Smallholder tea farming is an important source of rural livelihoods in Kenya, while the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) plays a central role in organizing production, marketing, and farmer payments. This paper reviews literature on KTDA remuneration practices and examines their influence on the economic well-being of smallholder tea farmers in Kericho County, Kenya. Guided by New Institutional Economics as the anchor theory and supported by Institutional Theory and Resource Dependence Theory, the review synthesizes evidence on monthly initial payments, annual final payments, pricing conditions, bonus payments, payment transparency, and household economic outcomes. A qualitative desktop literature review was conducted using scholarly publications, institutional reports, government documents, and policy literature. The evidence indicates that the timing, predictability, transparency, and value of farmer payments have important implications for household liquidity, income stability, financial planning, savings, and investment. Recent Kenyan evidence also indicates continuing concern about regional differences in tea prices and bonuses, while Kericho-specific research demonstrates the continuing importance of tea income and access to financial resources for household economic outcomes. The review identifies a significant empirical gap concerning the relationship between KTDA remuneration practices and multidimensional economic well-being indicators among smallholder tea farmers in Kericho County and highlights the need for further empirical investigation.

Protracted displacement has placed refugees and host communities into sustained proximity across much of sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, raising the question of what conditions allow the two groups to coexist peacefully rather than descend into rivalry over land, livelihoods, and public services. Drawing on the Ager and Strang conceptual framework of integration and on intergroup contact theory, this article examines how economic, social, psychosocial, legal-institutional, and spatial dimensions of integration jointly shape the quality of relations between displaced populations and the communities that host them. Using a targeted narrative synthesis of peer-reviewed studies and authoritative institutional reports, with priority given to recent empirical work and earlier foundational sources retained for theory, the analysis draws evidence from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Lebanon. It argues that peaceful coexistence is rarely the product of a single intervention but instead emerges from the cumulative and mutually reinforcing effect of several integration domains operating together. Economic inclusion reduces competition over scarce resources but is insufficient on its own; social contact under favorable conditions builds trust but can also expose latent threat perceptions when poorly managed; psychosocial wellbeing programming addresses the human costs of displacement that would otherwise erode goodwill; and secure land tenure arrangements prevent the disputes that most reliably escalate into open conflict. The article concludes that policy and programming should treat integration as a multidimensional and sequenced process, with attention to how gains in one domain can be undermined by neglect in another, and offers implications for practitioners and policymakers working in protracted refugee-hosting contexts such as Kenya's Kakuma and Dadaab camps.

This study investigated the influence of laissez-faire leadership on labor turnover within Kenyan parastatals, using the Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) as a case study. A descriptive research design was adopted, utilizing a census sampling technique to collect data from all 96 employees of PCK’s Eastern Region through structured questionnaires. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. The findings revealed that laissez-faire leadership was prevalent, characterized by limited supervisory monitoring, passive involvement in daily operations and delayed intervention in conflicts. These practices created an environment of role ambiguity and perceived managerial neglect. Correlation and regression analyses confirmed a significant positive relationship between laissez-faire leadership and labor turnover, indicating that its prevalence directly contributed to increased employee exit intentions and actual turnover. The study concludes that the hands-off approach inherent in laissez-faire leadership is detrimental to employee retention in structured public sector environments like PCK. It recommends that parastatals actively discourage leadership disengagement by promoting active supervision, timely feedback and greater managerial accountability to mitigate staff attrition and enhance organizational stability.

Smallholder tea farming remains an important source of rural livelihoods in Kenya, with the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) coordinating production support services for more than 600,000 smallholder tea farmers. Despite the contribution of the tea sector to Kenya’s economy, many tea-growing households continue to experience rising production costs, constrained savings, and limited capacity for asset accumulation. This paper reviews literature on KTDA input supply systems and examines their influence on the economic well-being of smallholder tea farmers in Kericho County, Kenya. Guided by New Institutional Economics as the anchor theory and supported by Institutional Theory and Resource Dependence Theory, the review synthesizes evidence relating to centralized input procurement, fertilizer distribution, cost recovery arrangements, extension support, and household economic outcomes. A qualitative desktop literature review approach was adopted using scholarly publications, institutional reports, government publications, and policy documents. The review indicates that centralized input procurement can improve access to essential farm inputs and reduce transaction costs, but delayed delivery, rising fertilizer costs, and automatic deductions may constrain disposable income, savings, and household financial resilience. The review identifies a significant empirical gap concerning the influence of KTDA input supply systems on multidimensional indicators of economic well-being among smallholder tea farmers in Kericho County.

