Kibabii University

The Cloud Area Fraction (CAF) and Cloud Radiative Effect (CRE) are among the key metrics for understanding Earth’s climate, as they modulate shortwave and longwave radiation. This study, therefore, analyzes the vertical distribution of CAF and their associated CRE over East Africa (EA) using the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications Version (MERRA-2) reanalysis and Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) observational data from 2000 to 2025. The vertical CAFs for low, middle, and high clouds are computed at pressure levels and spatially averaged over EA. These are used to derive shortwave CRE ( CRE_SW in Wm− 2), longwave CRE ( CRE_LW in Wm− 2), and net CRE (in Wm− 2) from all-sky and clear-sky radiative fluxes. The validation of MERRA-2 CAF against CERES observations showed it to be reliable (r = 0.749), supporting its use for analyzing cloud-radiation patterns, including vertical cloud distribution. The study of vertical CAF and CRE over EA using MERRA-2 reveals a strongly stratified cloud climatology shaped by topography, lake impacts, and large-scale circulation. The vertical CAFs at Low, mid, and high clouds show distinct spatial and temporal patterns, with high clouds intensifying the most with more than 60 ∼ 0.256), while the contribution of the low CAF against the total covers ∼ 18 ∼ 0. 076) is the least. Further, the spatiotemporal CRE is dominated by shortwave cooling, ranging from − 14.71 to -54.36 W m−2, which moderates regional temperatures. Cloud layers interact to influence rainfall: low clouds enhance local convection, mid clouds regulate moisture transport, and high clouds mark mature convective systems. This collectively reinforces EA’s bimodal rainfall pattern and highlights the critical role of clouds in regional climate dynamics. This study recommends future analyses that integrate long-term model outputs with satellite and ground-based observations to validate cloud patterns. Such emphasis should focus on the CREs of low, middle, and high clouds, their links to rainfall, and model uncertainties to improve understanding of the role of cloud dynamics over EA’s climate. The satellite map of East Africa is presented in the geographical abstract, with key features including Lake Victoria, the highlands of central Kenya and northern Tanzania, and the lowland coastal plains along the Indian Ocean. The graphical abstract highlights that the study focuses on the comprehensive use of MERRA-2 reanalysis and CERES datasets of Cloud Area Fraction (CAF) and Cloud Radiative Effect (CRE) to assess vertical cloud stratification and cloud-radiation interactions over East Africa. The analysis captures both the spatial and temporal evolution of cloud characteristics, recognizing their fundamental role in regulating the Earth’s radiation budget through vertical structure and radiative interactions. Spatial patterns reveal marked regional heterogeneity with enhanced cloud coverage over the study region. Further, distinct variations in radiative impacts are observed with cloud altitude, where low-level clouds predominantly contribute to shortwave radiative cooling. In contrast, high-level clouds exhibit a mixed radiative influence due to competing longwave warming and shortwave reflection effects. The analyses and further discussion on cloud-radiation interactions demonstrate pronounced vertical variability in both CAF and CRE, emphasizing the outsized role of high clouds in modulating the regional energy balance. CAF shows vertically structured variability driven by topography, lake effects, and seasonal ITCZ migration. Cloud occurrence increases at all levels, with the strongest intensification in high clouds due to enhanced convection. CRE is dominated by shortwave cooling, peaking during convective and rainy seasons across the region. Vertical cloud layer interactions influence rainfall variability and help maintain East Africa’s characteristic bimodal climate regime.

In this paper, the ordinary character table of a finite extension of structure $\overline{G}=2^7{:}G_2(2)$ is computed via the Fischer-Clifford matrices technique. The group $\overline{G}$ sits maximally in the affine subgroup $2^7{:}Sp_6(2)$ of the symplectic group $Sp_8(2)$.

