LLM Theses and Dissertations (2020)

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    Environmental regulatory approach of the upstream oil and gas emerging industry in Kenya - an appraisal of the polluter pays principle
    (Strathmore University, 2020-11) Bett, Victor Kiptoo
    The oil and gas (O&G) sector has been touted as being among the greatest lucrative natural resources in propelling Kenya’s economic growth.1 It is axiomatic that the O&G sector anywhere- whether in developed or developing countries brings with it succinct environmental and socio-economic challenges such as land, water and air pollution. This research is mainly concerned with the impact of upstream O&G operations with respect to the regulatory and conceptual underpinnings of the polluter-pays principle (PPP). This principle aims at preventing or otherwise remedying environmental damage through tort/delict liability leading to internalisation of costs; the costs are transferred from Governments to the actual ‘polluters.’2 Owing to the absence of sufficient sanctions in environmental laws and regulations (both regionally and internationally), it has proven difficult for the implementation of the PPP. This underscores the legal and economic importance and encumbrances associated with the upstream petroleum sector. Through historical, analytical and comparative study, this research examines the PPP’s application in upstream petroleum operations in Nigeria and in the United States of America (USA). The difference between these two countries is in the nature of laws and regulations enacted to protect the environment coupled with the institutional enforcement of these laws. While the legal regime in USA is a bit more proactive, dynamic and goal setting; Nigeria’s has conversely been static and largely prescriptive in approach. This will lead to an appraisal of the legal regulatory frameworks in the application of the PPP in curbing the anthropogenic impacts of O&G pollution and the responsibility of the ‘polluter’ thereto in relation to Kenya’s emerging O&G industry. Ultimately, a predisposition will be drawn for Kenya to properly apply the PPP in its O&G related regulatory frameworks by highlighting lessons learnt from Nigeria and USA in order to forester the attainment of both the social and ecological justice stance.
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    Enforcement of the Prudential Guideline no.13 (enforcement of banking laws and regulations-CBKPG13) by The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) a case study of Chase Bank (Now SBM) for the period before and after its being placed under statutory management
    (Strathmore University, 2020-12) Munge, Samuel Kiongera
    In 2006, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) issued the Guideline on Enforcement of Banking Laws and Regulations. The Guideline was subsequently replaced in 2013 by the Prudential Guidelines 2013. Included in Prudential Guidelines 2013 was the Enforcement of Banking Laws and Regulations as Prudential Guideline No.13 (CBK/PG/13). It was expected that with the issuance of the Prudential Guidelines 2013, the quality of the enforcement of banking laws and regulations would improve so as to ensure that banks did not fail. However, within a period of less than three years, the 3 banks were placed under statutory management. This study examines the enforcement of the Prudential Guideline No.13 by the CBK through a case study of Chase Bank (CB) by making a comparison between the period before and after its being placed under statutory management. This is achieved through making use of qualitative and quantitative data obtained through interviews, with the aid of questionnaires, and from the CBK’s Bank Supervision Annual Reports from the year 2008 to 2018. The study seeks to establish whether the difference in the two periods, the period before and after CB being placed under statutory management, could be attributed to the enforcement mechanisms employed by the CBK in the enforcement of Prudential Guideline No.13 or whether there are other factors responsible for the difference in the two periods, other than the enforcement mechanisms employed by the CBK in the enforcement of the Prudential Guideline No.13. It thereafter makes recommendations based on its findings.
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    Collateralization of intangible assets making - a case for micro, small and medium enterprises in Kenya
    (Strathmore University, 2020-11) Odhiambo, Eddy Ouma
    Kenya has seen regulatory reforms in the spirit of easing the cost of doing business by overhauling various statutes regulating commerce. Some of these statutes considered in this Thesis include the Companies Act, (Act No. 17 of 2015), Insolvency Act, (Act No. 18 of 2015), the Moveable Property Security Rights Act, (Act No. 13 of 2017), Banking Act, (Act No. 25 of 2016) and the Data Protection Act, (Act No. 24 of 2019). This overhaul of statutes has elevated Kenya in keeping pace with the global community, creating conducive environments for the modern credit market. The most significant reform in these statutes is the recognition of intangibles as commodities of trade. From the preamble of the Moveable Property Security Rights Act, 2017 it is clear that the statute addresses the mistrust between Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and formal financial institutions by creating a means of registering specific security rights in moveable property. However, despite the statutes being in place, there is need for a systemic shift towards alternatives to tangible collateral just like the market driven acceptance of mobile money. The similarities being that in both cases the collateral is intangible. A digital registry solves the dilemma of possession which makes tangible securities attractive by allowing identification, registration and publication of security rights so as to give notice to any participant in the credit market. This is the missing link which makes intangible collateral viable. In essence as secure digital registry unlocks credit flow to the starving MSMEs if embraced by the credit market.
