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This paper examines how mobile communication and mobile banking is used by women in rural western Kenya (Elgeyo Marakwet), a resource-constrained area where women must carefully monitor the flow of money through their households. Also, women face structural inequality. Among other things, polygyny (one husband and several wives) is legal. Based on the inductive analysis of 25 interviews with women, and using the lens of intersectionality, we examine their use of mobile banking. We examine how mobile technology plays into the management of the household economy, and how it is used in extramarital relationships. We discuss how women use mobile communication in their collective savings groups (chama). We see how the mobile phone can be the locus of tensions within the household and how mBanking both supports the lives of the women but also how this can eventually undercut social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to characterize mineral nutrition (copper, magnesium, selenium, and zinc) in Samburu pastoralist youth, in the context of differential cultural transitions due to uneven changes in educational access, herding intensity, polygyny, and access to wild, domesticated, and market‐sourced foods. Materials and methods: Whole dried blood spots were collected in a total of 161 youth (highlands, n = 97; lowlands, n = 64) to assess concentrations of cadmium, copper, lead, magnesium, mercury, selenium, and zinc. Concentrations were determined through inductively coupled mass spectrometry. Dietary intakes were assessed by 24‐h recall method and calculation of the probability of inadequate intakes. WHO protocols were applied to collect anthropometric measures in the youth. Results: Nearly half of the adolescents (47.8%) fell below the reference range for zinc status, and 88.2% had low zinc‐to‐copper ratios. High probability of nutrient inadequacies was evident for protein, fat, vitamins A, B12, C, and E. In generalized linear modeling, lowland residence was negatively associated with zinc status and the zinc‐to‐copper ratio, and positively correlated with selenium and copper status. Other significant correlates were dairy livestock ownership; wife number of the youth's mother; meat consumption; vegetable consumption; protein intake; infectious disease morbidities; BMI; and hemoglobin concentrations. Discussion: In recent decades, Samburu pastoralists of northern Kenya have experienced marked dietary changes in the context of market integration, extreme drought, diminishing pasture availability, and violent civil conflict. Some children (particularly boys) successfully supplement their diets by foraging for wild foods, while others (particularly actively herding girls) may be more vulnerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patterns of HIV prevalence in Kenya suggest that areas where various cultural practices are prevalent bear a disproportionate burden of HIV. This paper examines (i) the contextual effects of cultural practices (polygyny, male circumcision) and related sexual behaviour factors on HIV prevalence and (ii) the extent to which specific cultural practices in a community/county might explain existing ethnic variations in HIV prevalence in Kenya. The analysis applies multilevel logistic regression to data from the 2012/13 Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey. The results reveal striking ethnic variations in HIV prevalence in Kenya. The prevalence of polygyny in a community is positively associated with HIV prevalence, while a higher level of male circumcision in a county is protective for both men and women. The effects of these factors are stronger for men than women at both individual and contextual (community/county) levels. These cultural practices and associated risk factors partly explain existing ethnic differences in HIV prevalence in Kenya, but there remain significant ethnic variations that are not explained by these cultural practices or related sexual behaviour factors. These call for stronger empirical evidence to offer stronger theoretical explanations and inform effective policy and practice to address HIV epidemic in adversely affected communities in Kenya and similar settings in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To expand our crosscultural understanding of erectile dysfunction, we investigated erectile dysfunction among Ariaal men, pastoral nomads of northern Kenya. To measure erectile dysfunction, we administered the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) to 198 men aged 20 y and older during interviews. Marital status and anthropometric measures of body composition were also obtained. Men were classified into 10-y age groups. ANOVA revealed that erectile dysfunction increases with age (P<0.0005), with men 60 y and older showing significantly higher erectile dysfunction compared with men in their 20s, 40s and 50s. In a MANCOVA model, erectile dysfunction increased with age group (P<0.001), was negatively related to right-hand grip strength (P<0.01) and negatively related to number of wives (P<0.05). In addition, there was a significant interaction between age group and marital status (P<0.01). Erectile dysfunction showed no independent relationship to measures of body composition, including body mass index, fat free mass and percentage body fat. These findings provide further evidence of age-related increases in erectile dysfunction, even when factors commonly associated with erectile dysfunction (eg, metabolic complications of obesity, use of medicines causing erectile dysfunction) are absent. The finding that number of wives is negatively related to erectile dysfunction may represent the specific cultural conditions (political power and wealth) associated with polygyny among the Ariaal.International Journal of Impotence Research (2005) 17, 445–449. doi:10.1038/sj.ijir.3901359; published online 14 July 2005 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is on bridewealth and polygyny among the Kikuyu of Kenya and is based on data collected in 1990. It seeks to take account of recent changes, and to respond to calls for new data. In the area of family studies there is a vast wealth of anthropological materials with varying biates, a small group of studies of national elites and very little information on the everyday lives of more commonplace individuals living within the modem sector or on its fringes. One of the costs of marriage is bridewealth, the money and goods paid from the groom's family to that of the bride. This is a widespread phenomenon in the patrilineal societies. It is important that neither urban residence nor education on the part of the respondents or their fathers seemed to reduce either the likelihood or amount of bridewealth. In fact, all those who lived in Nairobi as children noted that bridewealth had been paid at their marriage. This is important because parents and kin are central to such negotiations.