Teacher discipline is essential for maintaining professionalism, accountability, and effective teaching in schools. This study examined the key factors within Board of Management practices associated with teachers’ discipline in private junior schools in Juja Subcounty, Kiambu County, Kenya. The study was guided by the Systems Theory of Educational Management and adopted a quantitative descriptive survey design. The target population comprised 1,508 respondents from 127 private junior schools, including 127 principals, 1,000 teachers, and 381 Board of Management members. A sample of 228 respondents was selected from 38 schools, comprising 38 principals, 76 teachers, and 114 Board of Management members. A total of 224 respondents participated, producing a response rate of 98.2%. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics and simple linear regression. The findings showed that participatory decision-making recorded the highest mean score of 3.88, followed by teacher support systems at 3.87 and clear disciplinary guidelines at 3.81. Fair and consistent enforcement recorded the lowest mean score of 3.39, indicating differences in respondents’ perceptions of disciplinary fairness. The regression results indicated a strong positive association between key Board of Management factors and teachers’ discipline, with R = .992, R² = .984, F(1, 222) = 13,427.067, and p < .001. The study concluded that policy clarity, fairness, communication, participatory decision-making, support systems, prompt handling of misconduct, and regular policy review are important in strengthening teachers’ professional conduct. It recommends consistent enforcement of disciplinary policies, transparent communication, regular policy reviews, and greater involvement of teachers and principals in disciplinary decision-making.

The successful rollout of Kenya's Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) depends heavily on the motivation of the teachers charged with delivering it in the classroom. Drawn from a broader mixed-methods study on teacher attitude and motivation in CBC implementation, this article reports findings addressing the specific objective of examining the level of teacher motivation for CBC implementation in public junior schools in Busia County, Kenya. Anchored on Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory of Motivation, the study adopted a concurrent mixed-methods design, drawing quantitative data from 240 junior school teachers, alongside qualitative data from key informant interviews with Heads of Institution and Education Officers and focus group discussions with teachers. Quantitative results showed a moderately high overall level of teacher motivation (M = 3.66, SD = 0.82, CV = 22.40%), with collaboration among colleagues recording the highest mean score (M = 3.89) and investment of extra time in CBC preparation recording the lowest (M = 3.48). Frequency analysis showed that CBC training was the strongest reported driver of motivation, with 59.6% of teachers agreeing or strongly agreeing that it had increased their motivation, while incentives and recognition were the weakest, drawing agreement from only 22.9% of respondents. Qualitative findings corroborated these patterns, revealing that teacher motivation was sustained mainly by intrinsic commitment to learner development rather than by extrinsic reward, and was under continuous threat from workload intensification and limited institutional recognition. The study concludes that teacher motivation for CBC implementation in Busia County is moderate, intrinsically anchored, and structurally fragile. It recommends institutional and policy interventions, including workload rationalisation, structured recognition systems, and sustained, practice-oriented professional development, to safeguard and strengthen teacher motivation for the effective implementation of CBC in junior schools.

Resources held by a school are of no value to a curriculum unless teachers actually use them, so the utilisation of instructional resources is a distinct condition of implementation from their availability. This paper examines the utilisation of instructional resources in the implementation of the Integrated Science curriculum in public junior schools in the Western Region, Kenya, where Integrated Science is taught across Grades 7, 8 and 9 and Grade 9 is the terminal grade of the cycle. Anchored on the social constructivist theory of Lev Vygotsky, the study adopted a descriptive survey design within a mixed methods approach. From a universe of 113,237, a sample of 1,087 respondents was drawn using stratified, simple random, systematic and purposive techniques, and 844 (77.6%) responded. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the Chi-square goodness-of-fit test at the 0.05 level of significance. Utilisation returned a mean of 1.69 (SD = 0.78), only just inside the moderate band and barely above availability. Six of the seven resources departed significantly from an even spread of responses, and the pattern was one of non-use of the resources central to inquiry, since charts and models (χ² = 308.450) and internet for research (χ² = 254.306) were reported never used by 189 (90.4%) and 178 (85.2%) of teachers, while textbooks and the teachers’ guide were the most used. The single exception was laboratory equipment (χ² = 1.560, p = .458), where use was split almost evenly. The null hypothesis was rejected, and the utilisation of instructional resources was found to have a statistically significant influence on implementation. The qualitative evidence attributed the pattern to a heavy reliance on textbooks and dictated notes and to the non-use of practical and digital resources, driven by both scarcity and teachers’ limited confidence. The paper concludes that utilisation tracked availability closely, so that the curriculum was delivered through the textbook while its practical and digital resources went unused, and recommends that the supply of resources be paired with the training and support that build the confidence to use them.