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    Sentiment analysis model for detection of radicalization on twitter
    (Strathmore University, 2020) Oluoch, Emmanuel Olang'
    In the recent past, radical acts such as terrorist attacks on highly populated areas have become a major security issue in Kenya hence there is a constant fear of becoming a victim of violent acts perpetrated by individuals who are radicalized before carrying out such harmful acts. Current efforts by the security organs used to detect radicalization involve monitoring public communications channels, relying on information gathered from community policing, random suspect searches, and other intelligence services. However, these approaches have a set of drawbacks first being the manual human intervention needed in decision making even in cases where technology has been used to such as the use of web crawlers. In addition to this, automated text classification techniques rely on feature generation techniques that don't take into account the context of the text and that are also subjected to sparsity when classifying long texts. On the other hand, to grow membership numbers, radical groups use the public platforms offered by social media such as Twitter to disseminate radical ideologies and facilitate the recruitment of those who support such ideologies. In this study, I propose the use of sentiment analysis model to detect online radicalization. The model uses text classification using artificial neural networks to learn word relations within a corpus and generate corresponding features represented as lower-dimensional vectors. By using Continuous Bag of Words (CBOW) encoding and Word2Vec methods, tokens were represented as integers and an embedding of all corpus words was generated i.e trained to be used in one of the layers of the classifier’s neural network. Using the embeddings, labeled data instances, a four-layered recurrent neural network classifier was developed for text classification of radical and non-radical statements. The classifier then uses the pre-trained embeddings to refer corresponding vector values for tokens within the input padded sequence hence classify the new instance and return a rounded float value of 1 or 0 indicating a class. To train the model, I used pre-existing data of tweets collected from Twitter using keyword guides and also tested using data from the Kenyan setting. The model developed had an accuracy score of 95% after varying iterations of training, testing, and validation.
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    Islamic banking in Kenya: need for a regulatory framework compliant with principles of Sharia
    (Strathmore University, 2020) Simiyu, Chrispine Maondo
    Islamic banking has developed into a key component not just within the financial sector but also a major catalyst for growth of various world economies. The position in Kenya is no different, and the growth in Islamic banking over the last decade and its effect on the economy cannot be understated. As is the position with every sector, growth and development mostly supersede legislation and it is only after a product has been developed that suitable legislation, taking into account its characteristics is promulgated by the legislature, or policy developed by the regulator to not only govern but also ensure sustainability and protect consumers of the product. Islamic is no different, many countries including Kenya have embraced its operations in the last few years. This thesis looks at the growth of Islamic banking in Kenya and conducts an in depth examination of the existing institutional and regulatory frameworks impacting its operations in order to determine their responsiveness. The thesis thereafter details the various deficiencies existing both in the regulatory and institutional frameworks currently existing and as a result thereof makes a case for reform. The study illustrates that the operations of Islamic banking, which is fundamentally different in terms of ideology to that of conventional banking, are within the Kenyan content mostly undertaken through what is termed “a window of banking”. This is because the existing framework was designed with the conventional banking sector in mind. That being the position, for Islamic banks to offer certain financial products compliant with Sharia, they must obtain the consent of the Central Bank of Kenya since these products ordinarily fall within the category of prohibited business under the Banking Act. This consequently subjects them to a different type of treatment thereby disadvantaging their operations. This position is different to that of their competitors, the conventional banking sector for whom the regulatory framework was developed. Islamic banks are similarly subjected to the same institutional framework including supervision and dispute resolution without differentiation premised on its characteristics. The operations of institutions trading in Islamic banking products are mostly therefore variously curtailed, which fact has hindered introduction of other financial products in Kenya. The thesis identifies proposals necessary to align the existing framework to the principles of Sharia, and this is done through a case study of two economies, the UK and Malaysia which have greatly advanced on the field of regulation to ensure that the operations of Islamic banks are aligned to Sharia. The thesis traces the developments in the legislative and institutional frameworks in these two jurisdictions, including the deliberate action through policy and amendment of existing legislation in the case of the UK, and promulgation of specific legislation by Malaysia, and proposes a case for change including the incorporation of Sharia Advisory Boards and Sharia Committees to offer policy guidelines and ensure that institutions transacting in Islamic products do so in compliance with the principles of Sharia. The two institutions similarly offer policy that guides in dispute resolution. The findings of this thesis make it necessary for action to be taken by the legislature to amend the existing laws in a manner that integrates the operations of Islamic banking institutions to the current regulatory framework but in a Sharia compliant manner. The findings shall also guide the regulator in developing policy that takes into consideration the Sharia governance principle hence facilitating the operations of Islamic banks.