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A collection of research papers and journal articles.

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A Critique Of The Assessment Methods Used At The Kenya School Of Law
(Riara Law Journal, 2024) Ombis, Washington Odongo
This paper will extensively explore the pros and cons of the assessment techniques used at bar school level. At the bar school level there are three modes of assessment which include: firm work, oral examinations and final bar written examinations. The three modes of assessment have been as not being in par with the current law academic structure. However, some have argued that status quo needs to be maintained for all and without any changes being made with reference to the assessment techniques used at the bar school level. This paper will critically interrogate the issue surrounding assessments administered at the Kenya School of Law (KSL) with the aim of offering other alternatives which might be considered in the curriculum development at the KSL.
A Government Driven Approach Towards Green IT Economies
(African Journal of Computing and Information Systems (IJSTER-AJCIS)., 2016) Kamau, John Wachira; Muketha, Geoffrey Muchiri; Njeru, Kevin Mwiti
The growing threat on the environment driven by an accelerated growth in economic activities has amplified the role of government in enhancing sustainability. To business and the industry leaders, the global economic challenges have compelled them to reconsider how they do business to gain an economic advantage and as a drive towards enabling a socially responsible business environment. This has forced businesses and industry to consider and act on a broad range of socially responsible and sustainable programs. As a majority business and industry align their goals by embedding sustainability mechanisms as key pillars to economic empowerment, most global governments seem to be lagging behind in providing the necessary facilitation in their economies. In the field of Information Communication Technology (ICT), the integrating and enabling role of ICTs has been considered critical in managing the global carbon footprint by exploiting their innovative capabilities thus providing sustainable solutions to the environment. Even in this area, the government has been considered a late adopter thus limiting its ability to provide solutions that is critical in this vital area. This paper therefore analyzes the role of government in building a sustainable economy using ICT and provides an action plan for governments in developing economies. This is based on data collected from both primary and secondary sources. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze the data and to draw conclusions. The action plan evaluates the role of government on green ICT from the perspectives of legislation, policies and regulations, Incentives, Education and social economics, support for business process integration and Implementation and usage of green ICT.
A Literature Survey of Image Descriptors in Content Based Image Retrieval
(International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 2016-03) Kamau, John Wachira; Makori, Cyrus Abanti; Mohamed, Abdulrehman Ahmed
As a result of the new communication technologies and the massive use of Internet in the society, the amount of audio-visual information available in digital format is increasing considerably. This has necessitated designing systems that allow describing the content of several types of multimedia information in order to search and classify them. The audiovisual descriptors are used for contents description in Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR). The CBIR is a technique for retrieving images on the basis of automatically-derived features such as color, texture and shape. It uses digital processing and analysis to automatically generate descriptions directly from the media data. Image descriptors are the descriptions of the visual features of the contents in images, which describe elementary characteristics of images such as the shape, the color, the texture or the motion, among others. A literature survey study is most important for understanding and gaining insight about specific area of a subject. Therefore, in this paper we survey some of the state-of-art technical aspects of image descriptors in CBIR. Even though lots of research works had been published on CBIR, however, in this paper an effort has been made to explore an in-depth chronological growth in this field of image descriptors with respect to performance measure metrics of CBIR systems.
A Model for Detecting Information Technology Infrastructure Policy Violations in a Cloud Environment
(The International Journal Of Science And Technoledge, 2019-09) Musau, Felix; Oginga, Ruth; Maghanga, Christopher
The pervasiveness of the internet and available connectivity solutions brought about by cloud computing has led to unprecedented increase in technologies built based on information technology infrastructures. Most organizations consider the deployment of different types of protection systems to curb the various malicious activities. Organizations offer sophisticated monitoring and reporting capabilities to identify attacks against cloud environment, while stopping multiple classes of attacks before they successful interfere with network activities. Users with ill intentions have increasingly used the cloud as an attack vector due to its ubiquity, scalability and open nature despite the existence of policy violation detection systems necessitating the need to strengthen access policies from time to time. Policy violation detection plays a major role in information security by providing a systematic way of detection and interpreting attacks. Some of the known weaknesses of most detection tools are the generation of false positives or false alerts and inability to perform analysis if traffic is encrypted as well as failure to detect and prevent attacks. This research paper was concerned with the investigation of weaknesses of firewall and Intrusion Detection system (IDS) which are supported by the cloud. The research design for the paper was based on the mixed methods. Experimental results revealed weakness in existing systems specifically IDS and firewall. Unlike the existing systems, new model designed to overcome the shortfall was able to detect both known and unknown attacks and signatures. Moreover, the model was capable of preventing the occurrence of false positives, and terminates suspicious nodes in real time without human intervention. Based on the tests carried out, it was recommended that Policy violation detection model be implemented to guarantee protection. An additional area of application such as migration from one cloud to another is not achievable, at this moment because of the heterogeneous nature of the cloud. This is a potential area for investigation in future.
