The Kenya National Human Rights Commission and the promotion, protection and monitoring of socio-economic rights in Kenya
- Authors: Khayundi, Francis Bulimo Mapati
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Kenya Human Rights Commission , Economic rights -- Kenya , Social rights -- Kenya , Kenya -- Economic conditions , Kenya -- Social conditions , Kenya -- Politics and government
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60413 , vital:27777
- Description: The promulgation of the 2010 Constitution of Kenya introduced socio-economic rights (SERs) amid widespread poverty and rising inequality. This study seeks to answer the overarching question, what role can the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) play in promoting, protecting and monitoring SERs in Kenya? Further research questions included whether the KNCHR has the requisite powers to perform its mandate and what lessons could be learned from the South African context. The research sought to understand how the local context affects the ability of KNCHR to carry out its mandate. Likewise, it analyses some of the contributions KNCHR has made in the promotion and protection of SERs while identifying the challenges the Commission faces in carrying out its mandate. Several methodologies were utilised to answer the research questions above. The methodologies included the doctrinal method, analysis of secondary sources and interviews with key informants. A comparative legal research methodology was also employed, with the SAHRC being used as a case study on how NHRIs can promote, protect and monitor SERs. The findings from the research argue that the Paris Principles provide the minimum guidelines on the establishment of NHRIs. Compliance with these Principles has not necessarily guaranteed the effectives of NHRIs. Any assessment of an NHRI should be based on its performance and legitimacy considering the local factors obtaining within its jurisdiction. The domestic protection and judicial enforcement of human rights in Kenya, though crucial to the realisation of SERs, has been fraught with challenges. These challenges have meant that the realisation of SERs has been curtailed and necessitated complementary institutions for human rights to be realised. Given the country’s constitutional architecture, the KNCHR was one such institution that could complement the role of the judiciary given its wide mandate. With SERs a new feature of the 2010 Constitution, the KNCHR had to find ways to promote SERs in the country considering the local peculiarities such as poverty, a highly political climate and lack of political goodwill from the legislature and executive sometime characterised by open hostility. These challenges and the new nature of these rights called for a comparative study with the SAHRC given some similarities between the two jurisdictions. The SAHRC provided valuable lessons having had more experience in dealing with SERs while navigating similar challenges the KNCHR faced or might face. The findings of the research prompted recommendations directed at the KNCHR and other stakeholders, specifically the legislature and executive on how to address the challenges curtailing the performance of the KNCHR in general and particularly ways in which the Commission could go about in promoting, protecting and monitoring SERs.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Exchange rate pass-through to domestic prices in Kenya
- Authors: Mnjama, Gladys Susan
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Kenya -- Economic conditions , Kenya -- Economic conditions -- Econometric models , Foreign exchange rates -- Kenya , Stocks -- Prices -- Kenya , Banks and banking -- Kenya , Cointegration , Econometrics , Inflation (Finance) -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: vital:975 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002709 , Kenya -- Economic conditions , Kenya -- Economic conditions -- Econometric models , Foreign exchange rates -- Kenya , Stocks -- Prices -- Kenya , Banks and banking -- Kenya , Cointegration , Econometrics , Inflation (Finance) -- Kenya
- Description: In 1993, Kenya liberalised its trade policy and allowed the Kenyan Shillings to freely float. This openness has left Kenya's domestic prices vulnerable to the effects of exchange rate fluctuations. One of the objectives of the Central Bank of Kenya is to maintain inflation levels at sustainable levels. Thus it has become necessary to determine the influence that exchange rate changes have on domestic prices given that one of the major determinants of inflation is exchange rate movements. For this reason, this thesis examines the magnitude and speed of exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) to domestic prices in Kenya. In addition, it takes into account the direction and size of changes in the exchange rates to determine whether the exchange rate fluctuations are symmetric or asymmetric. The thesis uses quarterly data ranging from 1993:Ql - 2008:Q4 as it takes into account the period when the process of liberalization occurred. The empirical estimation was done in two stages. The first stage was estimated using the Johansen (1991) and (1995) co integration techniques and a vector error correction model (VECM). The second stage entailed estimating the impulse response and variance decomposition functions as well as conducting block exogeneity Wald tests. In determining the asymmetric aspect of the analysis, the study followed Pollard and Coughlin (2004) and Webber (2000) frameworks in analysing asymmetry with respect to appreciation and depreciation and large and small changes in the exchange rate to import prices. The results obtained showed that ERPT to Kenya is incomplete but relatively low at about 36 percent in the long run. In terms of asymmetry, the results showed that ERPT is found to be higher in periods of appreciation than depreciation. This is in support of market share and binding quantity constraints theory. In relation to size changes, the results show that size changes have no significant impact on ERPT in Kenya.
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- Date Issued: 2011
Strategies for empowering Kenya's informal economy to realise its full potential for socio- economic development
- Authors: Nason, Benson Vundi
- Date: 2010-12
- Subjects: Informal sector (Economics) -- Kenya , Kenya -- Economic conditions , Economic development
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/25676 , vital:64425
- Description: This study attempted to identify realistic strategies that are accepted by those in the Jua Kali sector of Kenya’s informal economy. The strategies were seen as being relevant, practical and achievable in integrating the sector, or some parts of it, in the formal economy. Special attention was given to export potential as the driving force in socio-economic development. Since Jua Kali enterprises are widely spread throughout an area covering all the more heavily populated regions of Kenya, including many small villages as well as major towns, a comprehensive, nationwide study was out of the question. For this reason, the study was limited to the following areas with known and readily accessible concentrations of Jua Kali entrepreneurs. This included key suburbs of Nairobi and key regional towns like Machakos, Athi River and Mlolongo. The objectives of the study were to establish the problems faced by the informal sector in Kenya, to find out how such problems have affected the relevant artisans, to investigate if the artisans were aware of those problems and what they were doing if anything, to solve the problems they encountered. Finally, the study sought to establish what the other stakeholders were doing to improve the informal sector. The bulk of the literature reviewed underscored the facts that: the manufacturing sub–sector of Kenya’s informal economy has immense potential as an engine for driving the nation’s economy. Secondly, the full potential of the informal sector will only be realised if the manufacturers concerned are empowered to develop their own strategies for developing the informal economy. Such strategies should aim towards the goal of producing and marketing high quality products that are sold to both local and at the international markets via exports. The study adopted critical ethnography as its research method. Critical ethnography as a method requires a plan for the conducting of field research that is reflexive in nature whereby the researcher facilitates a consensual process in which the subjects reflect on their own situation and develop their own solutions to problems. In the present case the process was a communal one with a consensual decision making and actions by the subjects. All interpretations and meaning to activities and actions to be taken were thereof informed by the subjects being studied. At the end of the study, the findings of the analysis were presented to each of the participating subjects for their final comments with those comments being incorporated in the report. The principles of critical ethnography therefore, were seen as providing an ideal framework for exploring the possibilities of self–empowerment that enabled the subjects of the study to fulfil their potential within this important sector. Data analysis and presentation have been presented using tables. Finally, the study’s conclusions and recommendations have been presented in the relevant and subsequent chapters therein. As opportunities and resources will allow in the future, the dissemination of the study findings will continue to be facilitated throughout the country of Kenya. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2010
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- Date Issued: 2010-12