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The Effect of Branchless Banking Strategy on the Financial Performance of Commercial Banks in Kenya
(2017-10-17) Dzombo , Gift Kimonge; Kilika, James M; Maingi, James
The Banking sector acts as the life blood of modern trade and economic development. Commercial banks influence,
facilitate and integrate the economic activities like resources mobilization, poverty elimination, production, and
distribution of public finance. The financial performance of commercial banks has great implications in the financial
sector and in the country at large, and will still remain an important subject of concern by all the stakeholders in the
banking industry. In the last two decades, a lot of banking innovation has taken place in order to improve commercial
banks financial performance. Branchless banking which involves the use of agency banking and electronic banking
channels in the distribution of banking products and services is one such innovation. This study purpose was to
evaluate the effect of branchless banking on the financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya. The specific
objectives of the study were to analyze the individual effects of agency banking and electronic banking channels on
the financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya and the combined effect of both agency and electronic
banking on the financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya. The study adopted an exploratory research
design. A survey of all the 42 licensed commercial banks in Kenya was done. Both primary and secondary data on
branchless banking and financial performance of banks was obtained from the individual commercial banks, Central
Bank of Kenya banking annual supervision reports respectively. Return on Assets (ROA) was used as the main
indicator of commercial banks financial performance. The amount of investment in agency and electronic banking
was used as indicator for agency and electronic banking. Data analysis was done using SPSS and STATA statistical
softwares. Descriptive statistics, diagnostic tests and tests of hypothesis were done. Data was presented using tables
and charts. Study findings indicated that when used in isolation; both agency and electronic banking had a significant
negative effect on the financial performance of commercial banks at 5 percent significance level. However, when
agency and electronic banking channels were used together as a multichannel strategy, they had a significant positive
effect on bank’s financial performance at 5 percent significance level. The study recommends that for positive
returns, commercial banks should invest in both agency and electronic banking as a multichannel strategy since these
channels are complimentary to each other.
Beliefs and Practices of the Kenya Roho Msalaba Church in Rachuonyo South and East Sub Counties, Homabay County, Kenya
(CEDRED, 2025-05) Ariemba,Susan Kemunto; Mwaura, Philomena; Gathogo, Julius
The study explored the beliefs, practices and community engagement of the Kenya Roho Msalaba Church (KRMC), an African Instituted Church (AIC) in Rachuonyo South and East sub-counties, Homabay County, Kenya, highlighting its role in blending Christian theology with African cultural practices. Emerging as a response to the cultural insensitivity of missionary Christianity, AICs like the KRMC emphasize pneumatology, healing and eschatological beliefs, fostering a unique religious identity that addresses spiritual and social. Guided by objectives that assessed the major beliefs and practices of the KRMC in Rachuonyo South and East sub-counties, Homabay County, examined the historical development of the KRMC within the context of the Roho movement in Kenya and explored the KRMC’s engagement with formal education affecting community development, the study drew on the theory by Turner (1967). A qualitative case study design, employing triangulation was used to collect data from n=228 respondents across three KRMC branches. Findings revealed that the KRMC’s Christocentric theology of adherents affirmed Jesus Christ’s centrality and its pneumatological focus emphasizing the Holy Spirit, drive practices like speaking in tongues, healing and vernacular worship, aligning with broader AIC trends. The church’s rejection of ancestral veneration and polygamy distinguishes it from some AICs, reflecting a selective cultural integration rooted in biblical principles. Historically, the KRMC, established in 2003, builds on the Roho movement’s legacy of spiritual autonomy, adapting to modern challenges while maintaining cultural resonance. Its engagement with formal education supports community development, though patriarchal gender dynamics limit women’s leadership roles. The study recommends on theological training to mitigate risks of misinterpretation and greater inclusion of women in leadership to enhance church growth, ensuring the KRMC’s continued relevance in addressing contemporary societal pressures like globalization and gender equality
Types of Cohesive Devices in the Written Texts of Learners of English in Selected Secondary Schools in West Pokot County, Kenya
(CEDRED, 2025-06) Odari, Geoffrey; Kebeya, Hilda
