The performance of commercial banks in Kenya has been hindered by various internal and external factors. The fact that commercial banks have been facing challenges in respect of their financial performance necessitated the carrying out of this study. The general objective was to determine the influence of selected firm-level characteristics on financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya. In particular, the study examined the influence of the bank size, business scope on the financial performance of the commercial banks in Nakuru town. The study was guided by theory of firm scope and agency theory. A descriptive research design was adopted. The study used quantitative research approach. The target population included all the finance, accounts and the management staff working with the 28commercial banks in Nakuru. The 121finance, accounts and management staff working with the commercial banks in Nakuru town constituted the study population. A sample of 58 respondents was obtained using stratified random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was employed to facilitate data collection. The collected data was analyzed by using both descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences programme. Descriptive statistics encapsulated measures of distribution, measures of central tendencies, and measures of dispersion. The inferential statistics was employed Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multiple regressions. The results of the analyses were presented in form of tables. The study observed and adhered to the necessary ethics over the entire duration of the study. From the results the study established that there exists a strong positive and significant relationship between bank size and financial performance of commercial banks in Nakuru town. In addition the findings indicated that there exists a strong, positive and significant relationship between business scope and financial performance of commercial banks in Nakuru town. From the findings the researcher recommends that banks should subscribe to reliable internet providers for effective and efficient service delivery. The study further recommends that customers should be enlightened on the operation of agency banking in order to enhance their confidentiality. The researcher suggested that further studies should be conducted on business process re-engineering on financial performance of other financial institutions.

This study investigated spatial and temporal trends of rainfall and temperature in the Amboseli ecosystem of Kenya. The analysis were based on historical Climate Hazards group InfraRed Precipitation with Station (CHIRPs) and Climate Hazards group InfraRed Temperature with Station (CHIRTs) data for the period 1960-2014 and the period 2006-2100 for the projections. This data was used due to limitations in the observed station data. Projections of rainfall and temperature were based on Regional Climate Models (RCM) from Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) over the Amboseli ecosystem. The long-term annual and seasonal trends of rainfall and temperature were analyzed via Mann– Kendall’s statistical test and linear trend analysis. The annual and seasonal rainfall declined slightly between 1960 and 2014 though not significant. However the temperatures increased more in the annual minimum (1.23 °C) compared to the annual maximum (0.79 °C). The maximum temperatures for the October-November-December (OND) season had highest increases of 0.88 °C while the March-April-May (MAM) season showed an increase of 0.69 °C. The highest increase in minimum temperatures of 1.35 °C was recorded for the June-July-August-September season (JJAS), while the least increase was in MAM (1.04°C). Projected rainfall based on Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) for the periods 2006-2100 varied with RCP 2.6 showing a decline for the four seasons. RCP 4.5 and 8.5 project marginal increase in annual and OND with declines in the MAM and JJAS. Projected maximum and minimum temperature for RCP 2.6 indicate increments of less than 1 °C while for RCP 4.5 the maximum range is between 0.57 °C and 1.85 °Cand minimum is between 0.51 °C to 1.98 °C. RCP 8.5 projected maximum increase are the highest between 1.11°C and 4.34 °C and minimum is between 1.34 °C and 5.26 °C based on period – 2030, 2050 and 2070. The increase of temperatures and changes in rainfall can have large impacts on the resources in the savanna dry lands of East Africa especially on its livestock, agriculture, wildlife and pastoral and agro-pastoral communities.

Research on Tin Bismuth Sulphide (SnBiS2)(TBS) attracts a lot of interest due to its many applications. Chemical bath deposition (CBD) is a relatively inexpensive, simple and convenient technique for large area deposition of thin films at low temperatures. CBD emerges as an excellent technique for elaboration of several semiconductor thin films. The chemical bath solution was obtained by preparing 20ml of 0.5M stannum chloride (SnCl2), 20 ml of 0.5M of Zinc chloride solution with 5ml of Triethanolamine (TEA) (N(CH2CH2OH)3) and 20ml of 0.5M of Thiourea was added into 100ml beaker, NaOH(aq) which was added until a pH of 10 and temperature of the mixture was monitored with the aid of Mettler Toledo AG 8603 pH meter. And, 30ml of distilled water was added into the solution to make final volume of 100ml in the beaker. The mixture was gently stirred at the temperature to obtain a homogenous solution. Finally, the substrates were immersed into the precursor and deposit for 4hrs at about 70oC. The substrates were removed, rinsed with distilled water and allow to dry in air after the deposition. Three of the samples were annealed at 250 oC, 300 oC and 350 oC in an electric furnace. The reflectance graphs of TBS thin films revealed that average reflectance was below 28% for all films. TBS annealed at 350 0C thin films had the greatest reflectance of about 27% than all other films. This made the thin film to be a good material in being the window layer part of the solar cell. From the reflectance spectra, discontinuities were observed at wavelength above 900 nm. All TBS films demonstrated transmittance above 50% for wavelength above 800 nm. Below 800 nm there was a fall in the percentage transmittance of the films, an indication of a strong increase in absorption. The optimized transmittance at λ=900 nm was found to be 60%. TBS films have good absorption at short wavelength region, the absorption decreased with increasing wavelength of solar radiation. The extrapolated band gaps energy values for TBS thin films varies from the range of 3.82 to 3.91 eV. The resistivity increased with increase in heat treatment and it ranged between 5.48 × 106 Ωm and 3.05 × 106 Ωm. The thin films deposited through chemical bath deposition technique (CBD) were found to have high absorbance in UV-VIS regions while the films absorbance increases as the thickness increased, thus they could be find applications in solar radiation absorbers for solar cell applications. The high band gap properties indicate that the films can be used as a window layer in the fabrication of thin film hetero-junction solar cell and other optoelectronic devices. The low reflectance properties make them good materials for antireflection coatings, solar cell absorbers, thermal control and photosynthetic coatings.

Dryland landscapes experiences greater challenges in the regional and international trade for livestock and livestock products due to systems of production, quality control and safety measures. The objective of this study was to characterize livestock food system in Isiolo County and evaluate factors that affect the sustainability of the systems. The main value chains identified were camel milk, beef, sheep and goat products. The food system is driven by domestic trade which face greater threats to suffice sustenance in livestock and livestock products trade due to weak market integration and poor access to regional and international markets. Weak institutional coordination, insecurity and persistent droughts were notable barriers to sustainability of livestock food system in Isiolo County. Environmental degradation accruing from climate related risks and other stressors of biodiversity are also major threats to sustainable livestock production, hence affecting this livelihood system.