Consequences of HIV and AIDS are exponential in Kenya, touching not only the health of those infected, but also depleting socioeconomic resources of entire families. Access to financial services is one of the important ways to protect and build economic resources. Unfortunately, the norm of financial viability discourages microfinance institutions from targeting people severely impacted by HIV and AIDS. Thus, HIV and AIDS service NGOs have been increasingly getting involved in microcredit activity in recent years for economic empowerment of their clients. Despite limited human resources and funding in the area of microcredit activity, these NGOs have demonstrated that nearly 50% of their microcredit beneficiaries invested money in income-generating activities, resulting in enhancement to their livelihood security. In the short term these NGOs need to improve their current practices. However, this does not mean launching microfinance initiatives within their AIDS-focused programmes, as financial services are best provided by specialised institutions. Longer-term cooperation between microfinance institutions and other AIDS service organisations and donors is necessary to muster appropriate and rapid responses in areas experiencing severe impacts of HIV and AIDS. Keywords: Microcredit, HIV and AIDS, Kenya. RésuméLes conséquences du VIH/SIDA sont exponentielles au Kenya, ne touchent pas seulement la santé des infectés, mais aussi réduissent les ressources socio-économiques de la famille entière. L'accès aux services financiers est la manière la plus importante de protéger et de bâtir leurs ressources économiques. Malheureusement, la norme de la viabilité financière décourage les établissements microfinances à viser des personnes sévèrement atteintes de VIH/SIDA. De ce fait, les ONG de service sont de plus en plus impliqués dans l'activité de microcrédit depuis les années récentes avec le but d'autonomiser leurs malades. En dépit de ressources humaines limitées et le financement du domaine de microcrédit, ces ONG ont démontré qu'à peu près 50% de bénéficiers ont investi l'argent dans des activités à profit ce qui, par la suite, améliore la sécurité de leur gagne-pain. A court terme, ces ONG doivent améliorer leurs coutumes actuelles. Cependant, cela ne veut pas dire lancer des initiatives de microfinance à l'intérieure de leur programme visant le SIDA. Les établissements spécialisés sont les mieux placés à fournir des services financiers. De ce fait, une coopération à long-terme entre les établissements de microfinance, d'autres organisations de service de SIDA et les donateurs est nécessaire afin de rassembler des réponses appropriées et rapides dans des régions sévèrement atteintes de VIH/SIDA.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to establish how operational risk management strategies lead to growth of MFI sector in Kenya.Methodology: The study adopted a correlation survey research design. The population of this study was fifty seven (57) MFIs. The sampling frame was the list of MFIs provided in the AMFI website www.amfikenya.com. A sample of thirteen (17) MFIs was selected using the random sampling approach. A questionnaire and an interview schedule were the main data collection tools. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis whereas the quantitative data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) where descriptive and regression analysis were conducted to determine the relationship between enterprise risk management strategies and growth of MFIs.Findings: Findings revealed that the MFI had adequate policies and procedures to manage its operational risks and the MFI had an operations manual. The findings also indicated that the MFIs have adhered to written policies and procedures to manage operational risks in the financial operations area, procurement area, treasury area, and financial management area. Results further indicated that the MFI had effective internal control systems for detecting fraud or other significant operational risks. Finally the study findings indicated that MFI’s internal audit functions ensured effective use of resources, accurate financial reporting, and ample random spot checks of MFI branches, clients, and staff. The regression results indicated that there was a positive relationship between operational risk management strategies and MFI growth.Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommends that the MFIs to continue practicing effective operational risk management practices such as internal control framework comprising of policies and procedures. MFIs need to uphold the existence and accessibility of operational manuals. It is suggested that adherence to written policies and procedures is positive strategy and it should be emphasized.  The internal audit functions for effective use of resources and accurate financial reporting needs to be emphasized as it had a positive effect on growth. The MFIs should also benchmark their technology with that of banks to reduce human error, to produce timely and relevant data. It is recommended that implementation of know your client (KYC) requirements should be enhanced as it has an effect on growth.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate how financial risk management strategies lead to growth of MFI sector in Kenya.Methodology: The study adopted a correlation survey research design. The population of this study was fifty seven (57) MFIs. The sampling frame was the list of MFIs provided in the AMFI website www.amfikenya.com. A sample of thirteen (17) MFIs was selected using the random sampling approach. A questionnaire and an interview schedule were the main data collection tools. