https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3217 Fri, 15 May 2026 12:08:11 GMT 2026-05-15T12:08:11Z https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/5619 Mapping the spatial dimension of food insecurity using GIS‑based indicators: A case of Western Kenya Mwehe Mathenge Ben G. J. S. Sonneveld Jacqueline E. W. Broerse Food insecurity elimination is a major focus of the Sustainable Development Goals and addresses one of the most pressing needs in developing countries. With the increasing incidence of food insecurity, poverty, and inequalities, there is a need for realignment of agriculture that aims to empower especially the rural poor smallholders by increasing productivity to improving food security conditions. Repositioning the agricultural sector should avoid general statements about production improvement, instead, it should tailor to location-specifc recommendations that fully acknowledge the local spatial diversity of the natural resource base that largely determines production potentials under current low input agriculture. This paper aims to deconstruct the complex and multidimensional aspect of food insecurity and provides policymakers with an approach for mapping the spatial dimension of food insecurity. Using a set of GIS-based indicators, and a small-area approach, we combine Principal Component Analysis and GIS spatial analysis to construct one composite index and four individual indices based on the four dimensions of food security (access, availability, stability, and utilization) to map the spatial dimension of food insecurity in Vihiga County, Kenya. Data were collected by the use of a geocoded household survey questionnaire. The results reveal the existence of a clear and profound spatial disparity of food insecurity. Mapping food insecurity using individual dimension indices provides a more detailed picture of food insecurity as compared to the single composite index. Spatially disaggregated data, a small area approach, and GIS-based indicators prove valuable for mapping local-level causative factors of household food insecurity. Efective policy approaches to combat food insecurity inequalities should integrate spatially targeted interventions for each dimension of food insecurity. Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/5619 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3764 Tracing Kisumu’s path in the co-production of knowledge for urban development George Mark Onyango, Obera Bernard Otieno This chapter traces the history of Kisumu from 1900 to the present to demonstrate the various levels of knowledge co-production over the years and how these have shaped the development of the city. Kisumu is said to have been a versatile commercial center before the advent of colonialism in the late nineteenth century. The late 1990s saw the emergence of a strengthened civil society sector in Kenya through the emergence of civil society organizations (CSOs), which had ramifications in Kisumu. Co-production of knowledge for sustainable urban development is a nonlinear, collaborative process. In Kisumu the process started with peaceful coexistence and minimal conflict between various players in the city. The Kisumu Local Interaction Platform (KLIP) was established through the work with Mistra Urban Futures. Nevertheless Kisumu Action Team (KAT) led to an increase in citizen involvement in the planning of the city. Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3764 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3763 Collective efficiency and its effects on infrastructure planning and development for small manufacturing enterprises in Kenya Stephen Irura Ng'ang'a, George Mark Onyango, Bonaventure Wanjala Kerre This paper explores the extent of use of collective efficiency among the wood enterprises in Kenya and its effect on the infrastructure planning and development. Small manufacturing enterprises are known to contribute to economic dynamism, entrepreneurship and industrial development in less developed countries. However, they are handicapped by lack of capacity to accumulate capital, develop infrastructure and acquire technologies necessary for competing in a liberalized global market individually. Data was obtained from 284 wood enterprises owner/managers selected through multistage sampling in western Kenya and by use of questionnaires, observation checklists and documentary analysis. Data analysis by regression shows that infrastructure development is affected linearly by collective efforts. The paper recommends that industrial infrastructure planning in Kenya should be informed by the Collective efficiency, Networking, Systems approach and Constructivism paradigms so as to anchor the small manufacturing enterprises in the industrialization process. The paper also recommends that a Jua Kali development authority should be established to address the needs of the small manufacturing enterprises sector borrowing from the export processing zones authority model. Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3763 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3762 Determinants of SMEs growth (wood enterprises): Infrastructure, technology and collective efficiency Stephen Irura Nganga, George Mark Onyango, Bonaventure Wanjala Kerre Economic development is said to be dependent on industrial development. Industrialization is seen as key in the promotion of sustainable development since it creates productive employment, generates value added capital and makes a significant contribution to economic and social development. However, the trend in the performance of the manufacturing sector in Kenya raises questions on the effectiveness of the strategy used in planning for sustainable industrial development. This paper explores the factors essential for the active participation of small manufacturing enterprises in contributing towards sustainable industrial development. Data was obtained from wood based enterprises owner/managers (284) who were sampled from three Districts; Kericho, Nakuru and Uasin Gishu all in the Rift valley province of Kenya using multistage sampling strategy. Data was collected by use of questionnaires, observation and documentary analysis. The study found that the infrastructure accessed by wood industries in Western Kenya is poor, the technology employed low, the wood enterprise growth poor and collective efficiency also poor. The relationship between infrastructure and technology development is significantly linear, between infrastructure development and wood enterprise growth and between technology development and wood enterprise growth is also linear. However, the relationship between collective efficiency and wood enterprises growth is logarithmic. It has also emerged that the relationships between collective efficiency and technological development is also logarithmic. Using multiple regression analysis, it was shown that technological development is a very important determinant of the growth of small wood enterprises compared to the others. The study reveals the need for industrial development paradigm shift to a focus on small manufacturing enterprise’s infrastructure and technological development planning based on the collective efficiency paradigm that should anchor sustainable industrial development. Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3762 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3761 The role of urban parks and socio-economic development: Case study of Kisumu Kenya Rose Susan Rabare, Roselyne Okech, George Mark Onyango Urban parks are now viewed as an important part of the broader structure of urban and neighborhood development rather than just recreation and leisure facilities. While most of the world has recognized the multifunctional use of urban parks for development; the parks in Kenya and Kisumu Township in particular are suffering from lack of attention, poor maintenance, lack of development and underutilization. Also evident in most parks of Kisumu Township is lack of activities and basic utilities like public toilets, litterbins, benches and notice boards. The stakeholders of Kisumu Town do not seem to realize that parks can contribute to enormous social, cultural and economic development of the poverty stricken region. The aim of the study was to assess the utilization, investigate the benefits and analyze the factors influencing use of urban parks in Kisumu. Descriptive, cross-section research design was used where multistage cluster sampling technique was applied in sampling households and park users within seven wards of Kisumu Township and seven urban parks respectively. The study indicates that the poor maintenance and lack of adequate facilities had hindered optimal social, economical, environmental and educational benefits of the parks. Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3761 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3245 Community-Based Land Tenure in Urban Kenya: Constructing a ‘new’ Property for the Poor? Emmanuel Midheme Informal housing remains a big challenge in cities of the global South, particularly among low-income households unable to access land and housing through the formal state and/or market mechanisms. While public resources have been expended in informal settlement upgrading projects, the sustainability of such projects often suffers from gentrification and speculation, leading eventually to market evictions of poor households. Communal land tenure has been proposed as a mechanism that can help poor households gain access and hold on to their property on a long term basis, thereby ensuring the success of settlement upgrading programmes and contributing to sustainable community development. In Kenya however, despite large portions of land remaining under communal ownership for centuries, the legal and official policy framework on land tenure has, since 1954, focused on individualized ownership as the primary mode of land management. But since the 1990s, various low-income urban communities living in informal settlements have experimented with communal landholding as a component of settlement upgrading initiatives. This paper assesses the institutional framework that has characterized the design and implementation of these forms of communal land tenure in urban Kenya. Based on empirical material from the Tanzania-Bondeni Community Land Trust in Voi and Muungano wa Kambi Moto in Nairobi, the paper highlights key social innovations that communities have devised to provide legal support for their communal land management practices and to gain concessions from urban planners and other land management … Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3245 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3243 Centering the Margins: Dispossession, Real Estate Speculation and the Politics of Place-Making in Peri-Urban Kisumu, Kenya Emmanuel Midheme Long considered marginal in the production of knowledge on African urbanism, the peri-urban zone is fast becoming one of the most important sites of urban space production in rapidly transforming African cities. While marginality as a concept may suffice for geographic description, it fails to account for the growing centrality of the peri-urban location as a site for what David Harvey has called capital’s ‘spatial fix’. In much of African urban scholarship, peri-urban development has been seen as a form of social innovation, with peri-urban housing especially framed as a case of urban residents proactively responding to the inability of conventional state and market mechanisms to meet the pent-up demand for land and housing in the inner city. Using empirical material from Kisumu, this paper engages with the question of what happens when local, national and international market actors motivated by land speculation and real estate expansionism usurp an initially noble pursuit of self-built housing on the urban fringe. By framing land speculation as the commodification of everyday existence in peri-urban Kisumu, the paper highlights the native population’s narrative of land dispossession and precarization of traditional livelihoods. The dynamics of speculative urbanism is framed by grounding peri-urban spatial production in the interaction between capitalist and territorial logics of power, as inflected by the materiality of the local context. Data for this paper was collected in a fieldwork conducted between December 2012 and May 2013 in Kisian, peri-urban Kisumu. Data sources included 57 semi-structured interviews with native landowners. The aim of these interviews was to gauge local income levels and impacts of the land market on household livelihoods and the local institutions of land management. Three focus group discussions were further held