African Studies Commons^™

Transformative Leadership And Its Development In Public Service Reform In Kenya, Gerald Paul Regier

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leadership on the African continent has been a focus of scholars as African nations have incredible human and natural resources but seem to be bereft of the leaders necessary to capitalize on its opportunities. Researchers acknowledge that the barrier to progress in the developing world is not the deficiency of money or natural resources, but suggested it to be the lack of leadership. Researchers have demonstrated reasons for this deficiency including the effects of the colonial system upon people and civil service systems, but have yet been able to establish a promising path to economic and social progress. Leaders in …

Back To Africa In The 21st Century: The Cultural Reconnection Experiences Of African American Women, Marcia Tate Arunga

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the lived experiences of 18 African American women who went to Kenya, East Africa as part of a Cultural Reconnection delegation. A qualitative narrative inquiry method was used for data collection. This was an optimal approach to honoring the authentic voices of African American women. Eighteen African American women shared their stories, revelations, feelings and thoughts on reconnecting in their ancestral homeland of Africa. The literature discussed includes diasporic returns as a subject of study, barriers to the return including the causes of historic trauma, and how Black women as culture bearers …

Making The Mark : Gender, Identity, And Genital Cutting, Miroslava Prazak

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Why do female genital cutting practices persist? How does circumcision affect the rights of girls in a culture where initiation forms the lynchpin of the ritual cycle at the core of defining gender, identity, and social and political status? In Making the Mark, Miroslava Prazak follows the practice of female circumcision through the lives and activities of community members in a rural Kenyan farming society as they decide whether or not to participate in the tradition.

In an ethnography twenty years in the making, Prazak weaves multiple Kuria perspectives—those of girls, boys, family members, circumcisers, political and religious leaders—into a …

Young, Urban, Professional, And Kenyan?: Conversations Surrounding Tribal Identity And Nationhood, Charlotte Achieng-Evensen

Educational Studies Dissertations

By asking the question “How do young, urban, professional Kenyans make connections between tribal identity, colonialism, and the lived experience of nationhood?,” the researcher engages with eight participants in exploring their relationships with their tribal groups. From this juncture the researcher, through a co-constructed process with participants, interrogates the idea of nationhood by querying their interpretations of the concepts of power and resistance within their multi-ethnic societies. The utility of KuPiga Hadithi as a cultural responsive methodology for data collection along with poetic analysis as part of the qualitative tools of examination allowed the researcher to identify five emergent and …

Innovative Governance And Natural Resource Management In Kenya: Procedural And Substantive Outcomes Of Civil Society Participation, Jane Omudho Okwako

Dissertations

Kenya’s environmental sector is embracing co-management to address major threats to wildlife. In the past two decades, the Municipal-Community-Private Sector Partnership (MCPP) model evolved to address the threats. This dissertation seeks to explain variations in partnership outcomes. It evaluates whether the model as introduced empowers communities to be conservation stewards.

This study hypothesized the impact of five variables. These are decentralization of power, elite support, capacity of community organizations, partnership formalization, and resources expended. The findings confirm that three variables are indispensable and two minimally influence empowerment. More decentralized management structures are enabling and supportive of empowerment. However, empowerment is …

The Southern And Eastern Africa Consortium For Monitoring Educational Quality (Superseded Version), Australian Council For Educational Research

Assessment GEMS

The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) carries out large-scale cross-national research studies in member countries in the Southern and Eastern Africa region. It aims to assess the conditions of schooling and performance levels of learners and teachers in the areas of literacy and numeracy. SACMEQ has completed three cross-national educational research projects so far at five- to six-year intervals (SACMEQ I, 1995-1999, SACMEQ II, 1998-2004 and SACMEQ III, 2005-2010). It is currently implementing the fourth project.