A novel robust and fast Segmentation of the Color Images using Fuzzy Classification C-means
(IEEE, 2010) Musau, Felix; Toure, Mohamed Lamine; Beiji, Zou
This paper brings out a method for segmentation of color images based on fuzzy classification. It proceeds in a first step by a fine segmentation using the algorithm of fuzzy cmeans (FCM). The method then applies a test fusion of fuzzy classes. The result is a coarse segmentation, where each region is the union of elementary regions grown from FCM. The fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering is an iterative partitioning method that produces optimal c-partitions, the standard FCM algorithm takes a long time to partition a large data set. The proposed FCM program must read the entire data set into a memory for processing. Our results show that the system performance is robust to different types of images.
A Pound Of Flesh For 3,000 Ducats, And Some Data: An Appraisal On The Adequacy Of Data Protection Law In Digital Lending In Kenya
(Riara Law Journal, 2024) Mbila, Augustus Mutemi
Since the introduction of M-Shwari as a digital lender by Commercial Bank of Africa in 2012, the lending market has seen a proliferation of digital lenders that are largely unregulated. The lenders provide seemingly cheap loans whose interest is huge when the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is calculated from the weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly payment requirements. The lenders operate through apps that are uploaded to App Stores and pulled down at will. They require their customers to ‘accept’ terms and conditions before accessing the loans, and these terms sometimes allow the lenders unfettered access to customer data which they use and abuse in equal measure. The lenders use such customer data to issue threats, to contact those on the contact lists of the customers’ phonebook, and to report them on Credit Reference Bureaus (CRBs). Based on this mode of operation, these lenders have rightfully earned the name “shylocks”. Through the Central Bank of Kenya (Amendment) Act of 2020, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has been empowered to regulate the activities of these digital lenders. However, this paper raises key concerns on such powers because the mode of operation of these digital lenders is such that the CBK may not adequately regulate them. Does the CBK have capacity to trace the uploading of the apps to App Stores to ensure that they have been uploaded there after obtaining the requisite license? What are the consequences of breach of data privacy and dignity of the customer by the digital lenders? Does the CBK have enough powers and capacity to protect consumers of these services from abuse by the digital lenders? The paper interrogates these issues within the relevant law and concludes that there is a lot more to be done as the available law is not adequate.
A Proposal to De-colonise Sale of Goods Law in Kenya: Why the Kenyan Sale of Goods Act is a Hopeless Legislation
(Mount Kenya University Law Journal, 2023) Mbila, Augustus Mutemi
When members of the Legislative Council of the Kenya Colony met in July 1930 to pass the Sale of Goods Ordinance, the Kenyan Colony was not represented by any African. White missionaries were the African representatives because it was felt that they knew a lot about Africans that they would best protect African interests in the Act. The Sale of Goods Act, Chapter 31 Laws of Kenya (The Act) was adopted from the English Sale of Goods Act, 1893. There are good reasons to believe that the Act was passed to protect colonial interests in sale of goods Law in the country. This Act has substantively remained unamended since 1893. With the dynamic nature of the commercial environment, it is expected that the Law governing such an environment also keeps the momentum. This has not been the case in Kenya. The current study seeks to critically examine the extent to which the doctrine of freedom of contract is entrenched in the Act. The study examines the topic under four themes: elements of the doctrine of freedom of contract in the Act, formation of the contract of sale of goods, implied conditions and warranties, and exclusion clauses. The study then makes recommendations on how these provisions should be amended or repealed to reflect the modern commercial environment in Kenya.
