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...
Population Growth, Employment and Economic-Demographic Interactions in Kenya: Bachue, Kenya
An analysis of the relationships between demographic and economic factors in Kenya is presented. The analysis is based on the frequent use of household-level data. It also takes into account the direct and indirect effects of changes be they the results of government policy decisions or unexpected exogenous shifts. The analysis is performed using the Bachue simulation model developed at the International Labour Office. Separate consideration is first given to the determinants of fertility of mortality of migration and of income transfers in Kenya. The determinants of female labor force participation and of agricultural productivity are also examined. The authors then provide a technical description of the Bachue-Kenya model and of the various social economic and demographic variables it includes. In the next section various simulations using the Bachue-Kenya model and involving demographic policy economic policy labor market policy and income distribution are described. The results suggest that declines in fertility will lead to rises in average income but are unlikely to have a significant effect on the unemployment problem.
A quantitative measure of nitrifying bacterial growth.
Nitrifying bacteria convert ammonia (NH3) to nitrate (NO3-) in a nitrification reaction. Methods to quantitatively separate the growth rate of these important bacterial populations from that of the dominant heterotrophic bacteria are important to our understanding of the nitrification process. The changing concentration of ammonia is often used as an indirect measure of nitrification but ammonification processes generate ammonia and confound this approach while heterotrophs remove nitrate via denitrification. Molecular probe methods can tell us what proportion of the microbial community is nitrifying bacteria but not their growth rate. The technique proposed here was able to quantify the growth rate of the nitrifying bacterial populations amidst complex ecological processes. The method incubates [methyl-3H] thymidine with water samples in the presence and absence of an inhibitor of nitrification-thiourea. The radioactively labeled DNA in the growing bacteria was extracted. The rate of incorporation of the label into the dividing bacterial DNA was used to determine bacterial growth rate. Total bacterial community growth rates in full-scale and pilot-scale fixed-film nitrifying reactors and an activated sludge reactor were 2.1 x 10(8), 4.1 x 10(8) and 0.4 x 10(8)cell ml(-1)d(-1), respectively; the growth rate of autotrophic-nitrifying bacteria was 0.7 x 10(8), 2.6 x 10(8) and 0.01 x 10(8)cell ml(-1)d(-1), respectively. Autotrophic-nitrifying bacteria contributed 30% and 60% of the total bacterial community growth rate in the nitrifying reactors whereas only 2% was observed in the activated sludge reactor that was not designed to nitrify. The rates of ammonia loss from the nitrifying reactors corresponded to the rate of growth of the nitrifying bacteria. This method has the potential to more often identify factors that enhance or limit nitrifying processes in both engineered and natural aquatic environments.