Background: A lot of emphasis is often placed on modern governance systems and little or no attention is given to traditional governance practices which remain largely undocumented. The study aimed at finding out important traditional and modern governance practices that regulate traditional medicine sector in Western Kenya. Materials and methods: The study was carried out in selected market centres of Western Kenya where the identified traditional medicine practitioners (TMPs) sell their traditional medicine. All consenting TMPs and professional experts were interviewed with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire. Purposive sampling design with elements of snowball techniques was employed in tracing competent traditional medicine (TM) experts and relevant professional experts. The data collected was processed in Microsoft Excel and descriptive statistics performed. Pearson's chi-square statistics was carried out to determine the significance of the traditional and modern governance data sets using the STATA software. Results: Modern governance practices were not significantly different in all the market centres surveyed (p = 0.080). Equally, the traditional governance practices were also not significantly different in all the selected market centres (p = 1.000). Conclusions: Traditional governance practices play an important role in the governance of traditional medicine and are shaped by the socio-cultural beliefs of the local communities. Modern governance practices, on the other hand, are widely perceived as top downregulation of the traditional medicine growing industry.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a broad process that emerged from the National Environment Policy Act, 1970 in the U.S. Its primary objective is to generate information on the likely impacts of a project on all aspects of the environment and used in agency decision making and in the long run protect the environment and achieve sustainable development. EIA practice in Uganda was formally established through the National Environment Act, 1995 and now in practice for over 25 years. However, there is increasing level of water pollution especially Lake Victoria, rivers, streams, aquifers and soils. This research reviewed the institutional, legal and regulatory framework for EIA, related literature and EIA documents especially EIA reports and conducted key EIA stakeholders survey using questionnaires to identify capacity and practice issues. The results revealed that, there was gap between law and practice arising from inadequate and ineffective public participation, weak follow-up, low key stakeholder's capacity, political interference, lack of SEA practice and not embracing EIA in a transboundary context. However, there is fairly good and comprehensive institutional, legislative and regulatory framework for EIA, good local governance structures, adequate staffing, robust national planning framework, active non-state actors and regional groupings. In order to maximize the potential of EIA as a means for achieving the SDGs, we recommended measures to address the challenges facing the EIA practice as well as utilize the existing opportunities within the context in which EIA is applied.

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Solid waste management is no longer a non-priority issue anymore as improper waste disposal will lead to public and environmental health crisis as well as economic loss. Many nations that are developed have achieved considerable success in management of solid waste but the case is different for the developing countries as they are still grappling with issue of waste. Hence in order to bridge this gap this study calls for prioritizing and adoption of the right attitude towards proper solid waste management for the Nairobi City County. The study was conducted in order to assess residents' knowledge and attitude on solid waste management in Eastleigh South Ward, Kamukunji Sub-county in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The study evaluated and documented resident's knowledge and attitude on the types of waste generated, pre-disposal storage, management needs and associated environmental problems. The assessment employed semi-structured questionnaires with open-ended and closed questions, interviews and observations to gather information on resident's knowledge and attitude on solid waste management. The study findings indicated that residents had sufficient knowledge on solid waste management mainly on the type of waste generated at household level and environmental problems posed by poor waste management with the main source of information being from County workers. Despite the resident's knowledge, their attitude was found to be poor, more so in taking up solid waste management as part of their responsibility. About 63.6% of the respondents indicated that waste was fairly well managed with 19.5% finding it poorly managed. The findings of the study concluded that the residents had a good knowledge but poor attitude towards solid waste management. The study recommends that the County Government should organise regular clean-up exercises involving the residents as well as enforcing existing waste management rules and regulations. A sustained campaign should be mounted on the

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The twin goals of participatory forest management as adopted by many developing countries are to foster sustainable forest management and to reduce poverty. In Kenya, various legal and policy reforms have been introduced and attempts have been made to devolve use and forest management rights to local communities. It remains debatable whether communities' participation has yielded the intended improvements in livelihood and good governance. It would be no exaggeration to say that the study of forests and rural community livelihoods has been central to the development of scholarship on impacts of PFM on livelihoods. Equally certainly, the interest in forests has generated a need to consider the same in the light of urban forestry. This study based on participatory forest management program (PFM) in Ngong' Road forest in Nairobi City County and Kiptuget in Baringo County Kenya was conducted with the aims of establishing factors motivating members' participation and identifying and describing the conservation and income generating activities undertaken and their effects on members livelihoods. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected through questionnaires, interview of key informants, focus group discussions and literature reviews. The results show that in both NRFA and KICOFA, factors related to perceived benefits in terms of economic, social, factors, forest products and services, appreciation of nature and conservation were motivations for participation. Further, the study realized that despite the fact that both CFAs had an array of IGAs aimed at supplementing their livelihoods and easing pressure on the forest, NRFA had made more significant progress in terms of realizing these activities as compared to KICOFA. It was further realized that though there was a general similar trend in terms of average earning from engaging in PFM, the study noted that in both KICOFA and NRFA, averagely 50% of the members were satisfied with the benefits. It was further observed that majority of members both in KICOFA and NRFA indicated that PFM has had large positive impact on their livelihood and thus their household were in a better position that before joining the CFA.

Challenges to water access are characterized by ineffective water institutions in Upper Ewaso Ng’iro North River basin. The inability of policies to create trust and equity for sustainable water access is critical despite institutional reforms undertaken over the years. The impact of scarcity and limitations noted are more pronounced in upstream downstream landscape breeding a sense of dissatisfaction and perception of inequality among water users and stakeholders. Study adopted a mixed methods with data collection tools used were; desktop analysis, field visits and discussions, structured questionnaires, Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions. Interviews with 384 randomly selected households were conducted and data analyzed using descriptive statistics. Theory of Access informed the study. The findings showed that rivers and boreholes are the main water sources in the sub-basin. Consequences of the unsatisfactory state of water access attributed to weak water governance policies and water management institutions. Lack of trust among water users remains latent easily triggered by scarcity and political-economic and social disruptions during severe droughts. The study’s recommendations are the development of effective communication mechanisms to share information, adherence to regulations, and government to implement current and past reforms to mitigate constraints to water access.