Uwezo: Monitoring Children’S Competencies In East Africa, Acer

Assessment GEMS

Uwezo, meaning ‘capability’ in Kiswahili, is an initiative in which the competencies of schoolaged children in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are measured to obtain information that encourages changes in educational policy and practice. Uwezo began as a four-year initiative (2009–2013) and it is envisaged that it will run for at least another five-year period (Uwezo, 2011). Uwezo’s goal is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of education. Annual household surveys are implemented to assess the basic literacy and numeracy competencies of school age children across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Uwezo believes that this information will raise public awareness …

Somali Battlegrounds: On Interest And Accountability, Ines Mzali

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the wake of the latest and deadliest of Al-Shabab's attacks in Kenya since Kenyan troops entered Somalia in October 2011, Ben Rawlence reiterates the question raised anew by each attack: "What is Kenya doing in Somalia and is it worth the price?" The question leads him to explore the contradiction between the official objectives of the mission and Kenya's particular motivations to launch an offensive of its own. This problematic discrepancy also draws attention to the question of accountability when violations of international humanitarian law have occurred in the context of a military operation by a neighboring country and …

Deepening Democracy At The Grassroots Level: Citizen Participation In State Devolved Funds (Cdf) In Kenya, Fredrick Omondi Otieno

Pan African Studies - Theses

That democracy is the most suitable form of government is no longer contested. However many questions shaking this global consensus continue to abound. Why is there a growing cynicism and apathy with the notion of democracy across the globe? Why has the concept of democracy had to attract adjectives that attempt to qualify or categorize it in different parts of the world? And perhaps most importantly, if in deed democracy is such a good "thing" how can it be made meaningful? This thesis looks at citizen participation in a state devolved fund (CDF) in Kenya as a space through which …

The Impact Of Water On Girls' Formal Education: A Study Of Kenyan Secondary Schools, Jennifer Emick

Master's Theses

This study applies a human rights lens to view how the lack of access to potable water in Kenya’s rural areas impacts girls’ education. This research is intended to serve as a baseline for iteration and expansion, with the long-term goal of developing a greater understanding of the ways in which water development projects and the smarter provision of basic resources can be used as strategies for achieving gender equality in both education and civic participation.

Using The Theory Of Reasoned Action And Planned Behavior To Create A Point-Of-Use Water Treatment Behavior-Change Campaign Within The Safe Water System, Kelly Fenson-Hood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the summer of 2010, formative field research was collected in Kibera, Africa’s largest urban informal settlement, located in Nairobi, Kenya. Research explored how a Western-developed behavior-change theoretical model could be applied in a developing country. Data was collected through focus groups, a case study and direct observations. Recommendations were made for an intervention to reduce the incidence of childhood diarrhea. A campaign was proposed that promoted consistent and sustainable use of the Safe Water System, that is, point-of-use drinking water treatment and safe drinking water storage. Results revealed that it was indeed feasible to apply the Western model, Theory …

Democratization In Sub-Saharan Africa: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Ashley W. Munetsi

CMC Senior Theses

Democracy's advance on the African continent has been mixed, this article analyzes three countries which reflect this situation. Ghana represents the good, a country now considered a liberal democracy; Kenya represents the bad, although possessing the right conditions to advance its democracy the country has slid into an ambiguous zone; the Democratic Republic of Congo represents the ugly, after showing initial promise it still has significant issues halting its burgeoning democratic progress. These three countries represent the prototypical situations facing democratizing Sub-Saharan countries and analyzing them can inform what factors aid or have hindered democratic progress not only for them …

Thomas Jefferson In Nairobi: The United States, Kenya, And The Democratization Debate, Cullen Haskins

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This work is an intellectual history focussing on the ideas surrounding the implimentaiton of democratic systems in Africa, and specifically Kenya, at the end of the cold war. Taking the constitutional change to multi-party politics in Kenya in late 1991 as its fulcrum, this work examines the ideas about democracy put forth by politcians and policy-making cirlces in the United States and Kenya during this period. The work begins with an examination of the attitudes toward democracy in Africa as expressed at the U.S. congressional hearings on aid to Africa in 1991, and ends with an afterward looking at the …

Changing Incentives: How Electoral Reform Can Help Remove An Ethnic Focus In Political Competitions In Kenya, Carliann Brashier

