Browsing by Author "Kamau, Mary Wangui"

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    PublicationOpen Access
    Constituency development funds on the public secondary schools academic performance (A case of Uasin gishu county)
    (Mount Kenya University, 2014-10) Kamau, Mary Wangui
    Countries around the world are engrossed in development efforts aimed at ensuring that they move from the situations they are in to better situations.Impact, in general, refers to the longterm effects of a development intervention. Impact is distinct from processes or outputs in an intervention—for example, an intervention aimed at achieving greater education levels would measure the number of schools built as an output, but would look for higher literacy levels to measure the program’s impact. Further, impact can also be defined as the difference between what actually happened as a result of the implementation of a program, and what would have happened if the program had not been implemented. Impact evaluation is the process of identifying and measuring the impact (positive or negative) caused by such an intervention. In general terms development refers to a stage of growth or advancement. Development in the secondary schools therefore, refers to all those processes that secondary schools engage in to ensure that at the end of the day, there is a recognizable departure from the current way of conducting their activities to a better way of doing so. In Kenya, the government has made deliberate efforts to decentralize most of its development projects over the past few years, key among them, the projects aimed at meeting the MDGs. One of the devolved fund regimes instituted under this period was Constituency Development Fund through the CDF Act, which was later changed to CDF amendment act of 2007. Previous studies on the subject matter of CDF have majorly focused on the efficiency in utilization of the funds, the devolution structures employed in disseminating the funds, and the extent of corruption involved in the CDF cycle. This study thus aimed at evaluating the impact of CDF on development of secondary schools with a focus on UasinGishu County. The studies aimed at analyzing the lives of the target population before the introduction of CDF, and their lives after, and establish whether CDF has had the desired impact on their lives. The study employed a case study research design and targeted a population of 483. Stratified and simple random sampling was used to select a sample size of 147 respondents. Data was collected using questionnaires, client satisfaction survey and public expenditure tracking surveys; these were analyzed descriptively by use of SPSS. The study findings indicated that there are considerable benefits that have been realized as a result of CDF funds in schools such as higher school attendance and improved performance of students in schools at the grass root level. The fund is however faced by lots of challenges such as fraud and canvassing among the concerned officials. There is therefore need for a comprehensive framework that will seal all loopholes that have existed in the fund’s support structures and the community needs to be involved in the decision making process, so as to make informed decisions on which projects should be funded, and which projects would have the desired results.
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    thesis.listelement.badgeOpen Access
    Differental effects of castor (Ricinus communis) varieties on productivity of eri silkworm (Samia cynthiaricini) silk in Thika, Kenya.
    (Mount Kenya University, 2024-01) Kamau, Mary Wangui
    Eri silkworms (Samia cynthia ricini) produce a protein fiber known as silk which is determined on the foods they ingest. Five castor (Ricinus communis) varieties namely M2, M3, M4, M12 and S11 were investigated to determine their differential effects on growth, development and cocoon productivity of eri silkworms. M4 variety recorded the highest preference followed by M3, M2, M12 and S11. Differences in growth rate and development of eri silkworms were registered where least larval duration was recorded in M2 and S11 (26 days each), M12 (27 days), M3(28.75 days) and M4 (28.25 days). Significant difference on larval survival was portrayed where M2 and M4 had the highest growth (100%), S11 (99.5%), M12 (98.5%) and M3 (73.5%). Effective rate of rearing (ERR) revealed significant difference where M2 recorded the highest (98.5%) followed by M12 (91.5%), S11 (91%) M4 (84%) and M3 (61.5%). The maximum hatchability (95.6%) was registered by S11 followed by M12, M4, M2 and M3 (93.2%, 90.4%, 88.9% and 86.5%) respectively. M4 recorded significantly higher fecundity (380 eggs/female) followed by M3, M12, S11 and M2 (343,339.89, 327.38, 283.88) eggs/female respectively. Variation on mature larval weight was highest in M3 (4.78g) followed by S11 (4.70g), M4 (4.64g) M12 (4.58g) and M2 (4.27g). Eri silkworms fed on castor variety M3 recorded the highest cocoon weight (2.73g/cocoon) followed by M4, M12, S11 and M2 (2.62, 2.63, 2.57 and 2.35) g/cocoon respectively). M3 showed the highest shell weight (0.33g/shell) followed by M4, M12, S11 and M2 (0.32, 0.31, 0.30 and0.27) g/shell respectively. M3 registered (12.11%) shell ratio followed by M4, S11, M2 and M12 (11.87, 11.77, 11.53 and11.50) % respectively. The study found that certain castor cultivars, specifically M3 and M4, were the most promising in terms of cocoon characteristics and therefore recommended for further future research on growth development and cocoon productivity of eri silkworms in Thika, Kenya.