A Reliable and Secure Distributed In-Network Data Storage Scheme in Wireless Sensor Networks
(IEEE, 2011) Musau, Felix; Wang, Guojun; Abdullahi, Muhammad Bashir
In a battlefield surveillance scenario, data readings and events emerging from a wireless sensor network deployed that may not be used immediately by or simply impossible to transmit to an authorized user (a Soldier) in real time are stored in the network. Without proper protection for the sensitive data generated in this setting, a compromised storage node (by an enemy soldier) may divulge its stored sensitive data about the monitored environment, and even worse, it may alter the data. In this paper, we integrate an elliptic curve cryptography scheme and an erasure coding scheme to provide reliable and secure distributed in-network data storage for sensor networks. The main idea is to distribute each erasure coded fragment appended with a fingerprint to different storage nodes. The fingerprint is to allow each coded data fragment to be independently verified as a valid and correct subset of a specific data item. So, the scheme achieves localization of data error. The proposed scheme is resilient to collusion attack, pollution attack, and data dropping attack, and guarantees forward and backward data secrecy as well. The security of the proposed scheme relies on the intractability of the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem. Different from the existing solutions, the uniqueness of our method comes from the use of lightweight encryption scheme, which is well suited for resource constrained wireless sensors.
A Review of Prominent Technology Acceptance Models in the Context of Predicting Software Adoption in African Developing Countries: A Case of Free Desktop Open Source Software (OSS)
(Asian Journal of Information Technology, 2017) Kamau, John Wachira; Sanders, Ian D.
A number of technology adoption models have been developed over the years. Currently, there are ten prominent models which since, their development have been tested in different environments. The models have also been extended by including constructs which researchers perceive to be important depending on the environment. The models are Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Motivational Model (MM), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), Combined TAM and TBP, Model of PC Utilization (MPCU), Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (EUTAUT). Generally these models have been developed and tested in non-African and non-developing countries. This study reviews these prominent existing technology adoption models with the aim of establishing their appropriateness in predicting Desktop Open Source Software (OSS) adoption in developing countries in Africa.
A Study of the State of Art B2B Integration Patterns, Components and Architectures
(Current Journal of Applied Science and Technology., 2015-11-16) Njeru, Edwin Mwendi; Musau, Felix; Kipruto, Cheruiyot W.
In modern business operations, it has become imperative that processes, systems and sometimes organizations integrate. This is for various reasons such as maximizing profits, efficiency, expansion etc. Developing a robust integration plan, architecture and process mapping are key to any B2B integration. B2B integration can be defined as the integration of applications, programs, or systems extending the walls of an organisation and it include heterogeneous infrastructures, data, application software, and business processes integration between two or more businesses. The growth and change of systems and related technology is a very rapid arena, thus requiring almost every software system to have constant modification, integration and/or configuration, to provide enhanced integrated solutions to the changing world. Simply put it is developing an approach to expanded and extended collaboration, communication, resource sharing, optimization, profitability and efficiency within and between organisations. Integration is a general term for the tools and applications that are involved to enable different systems to interoperate and communicate with each other within or beyond a business enterprise, thus allowing complete integration of services and data sources among different applications. Current integration architectures are sufficient on the basis of service or product needs. But most B2B integrations do not sufficiently consider the involved processes, which contain most if not all stakeholders concerns and quality attributes. In this study, we take a look at the art of integration architecture and patterns, the impact on business processes, services and products as well as challenges hitherto.
A Usability Evaluation Framework for Web Based Learning Management Systems Used in Kenyan Universities.
(IJIRST –International Journal for Innovative Research in Science & Technology, 2020-08) Musau, Felix; Musau, Victor Vincent; Ratemo, Cyprian Makiya
Despite the fast adoption of web-based learning management systems (LMS) in institutions of higher Learning, insufficient attention has been paid to the usability of these systems in developing countries. Usability evaluation for the web-based LMS needs to be conducted before implementing them so as to get maximum benefits from tones of learning features which are integrated in them. However, the available standard usability evaluation guidelines are inadequate for evaluation of domain specific applications. There are few studies which have made the first steps in proposing guidelines for evaluating web-based LMS. However, they were found not adequate in the current study. On this premise, it is difficult to adapt any of the proposed guidelines without any further improvement. In this study, we proposed a usability evaluation framework for evaluating web-based LMSs used in Kenyan universities. The proposed framework was tested by applying it in usability evaluation of Moodle LMS. Two primary usability evaluation methods (UEMs) were used which are user testing and expert evaluation. Think aloud method and post-evaluation questionnaire were used to supplement user testing. Four expert evaluators were used for expert evaluation and 36 students were used for user testing. The proposed framework was found adequate for use in usability evaluation of web-based LMSs.
