ABSTRACT Electricity services are crucial for human well-being and to a country‘s socio-economic development. Despite its importance, low levels of electricity adoption and use continue to prevail in most rural areas in SSA. Low socio-economic development has been attributed among others factors, to lack of modern energy sources especially electricity among households, which has been identified as a major setback in propelling empowerment and development at household and community level. Th...
ABSTRACT Availability and accessibility of safe water is key to sustainable livelihoods in the world hence, poverty eradication and good health leading to agricultural and economic prosperity. Poor water availability and accessibility is a pressing problem in developing countries in Africa, therefore, understanding of water as a natural resource and human consumption commodity can help solve the problem and contribute to achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Kenya is a water sc...
ABSTRACT Atomic collision cross sections are of interest because they can show the collision dynamics involved in the scattering process. There has been an upsurge in interest on positron collision processes due to recent advancement in positron beam experiments. In these studies, alkali metal atoms receive preference due to their simple electronic structure and spectra. We have calculated differential cross-sections, integral cross-sections, lambda (λ) parameter and the alignment parameter ...
ABSTRACT Conservation projects can improve the livelihoods of community members as well as tackle climate change. Kipepeo project is a butterfly farming project initiated in 1993 to provide a means of livelihood for the communities living around Arabuko Sokoke Forest and also to conserve the forest. The study was carried out to assess the impacts of Kipepeo conservation project on livelihoods of local community and on climate change mitigations in Arabuko Sokoke Forest in Kilifi County, ...
ABSTRACT Pastoralism is an important source of livelihood for many people across the world. In addition, pastoralism makes a significant contribution to Gross domestic product (GDP)in Kenya. Sixty percent of the national herd is being held by pastoralists who produce about 10 percent of Gross domestic product. Over the years pastoralism has been the main source of income for many residents of Northern Kenya; nonetheless, frequent natural and man-made disasters, restrictive policies and unfavo...
ABSTRACT The problem of how to dispose human waste has remained a global challenge in a world that is increasingly bound by constraints of resources population growth, rapid urbanization and corresponding levels of poverty and disease, the pressure for appropriate and sustainable solutions is mounting. Despite continued efforts to promote sanitation, a significant number of the world‟s population is still without basic sanitation. Kibera slums suffer from lack of improved sanitation facilit...
ABSTRACT Disaster risk reduction projects are some of the initiatives undertaken with an aim of addressing climate variability associated disasters such as droughts and floods and loss of agricultural production. The projects are normally aimed at reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience among rural communities towards climate variability and change. Results of adaptation measures undertaken by such projects to increase adaptive capacity of the communities remain largely under researc...
ABSTRACT Water is life and the heart for existence in the biosphere. Where water is magnanimously plentiful, people and ecosystems thrive in abundance but in places where it is scarce, complex adaptation strategies and sophisticated civilizations have been born. Indigenous systems such as pastoralism have for centuries been flexible to harsh conditions of water and pasture scarcity but exogenous factors like climate change render them fragile. Currently, severe and abrupt changes in climatic ...
ABSTRACT Kilifi town (study area) is in Kilifi County, Kenya. Groundwater samples were collected from wells which were close (≤30m) from pit latrines and (≤2.5Km) from refuse dumpsite. Ten wells, namely wells number (1- 10) were purposively sampled during wet season (July, August and September, 2011) and also during dry season (January, February and March, 2012), with the aim of assessing the physicochemical and biological impacts of the leachate from the dumpsite and the pit latrines on ...
ABSTRACT Sericulture (Silk farming) is the rearing of silk moths for the production of raw silk. Silk farming originated from China where it was secretly practiced for many years before spreading to other parts of the world. Silk moths are grouped into mulberry silk moths (domesticated) and wild silk moths. Silk moth cocoon has a double filament made of insoluble protein known as fibroin which is embedded in a water soluble protein called sericin. Prior to processing cocoons, are boiled in st...
ABSTRACT Climate variability and change are some of the most pressing environmental challenges of the globe and are associated with complexity and extreme events mainly drought and floods. Among small scale farming communities in Sub-Saharan Africa including Kenya, climate variability and change have been a more tasking challenge compared to the rest of the regions. There is little understanding of the vulnerability to climate change among such households in Wote based on their socio economic...
ABSTRACT Dealing with declining coffee amidst challenges occasioned by climate variability is a problem affecting large-scale coffee production in Kenya. Climate variability has affected coffee output by changing distribution of pests and diseases, hindering growth and affecting amount of water supplied for irrigation. Kiambu is a major coffee producer in Kenya and coffee is mostly grown in estates. Climate variability makes it difficult for farmers to predict when to plant and interferes wit...
ABSTRACT Climate variability is an environmental pressure to urban slum dwellers economic activities in most developing countries where households have been adapting to it for years. Slum dwellers are faced with inadequate access to water and proper sanitation. This problem is partly attributed to climate change. This research project aimed at exploring the adaptation and coping mechanisms of Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum community in Nairobi City, due to poor water supply and access to basic sanita...
ABSTRACT Climate change impacts have been exacerbated by extreme weather events among others and have led to disappearance of certain species of both food crops and trees. The adaptive capacity of the local community has mainly been on mitigation by basic methods that are mostly traditional in practice and knowledge. An investigation on how different institutions work together towards mitigating climate change through decentralization of forest resources was conducted among communities l...
ABSTRACT Charcoal is a major form of biomass fuel for approximately 80% of the Kenyan population. However, the use of charcoal is associated with indoor air pollution where charcoal users are continually exposed to compounds of incomplete combustion which are known to have detrimental effects to human health. This study analyzed the emission profiles of different types of domestically used charcoal produced by different pyrolysis methods. Charcoal samples from three tree species Acacia polyac...