CMC Senior Theses

Prior to the presidential elections in December 2007, Kenya was viewed as one of the few politically stable and economically prosperous countries in Africa, a paradigm for other African countries to emulate.  At least this was the view held widely in the Western world.  Missing in this analysis were the growing ethnic tensions which, although not a new phenomenon to Kenya (the precedence was established during the colonial era), had grown increasingly volatile during the past two decades.  The 2007 controversial election results revealed even sharper bitterness and divisions among Kenyans.  Ethnic lines were drawn and the country experienced two …

Emergence Of The E-Government Artifact In An Environment Of Social Exclusion In Kenya, Nixon Muganda Ochara

The African Journal of Information Systems

Purpose: E-Government, introduced in African countries under the banner of New Public Management (NPM), is envisaged to fundamentally aid in improving governance in developing countries. The imported model of E-Government is therefore transferred to African countries as a panacea to bad governance by carriers such as international donor agencies, consultants, Information Technology vendors and Western-trained civil servants. Improved governance is expected to impact on the socio-economic development of these countries implementing E-Government, as an NPM instrument. This article recognizes that E-Government success, which is critically dependent on the World Wide Web, requires socially inclusive national information infrastructure.

The purpose …

Ua3/9/2 Poaching In Kenya, Wku President's Office

WKU Administration Documents

Images used taken by Gary Ransdell and used in his presentation Poaching in Kenya - Economic Disaster or Necessity.

Trends. The Paradise Hotel Bombing: Trouble In Judicial Paradise, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discussed the bombing of the Kenyan Hotel Paradise in November 2002, and the detention of suspects.

Kenya's 1997 Elections: Making Sense Of The Transition Process, Rok Ajulu

New England Journal of Public Policy

The transition process in Kenya appears to be getting nowhere. Six years after the opening of democratic space, politics, political institutions, and governance remain predominantly stuck in the authoritarian quagmire of the past. Lack of broader participation in decision-making processes and absence of consensus around important issues of governance appear to be the norm rather than the exception. Indeed, Kenya's democracy experiment appears to defy conventional democratization models and discourse. It refuses to comply with prescriptive models developed by various Western scholars as the so-called liberal democratic values stubbornly refuse to take root in the country. This article attempts to …

Terrorist Explosions In East Africa: An Asynchrony Among Language, Thought, And Action?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes an asynchrony among the language of foreign leaders responding to an event of terrorism, the inferred thought underlying the language, and the action necessary to effect successful antiterrorism and counterterrorism programs.

Terrorist Explosions In East Africa And Embassy Security: Successful Antiterrorism As Successful Terrorism, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article posits that security upgrades at embassies to effect successful antiterrorism may necessarily contribute to achieving the political goals of terrorists.

Kenya: The Psychology Of Collateral Damage, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the Kenyan government's use of violence when dealing with demonstrators.

Jean Ensminger. Making A Market: The Institutional Transformation Of An African Society (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

The publication of Making a Market marks yet another excellent contribution to the field from the Cambridge Series on Political Economy. Similar to the other volumes in the series, it emphasizes the interaction of political structures and institutions with economic change. Yet whereas most of the previous volumes in the series have been written by political scientists or economists, this book stands out as unique in that it is written from an anthropological perspective. Unusual as this is, the book gives an extremely sophisticated and readable application of the new institutional economics to the developing world.

A Study Of Issues And Problems Women Face In Attempting To Pursue Careers In Educational Administration In Kenya, Bertha Kirigo Mutai

Dissertations

Problem

In Kenya, the majority of women in education occupy classroom teaching positions. Educational officers, in their hiring practices, appear to overlook women as resources, thereby depriving the schools of the skills and talents of potentially capable leaders. Students are also denied the role models of female leaders. This study investigates how difficult it is for women to secure professional careers in educational administration in Kenya.

Method

The population consisted of all the female teachers employed by the Ministry of Education in Kenya, and female Kenyan students in North American universities. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the …

A Guide To The Kenya National Archives To The Microfilms Of The Provincial And District Annual Reports, Record Books, And Handing-Over Reports; Miscellaneous Correspondence; And Intelligence Reports, Robert G. Gregory, Robert M. Maxon, Leon P. Spencer

Librarian Publications

The Guide is a compilation of 6 sections accessing approximately 157 microfilm reels of documents within the collection of the Kenya National Archives.