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This thesis analyzes the effects of external shocks and government policy responses on the current account in Kenya. We attempt to isolate two effects on the current account which arise from the impact of external shocks to the economy. The first one is attributed to a direct response by private agents to the shock. The second arises from the optimal response by the government to counteract the effects of the shock on the economy and depends on the government's objectives. It is hypothesized that these two effects can explain the behavior of the current account in many developing countries. / Much of the literature in developing countries ignores the indirect effect of government policy on private sector behavior and hence its effect on the current account. Moreover, the models emphasize empirical analysis with little or no theoretical foundation. / In this thesis, an intertemporal framework is postulated with rational optimizing agents. It is assumed that following an external shock, the rational behavior of economic agents is to adjust their production and spending behavior in an optimal manner. Depending on the degree of flexibility in the economy, the effect of this response is to reduce domestic absorption and thus improve the current account. At the same time, the government responds by undertaking policies which optimize its objectives given the shock. The overall effect may or may not improve the current account. / The reactions of both the government and the private sector are analyzed in the context of a game in which it is assumed that each agent takes the other's behavior into account when formulating economic decisions. Two types of equilibria are examined: a Nash non-cooperative concurrent game; and a non-cooperative Stackleberg structure. / The theoretical framework is along the lines of Conway who has undertaken a similar study for Turkey, a semi-industrialized economy. The model specification and the estimating equations are however modified to capture key features of the Kenyan economy. / The empirical results show that external shocks, particularly increases in the price of imported inputs and exchange rate devaluation have a contractionary effect on the Kenyan economy. Fox example, producers responded to an increase in the price of imported inputs by reducing the demand for the inputs as well as the demand for labor. As predicted by the theory, both the government and private agents responded to the shocks in an attempt to maximize their objectives. It is argued that the optimal responses of these agents are not necessarily in each other's interest implying that each agent will react to counteract the undesirable effects of the other's behavior. The interaction between the government and the private sector can be explained by a Stackleberg game structure where the government is the leader. Also, both the direct and indirect effects of the shocks are found to be important in explaining the behavior of the current account in Kenya.

This thesis provides an analysis of a community based conservation project in northern Kenya and also considers broader theoretical questions relating to the establishment of successful environmental partnerships. In East Africa, pastoralist communities are threatened by the erosion of their resource base, delicately balanced ecosystems are being progressively degraded, and the conflict between wildlife conservation and other forms of land use is escalating. The challenge faced by rural communities is to achieve socioeconomic growth in conjunction with environmental conservation and social stability. Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDP's) and Ecotourism projects have been attempted in underdeveloped areas with the objective of enhancing biodiversity conservation through approaches which endeavour to address the needs, opportunities and constraints faced by rural communities. The hope is that communities will develop a vested interest in maintaining biodiversity (wildlife) on their land so as to sustain the income it generates. While some successes have been recorded, critical analysis by researchers suggests that a number of problems beset such projects and few have met their objectives. The case study examined here is both an ICDP and an Ecotourism project. It is a community based conservation effort on the communally owned II Ngwesi Group Ranch, in the Laikipia district, in semi-arid/arid Maasailand in northern Kenya. This area sustains important wildlife populations but as human population pressures increase the future of the permanent and migratory animals that occupy this land is in question. An initiative was undertaken in 1996 by the community in partnership with the neighbouring private ranch to build a lodge on the land and to start protecting an area for tourism use. The aim of this thesis is to examine the project as an example of an environmental partnership and consider what implications the partnership itself might have for future initiatives. The II Ngwesi project is categorised according to the environmental partnership theory, which assisted in describing some of its operating features and success factors. The thesis argues that, in thinking about how to achieve a working management of natural resources in similar contexts, careful consideration must be given to the nature of environmental partnerships that often constitute the basis of ICDP/ecotourism projects. These factors can be taken into account in developing more successful initiatives in the future. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

This study explored the teaching of agriculture in Kenya's primary schools. It sought in particular to determine how the principles of "modern" agriculture may be taught effectively. / Previous studies on education and agricultural productivity have ignored the mechanisms through which schooling affects the acquisition of agricultural knowledge and skills. This study attempted to bridge this gap. To do so field work was carried out in four schools and their catchment areas in Kiambu and Kwale districts of Kenya. The data stemmed from field notes, tape recorded lesson transcripts, interviews and questionnaires as well as an exhaustive review of prior studies and government documents. / The findings indicate that the schools offer possibilities for effective teaching of the principles of "modern" agriculture. However, whether or not the school will play this role well or poorly depends largely on the improvement in general of the quality of primary schooling. This task involves increasing school resources, modification of the agricultural curriculum, improvement of teacher training, change in teaching methods and assessment policies.

