Abstract There is a growing acknowledgement that micro-credit programs have potential for equitable and sustainable development. However, my anthropological research on the micro-credit program of the Grameen Bank shows that bank workers are expected to increase disbursement of loans among their members and press for high recovery rates to earn profit necessary for economic viability of the institution. To ensure timely repayment in the loan centers bank workers and borrowing peers inflict an intense pressure on women clients. In the study community many borrowers maintain their regular payment schedules through a process of loan recycling that considerably increases the debt-liability on the individual households, increases tension and frustration among household members, produces new forms of dominance over women and increases violence in society.

Micro-credit initiatives for equitable and sustainable development : who pays?; a case study of the Grameen Bank Program in rural Bangladesh

Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya. By Caroline Elkins. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2005. Pp. xvi, 475. $27.50. For decades now, Nairobi lore has told of the city's dark skies in the days just before the British made the country independent. Lore has it right. Those dark skies were not a natural act, but caused by the continuous fires used by the British to burn records. Caroline Elkins mentions these "massive bonfires" (p. xii) as an attempt by the British to suppress knowledge of their detention system in Kenya. This erasure of history was but one of the reasons for her near-decade toil to reassemble an evidentiary foundation from which to write this book. Elkins has been successful, indeed triumphant. She has written a harddriving historical narrative about the system of detention erected by the British during 1952-1960 in Kenya to stem the Mau Mau rebellion. She has examined in the greatest depth the imprisonment of thousands of Kenyans, overwhelmingly Kikuyu and men, in camps scattered across Kenya. Her main achievement is pulling back the veil that stood between us and this system so we can now see what took place in the camps. It is a gruesome sight. After telling the rise of the colonial state and later, of nationalism and Mau Mau, in Chapters 1-2, Elkins picks up the pace with chapters on the screening of detainees and on the concept of detainee rehabilitation. Chapter 5, "The Birth of Britain's Gulag," is the epicenter of the book. Here, Elkins shows how in 1954, the detention system was transformed. In that year, at the end of Operation Anvil, a "Gestapolike" (p. 121) sweep of Nairobi, the "detainee population had risen to over fifty-two thousand-an increase of 2,500 percent" (p. 131). It would continue to rise, until its daily average running total was over 70,000-according to Elkins, making the total detained more than previously admitted by colonials. With Elkins's new timeline and demography, we are well-placed to see the camps' infrastructures in creation: the system of interrogation heavily assisted by torture; the indoctrination against Mau Mau, to produce a procolonial new citizen; forced labor; the deeds of specific British commandants and their loyalist allies; the detainees' self-governing committees and resistance, particularly their ingenious communication in oral "newspapers"; camp tactics to break "The Hard Core" (in impressive Chapter 7); the treatment of women in camps; the success at dividing detainees; and the everyday hardships, such as cooling water for drinking. With the spotlight on the camps, "Domestic Terror," Chapter 8, might get overlooked, because it deals with terror in the countryside, but it is a classic, informing us of oppressions visited randomly on rural folk: raids, confessional barazas, physical tortures, sexual assaults against women. …

Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya

This book underlines the importance of electoral losers rather than winners for understanding instability and conflict. It studies how voters react to losing and how losing affects their support for the political system, in established as well as in post-communist democracies. Through the use of survey data, the authors analyse losers’ attitudes and behaviours at the individual level in 40 countries. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they find that losers affect instability across a range of dimensions: losers are generally more critical towards the political system and the electoral process than winners and more so in new democracies than in old. Furthermore, if consistently excluded from power, citizens have diminished incentives to play by the rules and are more willing to radically change the rules of the game. Although filling a gap in comparative politics, Losers’ Consent suffers from two weaknesses. First, I miss an analysis of the role of the losing political elites. It is likely that the losing voters’ attitudes and behaviours are closely connected with the actions and reactions of the losing political elite. Second, the study would have gained from a discussion of different types of losers. Losers are defined as citizens voting for parties that, after elections, do not participate in government. But winning and losing is about more than who ends up in government. What about those who see themselves as electoral winners but are excluded from government, or when the winners of the presidential race become losers of the parliamentary game in semi-presidential systems? Despite these shortcomings, the book is highly readable and a significant contribution to understanding the impact of losers’ consent for securing democratic stability. Camilla Gjerde Anderson, David, 2005. Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire. New York: Norton. 406 pp. ISBN 039332754X.

Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire:

https://upjournals.co.za/index.php/GQ/article/download/1555/745

Gendered lives: communication, gender and culture.

The Culture of Politics in Modern Kenya

The African family is organized along gender relations that stem from patriarchy. Patriarchy manifests itself in socio-economic and cultural structures that present diverse gender conflicts. Cultural gender norms affect resource distribution and power relations in the family, thereby creating gender inequalities. Members with more access to resources have greater power and influence. Using the Resources Theory, this paper posits that family members with more access to resources have greater power; hence more influence. The African family has witnessed a gender paradigm shift. This has dire consequences for both men and women. It has improved women’s decision –making, thereby widening their autonomy. On the other hand, it has challenged the traditionally perceived male supremacy rendering men helpless and hopeless. By so doing, it has strained gender relations, thus marginalizing the family further. Using a baseline survey, this paper highlights the gender shift and its impact on the family in Kiambu, Kenya.