Access to Health Care: The Role of a Community Based Health Insurance in Kenya
(Pan African Medical Journal, 2012-06-19) Mwaura, Judy Wanja; Pongpanich, Sathirakorn
Background: Out-of-pocket payments create financial barriers to health care access. There is an increasing interest in the role of community based health insurance schemes in improving equity and access of the poor to essential health care. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of Jamii Bora Health Insurance on access to health care among the urban poor. Methods: Data was obtained from the household health interview survey in Kibera and Mathare slums, which consisted of 420 respondents, aged 18 and above who were registered as members of Jamii Bora Trust. The members of Jamii Bora Trust were divided into two groups the insured and the non-insured. Results: In total, 17.9% respondents were hospitalized and women (19.6%) were more likely to be admitted than men (14.7%). Those in the poorest quintile had the highest probability of admission (18.1%). Those with secondary school education, large household size, and aged 50 and above also had slightly greater probability of admission (p<0.25). 86% of admissions among the insured respondents were covered JBHI and those in the poorest quintile were more likely to use the JBHI benefit. Results from the logistic regression revealed that the probability of being admitted, whether overall admission or admission covered by the JBHI benefit was determined by the presence of chronic condition (p<0.01). Conclusion: Utilization and take up of the JBHI benefits was high. Overall, JBHI favoured the members in the lower income quintiles who were more likely to use health care services covered by the JBHI scheme.
Addressing gender gaps in agricultural productivity in Africa: comparative case studies from Tanzania, Malawi and Uganda+
(Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy, 2018) Torkelsson, Asa; Onditi, Francis
This article examines why, in most African countries, women farmers achieve lower productivity in agriculture than men. It contributes to this debate by interrogating whether or not addressing gender gaps in agricultural production significantly contributes to socio-economic well-being (resilience) of women as well as the gross domestic product (GDP). The Living Standards Measurement Studies-Integrated Survey for Agriculture projects was adopted to produce estimates for three countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda). The article draws from a research report and collaborative study by UN Women with UNEP and World Bank. The result shows that although female farmers individually manage slightly more than 25 per cent of all plots in Malawi and Uganda and about 20 per cent of all plots in Tanzania, Malawi shows the largest difference in mean productivity where women’s plots are, on average, 28 per cent less productive than men’s while Tanzania and Uganda reported 16 per cent and 13 per cent gender gaps, respectively. This result implies that the importance of other productive resources other than access to land may be key – for instance, the need to tackle constraints related to women’s access to “household male labour” and policies that help women farmers to access labour-saving technologies.
Adoption of Students Management Information System for the Development of Student Records in Secondary Schools in Kenya
(The International Journal Of Humanities & Social Studies, 2019) Ondiek, Collins Oduor; Opiyo, Elisha T.; Ndung’u, Joseph Karanja
The Government education institutions identified the student management information system (SMIS) as a key contributor for building trust and confidence for the general education institutions in the heart of any nation or state. SMIS has been visualized to not only help the teachers and administrators to have better monitoring and control of the functioning of the education institutions but also many other education stakeholders across the nation who needs decision support indicators. This study established the extent to which adoption and implementation of SMIS in education institutions and determined the extent to which SMIS promoted management decision making, academic practices and increasing demand for students information use. Target population was school administrators, teachers and parents in Kandara Sub County. A sample size of 200 respondents was used and questionnaires were the data collection tools. Findings showed that 90% of administrators had already adopted and implemented the use of SMIS in their institutions, 87.5% of teachers had adopted and implemented the use of SMIS in managing students’ data and information while 75% of parents appreciated the adoption and implementation of SMIS in the institutions where their children were learning. Further, 95% of administrators and 75% of teachers appreciated the use of SMIS in their institutions which has enabled them to make sound decisions regarding students’ data and information. The study recommends adoption and implementation of SMIS since it helps institutions’ administration manage various operations including students’ data and information.
Advanced Algorithm for Brain Segmentation using Fuzzy to Localize Cancer and Epilespy Region
(IEEE, 2010) Musau, Felix; Beiji, Zou; Toure, Mohamed Lamine; Camara, Aboubacar Damaye
The research which addresses the diseases of the brain in the field of the vision by computer is one of the challenges in recent times in medicine, the engineers and researchers recently launched challenges to carry out innovations of technology pointed in imagery. This paper focuses on a new algorithm for brain segmentation of color images based on fuzzy classification to diagnose accurately the region of cancer and the area of epilepsy. In a first step it proceeds by a fine segmentation using the algorithm of fuzzy cmeans (FCM). It then applies a test fusion of fuzzy classes. The result is a coarse segmentation, where each region is the union of elementary regions grown from FCM. The fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering is an iterative partitioning method that produces optimal c-partitions. The standard FCM algorithm takes a long time to partition a large data set. The proposed FCM program must read the entire data set into a memory for processing. Our results show that the system performance is robust to different types of images.