The main objective of this study was to estimate the costs associated with different storage levels of maize for the National Cereals and Produce Board (the NCPB), the grain marketing agency of the Kenyan government. / Four storage level scenarios were considered. The first involved a zero-supply security scenario, where the model was required to simply satisfy the demand in each period. The second, third and fourth respectively, involved two, three and four months supply security scenarios, where the model was required to purchase grain equivalent to the demand for those periods. Scenario two, providing two months supply security was not discussed because it posted results similar to scenario one. The hypothesis that a stocks management model can be developed to be used by the NCPB in order to determine the optimal quantities of maize that it handles every year, while minimizing costs, was partly supported under scenarios one and three. However, despite the reduction in costs under scenario one, the lack of inventory and foreign trade was seen to increase the risks and uncertainties associated with variations in production, especially under cases of short supply. Similarly, the lack of foreign trade under scenario three was postulated to increase risks and uncertainties in periods of low production. Under scenario four, the results involved foreign trade, and inventory was positive for most years. However, these results were suboptimal and thus unreliable for policy decisions. Nevertheless, results under this scenario were very similar to the actual performance of NCPB for the period 1980 to 1990. / The results of this study show that external trade may not be the solution to a strategy of cost minimization. It was concluded, therefore, that the present strategy of self-sufficiency may be the better alternative. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The Kenya Coast is populated by Africans, Arab-descendants, Indians and Europeans. As part of the Indian Ocean trading network, the predominantly Muslim Coast is an unusually rich site for investigating the historical interface of distinct medical systems---Islamic, ayurvedic and indigenous---which gave rise to an ever-evolving situation of 'medical plurality'. / This thesis addresses medical knowledge, practice and authority on the Coast from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. The Coast is significant because of the variety of populations which inhabit the area, the early development of Muslim institutions for learning, and the Coast's isolation from white settler-dominated central Kenya, which allowed its populations a relative degree of political and social autonomy. / Particularly crucial for the Coast in this period is the intersection of African migration to the cities, the resulting pressures placed upon urban populations, and changes in disease patterns and intensity. This combined with contests over land appropriation among elites form a backdrop to the Colonial State's attempts to provide sanitation and public health to growing urban communities. / Local responses to disease and colonial public health initiatives point to the intersection of multiple medical understandings and practices on the Coast. This thesis explores the continuities of indigenous medical systems, the resulting inability of Western medicine to gain uncontested orthodoxy, and questions the conceptualization of 'traditional medicine' as a static, homogenous system. Interactions within various 'traditional medicines' are explained to show how indigenous healing and therapeutics have drawn on both formal, text-based and informal, experiential medical knowledge; coexisting and, in some periods, converging with external medical authorities. / Nineteenth century Western scientific medicine remained one of a multiplicity of choices available to local populations. Not until the advent of institutionalized Western medicine did Western medical practice become more widely accepted. Africans' encounter with Western science occurred primarily through British colonial attempts to regulate housing and purify the water supply. The impetus to provide better health for East Africans peaked in the 1920s as the British sought to generate a "productive" labour force. It is the reconciliation of economic demands, increasing populations and inadequate medical support that provides the background for the investigation of changing patterns of health and disease.

No description available.

This study has demonstrated that for tea canopies, thematic mapper data (Landsat 5 short wave and thermal infrared bands) can be used to produce regional estimates of important surface parameters like albedo, surface temperature, net radiation and instantaneous evapotranspiration. The study has also shown that the TERGRA model can be successfully used to convert instantaneous evapotranspiration to daily evapotranspiration for tea canopies. At Kericho, the combination of remotely sensed data and TERGRA model produced point daily evapotranspiration estimates that differed from ground-based estimates (Penman and Bowen ratio energy balance methods) by up to 7%. For field #12, the range of evapotranspiration estimates (0.3 mm/day, by use of the Bowen ratio, Penman and remote sensing methods) was much smaller than the spatial variability of evapotranspiration throughout the study area (2-5 mm/day) as estimated by the remote sensing technique. When a large number of pixel values is used to estimate regional evapotranspiration, the standard error of the estimate approaches zero. Consequently, mean aerial evapotranspiration can be estimated to a better accuracy than would be possible with point based models. The study also showed that regression analysis (whereby evapotranspiration was predicted by use of remotely sensed canopy temperature) could be used to estimate regional evapotranspiration. Finally, for the specific situation at Kericho, advection was found to be virtually non-existent over mature tea canopies.

Thesis--Freie Universität Berlin. / Errata slip inserted. Summary in German. Includes bibliographical references (p. 158-172).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Dept. of Sociology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.