Gender Paradigm Shift within the Family Structure in Kiambu, Kenya

Background Infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19 and their mitigation measures can exacerbate underlying gender disparities, particularly among adolescents and young adults in densely populated urban settings. Methods An existing cohort of youth ages 16-26 in Nairobi, Kenya completed a phone-based survey in August-October 2020 (n = 1217), supplemented by virtual focus group discussions and interviews with youth and stakeholders, to examine economic, health, social, and safety experiences during COVID-19, and gender disparities therein. Results COVID-19 risk perception was high with a gender differential favoring young women (95.5% vs. 84.2%; p Implications Youth and young adults face gendered impacts of COVID-19, reflecting both underlying disparities and the pandemic's economic and social shock. Economic, health and technology-based supports must ensure equitable access for young women. Gender-responsive recovery efforts are necessary and must address the unique needs of youth.

Gendered health, economic, social and safety impact of COVID-19 on adolescents and young adults in Nairobi, Kenya.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Kenyan Constitution provide for the protection of children from all forms of harm, violence or abuse. Despite these legal provisions and efforts to reduce and eliminate violence against children, particularly girls, violence and abuse are still widespread at home, in schools, and in the community at large in Kenya. This study, therefore, examined the experience of school-related genderbased violence by primary school pupils in Kasarani District, Nairobi County, Kenya. Using both probability and non-probability techniques, 156 pupils and 8 teachers were sampled from 10 primary schools. Data were collected using questionnaires, interview guides and focus group discussion guides, and analyzed using qualitative techniques. The study results indicated that school-related gender-based violence is common in the schools covered by this study. About 9.6% of the respondents reported that they had been sexually assaulted at one time within the school environment. While 53% reported that they had experienced one form of psychological abuse or the other, 75% had suffered physical violence. The results further revealed a significant disparity in reporting patterns of each form of violence. For instance, reporting acts of sexual abuse was undermined by the fear of reprisals from the perpetrators. Cases of sexual abuse by teachers were also reported. The pupils who had experienced one form of violence or another reported that this had adverse effects on their learning experiences, their health and well being. This study concluded that there existed serious cases of violence in schools that went unreported or unnoticed owing to the skewed nature of the relationships between the pupils and the perpetrators. This study recommends that prompt measures need to be instituted through the Ministries of Health and Education to build the skills and confidence of the pupils to be able to report and appropriately respond to all forms of School-Based GBV perpetrated against them.

Experience of school - related gender - based violence by pupils and the culture of silence : A case of primary Schools in Kasarani District, Nairobi County , Kenya.

The article sets out to document the European interruption on Gikuyu beliefs and practices that are related to the soil (tiri). It highlights the Gikuyu worldview, their interconnectedness with land and the spiritual significance attached to it. It sets out on the premise that besides all colonial maneuvers, the inference with beliefs on tiri heightened Gikuyu anger, thereby increasing their resilience to fight the Europeans out of Kenya. It argues that the Gikuyu, being at the core of the liberation struggle from colonialism, interference with beliefs, customs, and rituals related to land and its social, economic, cultural and religious significance, was a strong catalyst in the Mau Mau struggle. In its methodology and design, it utilizes oral interviews, written documents, and archival records to give a critical analysis of Gikuyu religio-cultural beliefs and attitudes towards land/tiri. The article analyzes the Gikuyu myth of creation and how that influenced land acquisition, tenure, utilization, beliefs and rituals, observing that land was considered sacred especially its tangible concept tiri (soil). The Gikuyu viewed tiri as a sacred gift from Ngai that united the un-born, the living, the departed (dead), members of the community. Tiri was physically, economically, socially, and spiritually important as ancestors were buried in it, a phenomenon that maintained the metaphysical and unbroken link between the dead and the living. The article took the concept tiri and not necessarily land, to demonstrate how the interruption of beliefs and practices, of a people who are so attached to their land, caused a major revolt that climaxed with the Mau Mau struggle (1952-60). It concludes that tiri acted as a central unifying factor for liberation movements that inspired uMkonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) that waged guerrilla war against the apartheid regime, among others in Africa.

https://jumugajournal.org/index.php/jjeoshs/article/download/25/24

Tiri Concept and its Huge Significance in Africa’s Religio-Culture

Microcredit programs usually target poor rural women to reduce poverty and empower the women involved. The general body of existing research provides conflicting evidence, depending on context, pov...

Grace Wamue-Ngare

Papers

Gender Paradigm Shift within the Family Structure in Kiambu, Kenya

Gendered health, economic, social and safety impact of COVID-19 on adolescents and young adults in Nairobi, Kenya.

Experience of school - related gender - based violence by pupils and the culture of silence : A case of primary Schools in Kasarani District, Nairobi County , Kenya.

Tiri Concept and its Huge Significance in Africa’s Religio-Culture

Contextual Factors Which Affect the Success of Microcredit Programs Among Women