Browsing by Author "Aloyo, Paul"

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    Disparities in Access to Public Open Spaces for Children in Nairobi City, Kenya
    (Public Administration and Governance Research Journal, 2025) Okubo, Everlyne Amile; Mireri, Caleb; Aloyo, Paul
    Public open spaces are essential for children’s health, learning, and social interaction, yet their provision and quality remain uneven in rapidly urbanising cities. This study examines disparities in the availability, safety, and usability of public open spaces for children in Nairobi, Kenya. The study sampled three Nairobi neighbourhoods to represent different socioeconomic contexts: high-income (Loresho), middle-income (Nairobi West), and low-income (Kibera). A mixed-methods approach included surveys, FGDs, KIIs, field observations, and spatial analysis, engaging 417 respondents (198 children, 61 parents, 158 other open space users). Purposive sampling identified key institutions based on their relevance, including Nairobi City departments (Talents, Skills Development and Care; Green Nairobi; Built Environment and Urban Planning), sports subcounty officers, ward managers and local user groups. Results show that all three areas fall far below the World Health Organization benchmark of 9 m² of open space per capita. Provision is lowest in Kibera and Nairobi West, where population density, poverty, poor infrastructure, and weak enforcement of planning laws limit access. Safety risks include overcrowding, poor lighting, lack of fencing, proximity to traffic, and encroachment of informal activities. Usability is further reduced by poor maintenance, competition from organised groups, and the exclusion of children from available facilities. In Loresho neighbourhood, private amenities compensate for the limited public open spaces but do not eliminate exclusion. These disparities constrain physical activity and social development, particularly for children in the low-income areas, and highlight gaps in urban policy implementation. The paper calls for stronger planning, investment, and management to create equitable, safe, and inclusive open spaces, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 11.7 and Kenya’s Vision 2030.
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    Governance And Functionality of Children’s Public Open Spaces in Nairobi City
    (International Academic Journal of Arts and Humanities, 2025-06) Okubo, Everlyne Amile; Mireri, Caleb; Aloyo, Paul
    Public open spaces (POS) are important for children’s physical, social, and cognitive development. In rapidly urbanising cities such as Nairobi, access to safe and functional open spaces is uneven among neighbourhoods. This study examines how governance influences the availability, safety, and usability of public open spaces for children, using political ecology theory to explain disparities across neighbourhoods. The study sampled three neighbourhoods in Nairobi City to represent different socioeconomic contexts: high-income (Lavington), middle-income (Buruburu), and low-income (Huruma). A mixedmethods approach included surveys, FGDs, KIIs, field observations, and spatial analysis, engaging 444 respondents (208 children, 70 parents, 166 other open space users). Purposive sampling was used to sampled key institutions based on their relevance, including Nairobi City departments (Talents, Skills Development and Care; Green Nairobi; Built Environment and Urban Planning), sports subcounty officers, ward managers and local user groups. The findings of this study show that functionality of POS depends more on governance and financing than on the presence of physical infrastructure. In Huruma informal settlement and Buruburu neighbourhood, informal volunteer-based governance, irregular funding, lack of recurrent budgets, and absence of structured participation result in unsafe, poorly maintained, and unattractive spaces. Children reported broken play equipment, lack of supervision, and exclusion from decision-making. Parents cited safety risks as a major reason for discouraging unsupervised play. In contrast, Jaffrey Sports Club in Lavington, managed by a trained team with sustained financing and structured user engagement, provided safe, clean, and engaging environments. The findings of this study demonstrate that unequal governance and resource allocation produce disparities in children’s public open spaces. Without reforms to funding and participatory planning, these disparities will worsen, increasing the likelihood of obesity among children and limiting progress toward SDG 11.7 and equitable urban development
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    The relationship between physical environment and academic achievement in public secondary schools in Nairobi city, Kenya
    (2015-09) Aloyo, Paul
    Does the settings where learning occurs matter? Research in North America and Western Europe shows that learning outcomes are hampered in physical environments where extreme climatic conditions are experienced.The settings and climatic conditions differ significantly in Sub-Saharan Africa as they are not as extreme. In fact leading rresearchers in Kenya offer mixed signals on the role of the school environment on achievement. This study sought to contribute to factors that explain learning achievement from the perspective of an architect planner rather than the predominant descriptive educationist viewpoint. The objectives of the study were to examine the quality of the physical school environment, establish academic achievement among form four students and explore the relationship between the school physical environment and student achievement. The study adopted the case study research design. Public secondary schools were stratified into boys, girls and mixed categories. These were further stratified along eight geopolitical divisions in Nairobi County. Schools were proportionally allocated to the divisions. Systematic and simple random sampling techniques were employed to select the 36 schools investigated by the study. A revised Commonwealth Association of Physical Environment questionnaire, an interview schedule and an observation schedule revealed that the overall average quality of mixed schools’ index of 126 was lower than that of boys’ and girls’ schools. The indices for boys’ and girls’ schools were both equal to 134. In the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education results of 2011, girls recorded the best performance with a mean grade score of 51.9, followed by boys’ and mixed schools with scores of 46.2 and 31.2 respectively. The extent to which the environment influenced the test scores, Pearson’s r, revealed a positive correlation between the school environment and student achievement; r = 0.370, n = 35, p = 0.029. Analysis of variance tests indicated that the impact of the internal environment and facilities on student achievement differed among boys’, girls’ and mixed schools; F (2, 7) = 4.178, p = 0.042. The correlation and multiple regressions computed identified the key predictor variables of achievement as size in acreage of the school, availability of a title deed, aesthetics, security, school grounds, type of lighting, paintwork to interior walls, graffiti occurrence, classroom furniture condition and noise from the neighbourhood. The study concluded that school physical environment contributes to student achievement. The task of improving school facilities from the foregoing results was noted. Focus is recommended on putting in place measures to upgrade old facilities, improve school grounds and control development around educational facilities.