The purpose of the study was to examine how foundational factors of ontological leadership influence institutional performance. Specifically, the study focused on authentic presence, reflective practice, ethical grounding, and purpose-driven leadership as underlying dimensions that shape how leaders interpret their roles, relate to others, make decisions, and guide their institutions. The hypothesis were; H₀₁: Foundational Factors of Ontological Leadership are not significantly associated with Financial Stability in universities in the Nairobi Metropolitan area; H₀₂: Foundational Factors of Ontological Leadership are not significantly associated with Research Output in universities in the Nairobi metropolitan area; H₀₃: Foundational Factors of Ontological Leadership are not significantly associated with Institutional Reputation in universities in the Nairobi metropolitan area and H₀₄: Foundational Factors of Ontological Leadership are not significantly associated with Innovation in universities in the Nairobi metropolitan area. The study adopted a pragmatic methodological orientation informed by Heideggerian ontology and complemented by post-positivist and social constructivist assumptions, allowing ontological leadership to be examined both as a measurable construct and as a contextually interpreted leadership experience. An explanatory mixed-methods cross-sectional survey design was used, with the quantitative component forming the principal phase and qualitative evidence providing contextual explanation of the statistical findings. The target population comprised 887 senior leaders drawn from 28 public and private universities within the Nairobi metropolitan area, including vice-chancellors, deputy vice-chancellors, registrars, deans, directors and heads of departments, from whom a sample of 276 respondents was determined using Yamane’s formula and further assessed through power analysis and SEM sample-size requirements. 175 respondents fully filled and returned the questionnaires. The study found that Foundational Factors of Ontological Leadership (FF) were positively and statistically significantly associated with all four dimensions of institutional performance in the sampled universities in the Nairobi metropolitan area. Thus, the study rejected all four null hypotheses. The strongest relationship was observed with Innovation (β = .832, SE = .032, p < .001), for which FF was associated with 69.2% of the variance, followed by Institutional Reputation (β = .749, SE = .037, p < .001), with an R² of .561. More modest associations were observed with Research Output (β = .334, SE = .105, p = .002, R² = .112) and Financial Stability (β = .293, SE = .072, p < .001, R² = .086). The findings support the existence of significant associations between foundational leadership factors and perceived institutional performance within the sampled universities, but they do not establish causal relationships or justify generalization beyond the study context. Greater attention should be given to Innovation and Institutional Reputation, because these were the performance dimensions most strongly associated with foundational leadership factors. Universities may therefore benefit from sustaining leadership practices that support innovation, responsiveness, academic quality, stakeholder confidence, and institutional credibility.

Kenya is among Africa's largest refugee-hosting countries, with over 836,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers residing primarily in the Dadaab and Kakuma camp complexes and in urban centres such as Nairobi. This article presents a desktop review of the factors that shape peaceful coexistence between refugees and host communities in Kenya. Drawing on intergroup contact theory and the broader social cohesion literature, the review synthesises evidence on resource competition, host community attitudes, institutional and governance quality, and inter-group social interaction as the principal determinants of coexistence outcomes. The review finds that competition over land, water, and livelihoods remains the most consistently identified source of tension, particularly in arid and semi-arid hosting areas affected by recurrent drought, while the quality and frequency of everyday social contact between refugees and hosts can either mitigate or exacerbate these pressures depending on context. Kenya's recent policy shift from encampment toward integrated settlement, embodied in the Refugees Act 2021 and the 2025 Shirika Plan, represents a significant attempt to address structural drivers of tension, but implementation gaps, unresolved land questions, and uneven host community consultation continue to constrain its effectiveness. The review concludes that peaceful coexistence in Kenya's refugee-hosting areas depends on the simultaneous management of material scarcity, institutional credibility, and social contact, rather than any single intervention in isolation.

This study examined the influence of regulatory frameworks and environmental sustainability on strategic asset management of high-voltage transmission lines and substations at the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO). The study was drawn from a broader thesis on the determinants of strategic asset management and focused on two governance- and sustainability-oriented variables. A mixed-methods design was adopted, targeting all 180 Operations and Maintenance personnel involved in high-voltage transmission asset management through a census approach. Quantitative data were collected using structured electronic questionnaires, while qualitative insights were obtained through focus group discussions. A total of 128 usable questionnaire responses were obtained, representing a 71.1% response rate. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted using SPSS Version 23, while qualitative data were analysed thematically. Regulatory engagement recorded the highest mean (M = 3.86), followed by regular audits and physical inspections (M = 3.80), whereas licensing and permit acquisition recorded the lowest mean (M = 3.58). For environmental sustainability, environmental assessment and planning recorded the highest mean (M = 3.75), followed by vegetation and ecosystem management (M = 3.69), while waste-to-energy adoption recorded the lowest mean (M = 3.23). Regulatory frameworks were positively associated with strategic asset management performance (r = .603, p < .01), while environmental sustainability also showed a positive relationship (r = .567, p < .01). In the broader study's four-predictor regression model, regulatory frameworks (β = .181, p = .005) and environmental sustainability (β = .148, p = .017) both had statistically significant positive effects. The study concludes that effective strategic asset management requires not only technical and financial capability but also predictable regulatory processes, robust compliance systems, sound environmental planning and practical sustainability measures that enhance the resilience and legitimacy of transmission infrastructure.