ABSTRACT Over the past four decades, Kenya has been experiencing fiscal instability with average fiscal deficit as percent of GDP being greater than 5 percent threshold for developing countries. This, together with poor donors’ relations in the 1980’s, and the substitution of foreign borrowing with internal borrowing has led to continued increase in fiscal dominance. Kenya has been unable to reach the 10 percent economic growth target required for realization of Kenya’s Vision 2030, wi...
ABSTRACT The Kenyan economy is predominantly informal. The informal sector employed 132,100 workers in 1974; and 13,442,200 workers in 2016, which translate to 19 percent and 84 percent of the total work force in the respective time periods. The government has from 1986 put in place policy measures to develop the sector for employment creation, economic growth, and poverty alleviation. Among the country‟s Big Four Agenda as contained in the Medium Term Plan (2018-2022), is the development o...
ABSTRACT International trade has broadened possible opportunities available to countries for upgrading economic activities, including the development of manufacturing. Since the late 1980s, Nigeria has progressively pursued trade liberalization which has significantly exposed manufacturing activities to the international market. The goal was to raise the GDP share of manufacturing, share of manufactured exports in total merchandise exports, and manufacturing sector capacity utilization to 25 ...
ABSTRACT Household‟s financial Savings form an integral part of a nation‟s savings level. Financial institutions mobilize the households‟ savings and allocate them to the most efficient investments. Studies conducted in developing countries, Kenya included, indicate that most households save in informal financial institutions. Low savings in formal financial institutions limit the amount of funds available for long term investments. This study sought to examine the underlying factors de...
ABSTRACT The government of Kenya, assisted by donor agencies, has since the 1980s, sought to enhance workers‘ productivity in the informal sector. To achieve this objective, the strategy adopted was to replace the use of archaic indigenous and inappropriate imported technologies with locally designed and produced adapted technology. Although since its inception in 1979,KIRDI has been adapting imported technology for use by entrepreneurs in the informal sector, the rate of adoption has been ...
ABSTRACT Public debt in Kenya has consistently risen overtime, with larger portion being debt from external sources. Both positive and negative effects of debt have been experienced in Kenya since independence. In the last one decade external debt has been rising sharply relative to economic growth of the country, which seems to be stagnant overtime. Additionally, the country has been reporting several cases of corruption and mismanagement of public revenue at different levels of public and ...
ABSTRACT Herbal medicine, commonly referred to as alternative medicine, has been treated with a lot of skepticism among the conventional medicine practitioners. It has been described as inferior to conventional medicine with no proven safety and efficacy, perhaps only associated with rural areas where conventional medicine is not easily accessible. Thus, with economic progress and advancements in conventional medicine, one would expect decline in herbal medicine consumption. In Kenya, 70% of...
ABSTRACT The East African Community member states face challenges in mobilizing tax revenues to the required level which is suitable for economic growth enhancement and attaining fiscal sustainability. Tax reforms have been implemented in the region with the main objective of mobilizing more tax revenues. However, the tax revenue collections have been inadequate leading to persistent budget deficits which shows the inability of the tax system to generate sufficient revenues to finance public...
ABSTRACT The government of Kenya has increased budgetary allocation to the education sector in its effort to achieve universal primary education and in line with the Social Pillar of Vision 2030 and global Sustainable Development Goal number four of Universal Primary Education. The budget allocation increased from 6.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product in 2002/03 to 7.4 percent in 2005/06. It, however, dropped to 5.3 percent in 2014/15 and further to 5.24 in 2017/18. As a result, Gross Enrolm...
ABSTRACT Agricultural activities contribute about 33% of the East African Community‟s Gross Domestic Product (World Bank, 2009), 80 per cent of the populace depend on agriculture directly and indirectly for food, employment and income, while about 40 million people in EAC suffer from hunger. Intra-EAC trade is very low, that is, at 9 per cent of the total regional trade, but it is on upward trend. Agricultural trade accounts for over 40 per cent of the intra-EAC trade. This study investiga...
ABSTRACT Creation of productive and sustainable employment opportunities remains a key policy priority of most countries including Kenya. Employment creation in Kenya has been based on the premise that high economic growth should translate to more employment opportunities. Kenya has experienced varying rates of economic growth. Despite the increase in growth rates, Kenya’s employment elasticity declined from 1.28 in 1992-1996 to 0.5 and 0.38 in 2004-2008 and 2009-2016 respectively. The decl...
ABSTRACT Kenya has witnessed increased financial integration following capital liberalization in the late 1980s which led to increased foreign private capital flows. Financial integration is considered to complement domestic investment, enhance economic growth and reduce macroeconomic volatility by promoting credit and risk diversification. However, private capital can enhance macroeconomic volatility by exposing domestic market to external volatility. Despite Kenya experiencing increased fi...
ABSTRACT Developing countries have invested heavily in pursing policies and strategies to attract foreign direct investments to augment the existing capital stock. These efforts have seen a substantial increase in the flow of foreign direct investments to developing countries. For the last two decades foreign direct investments inflows in Kenya have risen substantially but the effect of the rising inflows on economic growth has not been felt. The growth in foreign direct investments inflows ...
ABSTRACT The implementation of the Kenya vision 2030, coupled with financing expenditures under the devolved government in the new constitution requires enormous resources. The vision requires the government to ensure that the bulk of its expenditures are met from tax revenue and that overall expenditure should be controlled to ensure stable macroeconomic environment. The Government of Kenya continued to carry out tax reforms over the years with an aim of improving taxation efficiency and in...
ABSTRACT Growing of Jatropha curcas has been received with mixed feelings in Kenya. The plant has tremendous potential to be Africa's most excellent bio-fuel feedstock. However, there have been concerns that the plant is not commercially viable and that it negatively affects food production and security. The lack of factual information coupled with politics surrounding the growth of the plant has compromised its uptake by local farmers. This has however not dampened the spirits of pro poor d...