INFORMAL SECTOR EMPLOYMENT AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO RURAL DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF ELDORET MUNICIPALITY IN KENYA
ABSTRACT As formal jobs get more and more scarce while the number of potential workers continues to increase, the informal sector is increasingly becoming an important employer throughout Kenya. The crucial role the informal sector plays in the Kenyan economy was given formal recognition by the Government of Kenya in 1988 with the creation of the Ministry of Technical Training and Applied Technology to regulate this sector. However, despite this official recognition, very little has been done by the government to improve the welfare and working conditions of those involved in this sector. This paper offers a case study of the informal sector in Eldoret Manucipality in Kenya. In Eldoret this sector is vibrant and can be found in the busiest places of the Central Business District as well as in high density residential areas. The results of this study indicate a gendered division of the sector into two parts: namely, the production sector dominated by men and the service sector dominated by women. The centr...
The Vulnerable Livelihoods of Street Vendors in Uganda: A Case of Kampala Central Division.
This study explored the extent to which the repressive policies exacerbate 
street vendors’ vulnerability to poverty and examine their coping strategies in 
Kampala Central Division (KCD). The study used a ‘mixed methodological 
approach’ to undertake the research. The ‘business categorization’ as a theory 
and ‘micro enterprise score card’ were used as a tool for business classification 
of street vendors’ businesses in KCD, with income and expenditure levels, 
Size of the business, working conditions, access to assets, ability to absorb risks 
and business sustainability as indicators guiding the exercise. Moser’s Asset 
Vulnerability Frame Work was adopted as an ‘analytical tool’ for data analysis 
and identification of various assets that can facilitate street vendors’ livelihoods 
in a challenging working environment. The study found that, street vendors 
were differentiated, although a big number of them were ‘survivalist entrepreneurs’, 
majority are women, very poor with limited capacity to save, reduce 
family risks and invest to sustain their businesses. This is aggravated by repressive 
street vending regulatory laws that perpetuate vendor’s working poverty 
through deprivation of opportunity and freedom to operate business, characterized 
by constant evictions and confiscation of goods. The paper argues that, 
because street vendors are considered as homogenous businesspersons in 
Kampala-Uganda, policy makers fail to design appropriate and feasible policies 
in relation to the needs of concerns of specific strata thus exacerbating their 
vulnerability to poverty and related risks. The main conclusion out of the study 
is that the current law as implemented by KCCA to get street vendors out of 
KCD is unjust and does more harm than good to the majority of the people, 
but also the development of Kampala as a town. We thus recommend a more 
street vendor friendly law, passed on basis of consultation with them, preceded 
by a study to establish their different categories.
Marriage Among a Matrilineal Elite: A Family Study of Ghanaian Senior Civil Servants
1. The problem 2. Custom and innovation 3. Government servants and kinsmen 4. The allocation of resources 5. Power and decision-making 6. Tension and change.