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis whereas the quantitative data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) where descriptive and regression analysis were conducted to determine the relationship between enterprise risk management strategies and growth of MFIs.Findings: The findings indicated that MFIs had effective financial risk management strategies such as effective credit risk management practices, liquidity risk management practices, interest risk management practices and price risk management practices. In particular, MFIs took into consideration the conditions, characters, capacity, collateral and capital of borrowers. Strict debt collection practices were widely adopted by MFIs. In addition, the concept of Know Your Customer (KYC) policy, seem to have been adopted by MFIs. The relationship between financial risk management strategies and growth was positive and significant. It also shown that sources of funds for MFIs include external sources and internal sources and the most frequently used source of funds are bank loans. The use of banks loans may present various risk exposures to MFIs, the most significant being interest rate risk. However, the ability of MFIs to source funds from various sources indicates that MFIs can apply the pecking order by first exploiting internal sources of funds since they present a lower financial risks and then move on to external sources. However, despite the financial risk exposure accompanied by leverage from external sources, MFIs may also benefit as they may experience higher growth driven by the leverage. It was also found that MFIs had put in place a number of good practices that had emerged to promote responsible and inclusive lending. These include loan size limits, standardized (simple) loan terms, zero tolerance on delinquency, group-based lending. This finding implies that MFIs have put in place effective credit risk management policies which are part of an overall financial risk management strategy. The existence of effective financial risk management practices may have influenced the growth of MFIsUnique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommends that the MFIs to continue practicing effective financial management practices as this would improve the growth of MFIs.

Background: The current global epidemic of overweight and obesity contributes significantly to disease burden through mortality and morbidity. This study aimed at estimating the burden of overweight and obesity among hypertensive and diabetic patients. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of medical records at the medical outpatient clinic at Consolata Hospital, Meru County. Records with complete demographic information, specified diagnosis, Body Mass Index (BMI) recorded at least once in the previous three visits were eligible for inclusion. Records for patients below 18 years and above 69 years were excluded. The data was then cleaned in Ms-Excel and analyzed using Statistical Package for Descriptive and differential statistics were calculated. Results: A total of 350 records were eligible; mean age 58.2 years (56.8-59.6) while 67% were female. Hypertension was present in 49% of the study subjects, 36% had type 2 diabetes while the rest had both conditions co-existing. The mean BMI overall was 26.6kg/m 2 (24.5-27.2) . Females had a higher mean BMI by 0.95kg/m 2 (95% C.I, -2.07-0.16, P=0.093). Overall, 54% of males had a BMI of 25-29kg/m 2 while 18% had a BMI of 30kg/m 2 and above. This is compared to 59% and 26% of the females, respectively. Conclusion: Overweight and obesity is highly prevalent in this population of hypertensive and/or type 2 diabetic patients. Weight management needs to be integrated in the package of care for these patients.

This paper examines the viability and effectiveness of a pilot farming initiative in reversing impacts of HIV/AIDS on the most affected households in Homa Bay, Kenya. The paper argues that once patients are stable, they can effectively be engaged in farming with minimal financial and technical support, resulting in enhanced food security of the affected households. More importantly, it helps to reduce HIV/AIDS-related stigma and improve the individual's self-esteem. Some of the key challenges of the pilot initiative were the limited number of agricultural extension workers and absence of facilities to enable them to deliver services to the farmers, the high cost of farm inputs, the unavailability of farm inputs when they were needed, poorly developed agricultural markets, and the absence of irrigation facilities. The paper recommends the sensitive scaling-up of this approach. However, farming initiatives by HIV/AIDS service NGOs should be linked to at least three key aspects: (a) treatment, care and support to HIV/AIDS affected households; (b) micro grant schemes or subsidies to enable farmers to purchase farming tools and farm inputs; and (c) comprehensive on-farm training support. To ensure effectiveness and wider reach, government needs to view agriculture through an HIV lens and promote a multisectoral approach that recognises the relationship between HIV/AIDS and food security. A number of immediate actions are required to strengthen this relationship, such as increased public investment to augment extension services, subsidise farm inputs, and develop infrastructure including agricultural markets.