This paper examines written texts from 40 form four secondary school students in West Pokot County with a view to determining the types of cohesive devices used. Written texts can only be meaningful when they are coherent. To achieve coherence, writers must select the most appropriate cohesive devices. Despite the significant effort made by teachers of English in equipping learners with a variety of cohesive tools, many students still struggle to apply the knowledge learnt in the classroom in their written work. Consequently, written texts from many learners of English lack coherence hence, a need for targeted educational interventions. Using stratified random sampling, the study sampled 40 Form Four students from four different school clusters, namely national, extra-county, county, and sub-county schools. Data collection involved essay writing to assess students' knowledge and application of cohesive devices. Halliday and Hasan's (1976) Model of Cohesion provided the theoretical background for this study. The model categorizes grammatical coherence into four major classes: Reference, Substitution, Ellipsis, and Conjunction. This article focuses on Conjunctions. There are four types of conjunctions namely, Additive, Adversative, Causal and Temporal. Additive Conjunctions are sub-categorized into 5 typologies (Simple, Complex Emphatic, Complex De-Emphatic, Appositional and Comparison). This study sought to find out to what extent these five types of additive conjunctions are used in the written texts of form four students in West Pokot County. Our results demonstrate that only one type of additive (Simple) is popular with students from the four school clusters (i.e. national, extra-county, county, and sub-county). The other four advanced types of Additive Conjunctions are rarely used by students in West Pokot County, probably because they lack mastery in them. We recommend that teachers and curriculum developers should put more emphasis on these four types of additive conjunctions, when it comes to the teaching of cohesive devices. This will aid in making students’ written texts more coherent thus enhancing their communication skills in the English language
A Hybrid Model for Detecting Insurance Fraud Using K Means and Support Vector Machine Algorithms
(Kenyatta University, 2024-10) Muthura, Brian Ndirangu
Medical insurance fraud is a significant issue in the healthcare sector, commonly characterized by fraud patterns such as misrepresentation of services, false claims, and identity theft. These patterns contribute to severe data class imbalances, with legitimate claims vastly outnumbering fraudulent ones, complicating effective detection. Current fraud detection methods struggle to address these evolving patterns and manage imbalanced datasets. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, integrating an extensive literature review with quantitative analysis of historical medical claims data. The research develops and evaluates four machine learning models: a standalone Support Vector Machine (SVM), a tuned SVM, a hybrid model combining K-Means clustering with SVM, and a tuned hybrid model. The models were compared using key metrics, including accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score. Results show that the tuned hybrid model achieved the highest performance with an accuracy of 97.49%, demonstrating its superior ability to detect fraudulent claims compared to the standalone and default hybrid models. Future work will focus on further improving the computational efficiency of the hybrid model and exploring its adaptability to new and evolving fraud patterns in real-time environments. This research significantly advances fraud detection by offering a robust solution that tackles class imbalances and adapts to evolving fraud schemes
An Overview of Current Status of Kenyan Fish Feed Industry and Feed Management Practices, Challenges and Opportunities
(International Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Studies, 2013) Mbonge, Jonathan; Musa, Munguti Safina; Orina, Paul S; Kyule, Domitila N; Opiyo, Mary A; Charo-Karisa, Harrison; Ogello, Erick Ochieng
The profitability of commercial fish farming operation is of paramount importance to all farmers. However,
farmers must have access to well-balanced and cost effective feeds coupled with optimal on-farm feed
management practices as a prerequisite to profitable production. This paper presents an audit of the current
status of the Kenyan fish feed industry and on-farm feed management practices including opportunities and
constraints from the fish farmer’s perspective. The Kenyan fish feed industry has been boosted with the
development of fish feed standards, which is expected to ensure quality fish feeds for all farmers. Much of
the aquafeeds used in Kenya are either produced on-farm or by small-scale semi-commercial feed
manufacturers, and improvements to the quality and preparation of these feeds are likely to bring about
improved productivity and cost savings. Since feed management practices significantly impacts the
economic performance of production systems, adopting appropriate feed management strategies is
instrumental to maximize returns. In a few instances, innovative farmers have reported developing their own
feeding strategies such as spreading feeds at fixed points at same time daily, bag and restrictive feeding
techniques, break feeding schedules and promoting natural pond productivity. Provision of species-specific
feeds addressing the nutritional requirements of the different life stages of fish is still an issue. Other
challenges include inadequate access to finance, a lack of technical innovations, absence of feed formulation
and processing knowledge and poor feed handling and storage techniques. The potential to develop public private partnerships with farmer groups to improve access to information should be considered. Programs
that use the local media to provide farmers with extension messages must be encouraged. The government
should frequently carry out spot checks on feeds supplied to Agrovets to ascertain its quality. Fish farmers
should also be trained on feed formulation, transportation and storage to maintain a constant feed supply and
save on costs