anesthetist (KRNA) training program, who were placed in rural hospitals in Kenya, would have any impact on surgical numbers, referral patterns, and economics of these hospitals. Cross-sectional data were collected from facility assessments in 9 referral hospitals to evaluate the possible impact of the KRNAs on anesthesia care. The hospitals were grouped based on both the number of beds and the assigned national hospital level. At each level, a hospital that had KRNA graduates (intervention) was matched with comparison hospitals in the same category with no KRNA graduates (control). The facility assessment survey included questions capturing data on personnel, infrastructure, supplies, medications, procedures, and outcomes. At the intervention sites, the medical directors of the hospitals and the KRNAs were interviewed. Descriptive statistics were used to present the findings. Intervention sites had a density of anesthesia providers that was 43% higher compared to the control sites. Intervention sites performed at least twice as many surgical cases compared to the control sites. Most KRNAs stated that the anesthesia training program had given them sufficient training and leadership skills to perform safe anesthesia in their clinical practice setting. Medical directors at the intervention sites reported increased surgical volumes and fewer referrals to larger hospitals due to the anesthesia gaps that had been addressed. Our findings from this study suggest that KRNAs may be associated with an increased volume of surgical cases completed in these rural Kenyan hospitals and may therefore be filling a known anesthetic void. The presence of skilled anesthesia providers is a first step toward providing safe surgery and anesthesia care for all; however, significant gaps still remain. Future analysis will focus on surgical outcomes, the appropriate anesthesia delivery model for a rural population, and how the availability of anesthesia infrastructure impacts referral patterns and safe surgery capacity.

Phenotypic characterization of selected Kenyan Khat (Catha edulis) cultivars based on morphological traits

Khat (Catha edulis Vahl) is an evergreen shrub habitually ingested for its euphoric and stimulatory effects. The crop is grown in the Middle East, Somalia, East Africa and Ethiopia. It is referred to as Miraa in Kenya, while in Yemen it has several names like Qat, Kat, Kath, Gat, Chat and Tschat. It belongs to the sub-order Rosidae, family Celastraceae and characterized by astringent taste. Despite the daily use and consumption of khat by millions of people in Kenya, little is known about its phenotypic. Phenotypic characterization is an essential approach for assessment of khat diversity; however, it is limited by morphological plasticity and multiple lineage evolution. The study aimed at evaluating the phenotypic diversity of selected khat cultivars grown in Embu and Meru Counties. Ninety samples from 18 cultivars were collected for phenotypic characterization. MINITAB 17 Software was used for description of principal component and construction of dendrogram using the Euclidean distance tool where 58.7% variability was observed among 13 traits studied in 90 samples of khat. Phenotypes grouped into 2 clusters phenotypic diversity showed considerable variability based on 13 khat traits. This will be useful in breeding and characterization programmes of khat cultivars. Key words: Phenotypic, khat, diversity, cultivar.

The Impact of Colonial Land Tenure Policies on the Gusii People in Kenya

Different scholars have looked at the general economic impacts of the land reforms and legal implications at national level. However, a few studies have been done on economic history in Gusiiland. This study aimed at analyzing the impact of the colonial land tenure reforms on the Abagusii customary land tenure practices in Gusii, Kenya. This study used the articulation of modes of production theory to analyze the effects of land reforms on the Abagusii community from 1895 to 1963. Descriptive Survey Design was used to guide the study.Purposive and snowball sampling methods was instrumental in selected the respondents with a sample size of 61 informants. The primary sources of data were obtained from the archives, field interviews, observation and focus group discussions while secondary data was obtained from written sources like books, Journals, magazines, periodicals, Newspaper Articles, unpublished theses, seminar papers, and electronically stored information on the internet. Logical historical method was employed in the actual process of analyzing and interpreting the data gathered.The study established that land consolidation and the issuance of individual land owners with title deeds has increased land conflicts, land titling and issuance of individual titles has increased land speculation, and land tenure reforms have failed to solve land problems or improve the agricultural sector, as well as, failing to change the African mind set or behavior of the smallholder farmers in Gusii, Kenya.

Representation of Socio-Economic Activities and Conflict in Traditional Oral Narratives of the Tharaka People in Kenya.

This study looks at oral narratives collected from the Tharaka people who live on the eastern region of Kenya, in Tharaka Nithi County. The Tharaka people were from time immemorial pastoralists and peasant farmers, who often had conflicts with the neighboring communities and amongst themselves. This background was often reflected in their oral literature and this is what this research pays attention to. My thesis in this paper will be that oral literature in any community acts as a memory reservoir for the community. The research explores how oral narratives help to represent the society’s economic activities and in re-narrating and configuring the types of conflict that the community experienced in the past. The narratives were collected through identifying expert oral narrators and recording oral narratives from them. Narratives were purposively sampled to get a population of narratives enough for the analysis done in this paper. The study concludes that preservation of such genres helps in not just representation of the economic activities of a community but they also help in preserving the community’s past experiences, specifically, the history of conflict and conflict resolution in pre-literate communities in Africa.

"What is the best method of family planning for me?": a text mining analysis of messages between users and agents of a digital health service in Kenya

Background: Text message-based interventions have been shown to have consistently positive effects on health improvement and behavior change. Some studies suggest that personalization, tailoring, and interactivity can increase efficacy. With the rise in artificial intelligence and its incorporation into interventions, there is an opportunity to rethink how these characteristics are designed for greater effect. A key step in this process is to better understand how users engage with interventions. In this paper, we apply a text mining approach to characterize the ways that Kenyan men and women communicated with the first iterations of askNivi, a free sexual and reproductive health information service. Methods: We tokenized and processed more than 179,000 anonymized messages that users exchanged with live agents, enabling us to count word frequency overall, by sex, and by age/sex cohorts. We also conducted two manual coding exercises: (1) We manually classified the intent of 3,834 user messages in a training dataset; and (2) We manually coded all conversations between a random subset of 100 users who engaged in extended chats. Results: Between September 2017 and January 2019, 28,021 users (mean age 22.5 years, 63% female) sent 87,180 messages to askNivi, and 18 agents sent 92,429 replies. Users wrote most often about family planning methods, contraception, side effects, pregnancy, menstruation, and sex, but we observed different patterns by sex and age. User intents largely reflected the marketing focus on reproductive health, but other topics emerged. Most users sought factual information, but requests for advice and symptom reports were common. Conclusions: Young people in Kenya have a great desire for accurate and reliable information on health and wellbeing, which is easy to access and trustworthy. Text mining is one way to better understand how users engage with interventions like askNivi and maximize what artificial intelligence has to offer.