Advanced Algorithm Partitioning of Markov and Color Image Segmentation
(IEEE, 2010) Musau, Felix; Beiji, Zou; Toure, Mohamed Lamine
The color vision systems require a first step of classifying pixels in a given image into a discrete set of color classes. In this paper we introduce a new method of algorithm partitioning, and color image segmentation based on similarities or dissimilarities of the pixels. We consider fuzzy segmentation with markov, and normalized cut method. Experiments show these different processes used an effective solution on natural images, and computational efficiency. Finally, the algorithm has proven our process of experiments on gray scale, color, and texture images show promising segmentation results successful
African National Anthems: Their Value System and Normative 'Potential
(Kyoto University, 2018-03) Onditi, Francis
Arguably, a national anthem defines a country’s identity. Globally, it regarded as a symbol of national unity. In Africa, they assert a country’s independence from colonial imperialism. Despite their strong symbolism and nationalistic ingenuity, national anthems have remained latent in both academic and policy discourses. Moreover, they not only exhibit nationalistic elements, but also propagandistic, aggressive or even chauvinistic constructs. In view of this dichotomy, the debate continues to deepen as the dilemma unveils, how to reconcile the positive elements of the national anthems with the antagonistic lyrics they produce in order to promote values and norms for full realization of ‘African potentials?’ Drawing upon Ian Manners’s concept of ‘normative power,’ this article employs thematic network analysis tools to examine the pattern of lyrics within the African national anthems as potential sources of ‘norms’ for framing the philosophy of ‘African potentials.’ This article goes beyond the common argument that national anthems are historical effgies to discover the ‘potentials’ within the diversity of constructs emerging from their lyrics and thematic network analytics.
An Enhanced Service Flow Management Scheme for IEEE 802.16 Broadband Wireless Access Systems
(International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering, 2012-08) Musau, Felix; Mwamafundo, Juma Modie; Kipkorir, Sang
While the protocols have been proposed to support QoS (quality of service) guarantees for a variety of applications, the WiMax/IEEE 802.16 standard does not specify a mandatory scheduling architecture to fulfill stringent QoS requirement for the different classes of traffic. Only the framework is established in the standard which provides an opportunity for developers to design efficient scheduling mechanism to fulfill stringent QoS requirement for the different classes of traffic. The scheduling scheme requires catering for rigorous QoS guarantee for all types of service flows as specified in the standard, enabling fairness and facilitating the traffic of lower priority. In this paper, we propose a Service Flow Management Scheme for the IEEE 802.16 Broadband Wireless Access systems that can provide QOS support that enhances performance through a scheduler that performs optimally and efficiently.
An Enhanced Service Flow Management Scheme for IEEE 802.16 Broadband Wireless Access Systems
(International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering, 2012-08) Musau, Felix; Kipkorir, Sang; Mwamafundo, Juma Modie
While the protocols have been proposed to support QoS (quality of service) guarantees for a variety of applications, the WiMax/IEEE 802.16 standard does not specify a mandatory scheduling architecture to fulfill stringent QoS requirement for the different classes of traffic. Only the framework is established in the standard which provides an opportunity for developers to design efficient scheduling mechanism to fulfill stringent QoS requirement for the different classes of traffic. The scheduling scheme requires catering for rigorous QoS guarantee for all types of service flows as specified in the standard, enabling fairness and facilitating the traffic of lower priority. In this paper, we propose a Service Flow Management Scheme for the IEEE 802.16 Broadband Wireless Access systems that can provide QOS support that enhances performance through a scheduler that performs optimally and efficiently.
Analysis of MS Power Saving Scheme to BS with Finite Buffer in IEEE 802.16e networks
(IEEE, 2011) Musau, Felix; Kipruto, Cheruiyot W.; Mushi, Joseph Cosmas; Tan, Guan-Zheng
This paper analyzes effects of power saving of mobile station (MS) to Base Station with finite buffer in IEEE802.16e class type I network. IEEE802.16e standard accept MS to switch to sleep-mode to minimize power when MS processing load is reduced. However, when packets destined to MS appear into BS buffer, they should be stored until end of MS sleep window. Although the sleep-mode designed in effort to conserve environment but it risks loss of packets once BS buffer overloaded with accumulated packets. This paper designs numerical analytic model to measure risk of packet drop. Through asymptotic analysis the effect of packets destined to sleeping MS into BS finite buffer is measured and analysed.

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