with native women (2) and youth (1) to gauge the implications of land markets on each social group. The area Chief, community elders and selected land buyers were further interviewed to gather information on the institutional framework of land access and development. A further 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with small-scale homebuilders who have settled in Kisian, again, to gauge their income levels, establish their reasons for settling in the area, and to understand their geographies of insertion into the new territory. To get the perspective of large-scale land developers and speculators, interviews were conducted with managers of four real estate firms and five land brokers active in the area. These primary sources were complemented with a review of brochures and websites of various real estate firms active in the local land market, recent newspaper commentaries and government documents on urban development and real estate investment in Kisumu. The paper concludes that owing to the ‘fluidity’ of land relations there, Kisumu’s periphery remains one of the city’s most contested spaces upon which competing class, gender, generation and ethnic identities are dynamically (re)negotiated as different individuals and social groups construct their own logic of land, property, territory and belonging. These findings have immediate implications for planning practice and scholarship, not only in Kisumu, but also in other cities struggling with the crisis of speculative urbanism and the contradictions inherent in the emergent social and built fabric. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3243 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3241 State-Vs. Community-Led Land Tenure Regularization in Tanzania Emmanuel Midheme The importance of security and certainty of land tenure among the urban poor cannot be overemphasised. A key justification for it is that tenure security provides incentives for investment in land and hence an impetus for improving economic opportunities and family livelihoods. In Dar es Salaam, restrictive formal property rights and tenure systems emanating from past land policies have consigned the majority of households to life within the informal urban settlements. Land rights in these areas are not recognised by Government authorities, meaning residents find it more difficult to access benefits enjoyed by inhabitants of the formally planned areas. Such benefits include access to municipal infrastructure and services, and the use of landholdings as collateral against loans from the formal financial institutions. Tenure regularization is believed to create many opportunities that can improve the lives of residents in … Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3241 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3239 Can Community Land Trusts Enhance Urban Land Governance in Kenya? Emmanuel Midheme The struggle for land constitutes a major challenge in urban governance in Kenya today. The sheer pace of the country’s urbanization far outstrips the ability of conventional state and market mechanisms to accommodate the ever-expanding urban population. Most affected in the ensuing scramble for urban space are the poor. Even when they manage to access urban land, low-income households can hardly retain such land on a long-term basis, owing to market vicissitudes and unfriendly government policies. Accordingly, poor households remain shunted to the fringe of urban society as it were, excluded from systematic access to shelter and livelihood opportunities. To expand the poor’s access to urban land and housing, Kenyan planners have experimented with communal forms of property modelled on the community land trust (CLT). By design, CLTs alienate land from the market and assign it to defined communities in perpetuity, thereby aiding long-term shelter provision and community development. The CLT arrangement however brings with it new institutional arrangements that challenge the long-held frameworks of land governance in Kenya. By confronting statutory regimes of land tenure premised on individual property and transferring land management to communities, CLTs facilitate community agency based on social cohesion and associational modes of (re)production that are so crucial in propping up poor households. Using the case of the Tanzania-Bondeni Community CLT recently implemented in Voi town, this paper highlights the institutional bottlenecks to CLT implementation and explores how the new model of land ownership can be mobilized to address the low-income housing problem in the country. Specifically, I address key governance issues that constitute a barrier to wider CLT adoption and explore institutional and other reforms necessary to integrate the CLT approach as a major component of the country’s urban land governance framework. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3239 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3237 (Re)Designing Land Tenure to Meet Housing Needs of The Urban Poor: Implementing Community Land Trusts In Kenya Midheme, Emmanuel Paul Ooko The sheer pace of urbanisation in Kenya today far outstrips the ability of the state to provide housing for the ever-expanding urban population. Implicated in this housing crisis are existing forms of land and housing tenure, which are either inequitable, inefficient or both. Hardest hit by the inadequacies of the housing system are poor households who are rendered incapable of accessing land and housing through formal means. As a departure from conventional land and housing tenure, recent settlement upgrading projects in Kenya have sought to (re)design the institution of land tenure, by adopting communal forms of landholding premised on the community land trust (CLT). CLTs are created specifically to hold land in trust for given communities, in perpetuity. This paper analyses the Tanzania-Bondeni CLT recently implemented in Voi town, and concludes that CLTs are a powerful innovation that can be usefully mobilised in response to the urban housing problem. CLTs however employ an intricate legal framework that can be daunting, while their long-term success requires commitment and effective leadership at the community level, which can be challenging to sustain. Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3237 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z