This article focuses on a study which was conducted to develop a framework for analyzing the effect of polygyny on fertility at the macro level and to outline the possible mechanisms through which this macro-level influence of polygyny on fertility operates. It was based on the data collected from the 1988/1989 Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys. In this data set, polygyny is shown to reduce fertility at the individual level. Polygynously married women have a total marital fertility rate (TMFR) of 7.2 for the five-year period preceding the survey; monogamously married women have a TMFR of 7.5 for the same period. After analysis, it was found that the distinction between women in monogamous unions and women in polygynous unions is conceptually weak and of limited utility in understanding the overall impact of polygyny on reproductive processes. Polygyny is not an individual-level variable. Therefore its impact on reproductive patterns cannot be understood by simply comparing the behavior of monogamously and polygynously married women. Results show that women in areas of high polygyny have high fertility desires and that they adopt behavioral patterns consistent with the achievement of high fertility goals.

Fieldwork upon which this paper is based was undertaken among the Logoli of western Kenya. It presents Logoli women's experiences and perspectives regarding change and continuity in polygyny. It is informed by the theoretical argument that the distributional effects of social norms and values pertaining to polygyny may benefit specific groups. It is theoretically predicted that considerations of anticipated benefits influence individuals' acceptance or rejection of polygyny. This prediction is supported by the results presented in this paper. Polygyny is affected by women's significant resource control (which enhances their empowerment and bargaining power), decrease in high potential agricultural land, and individuals' wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of marital status on fertility and offspring survivorship are examined with data on six marriage cohorts of Kipsigis women, agro-pastoralists of south western Kenya. Neither marriage order, nor the average number of co-wives married to a man during a woman's reproductive years, is associated with completed family size, nor with any of the components of reproductive performance. The mechanisms whereby polygyny might potentially lower the reproductive performance of polygynously married women in the Kipsigis and other populations are discussed in some detail, with particular reference to resource shortages, sexual and economic favouritism, the observance of post partum taboos, disease, husband's age, co-wife co-operation, education, sterility, and age at menarche and marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the cogent analysis on polygyny and sex ratio at birth in Kenya which is conducted by a U.S. researcher showing that polygynously married women are more likely to beget girls than their monogamous counterparts. Such findings were supported by a classic study which stressed that lower sex rates among the children of polygynously married mothers are due to the sexual mechanism of these women. Considering the scope and limitation of the study, he suggests to conduct further study that will be based on a much larger cultural group should to assess why polyganous status is associated with low sex ratios in some cases and not in others.

Factors affecting the choice of a male mate in a polygynous society are examined using data on the Kipsigis people of Kenya. "This paper has two aims: first, to test whether Kipsigis women prefer wealthy men by examining the sequence of marriages among a group of pioneers...who established a settlement in the territory of their enemies (1930-1949); second, to determine whether women suffer reproductively as a result of polygynous marriage.", (excerpt)