Pan Africa Christian University

The family is known as the basic unit of society and marital quality plays a significant role in its functioning because marriage is a partnership between a husband and a wife –a core feature of many family formations. Understanding a partner’s inner world, or “Love Maps,” has been theorized to strengthen emotional bonding and enhance marital outcomes. This study examined the relationship between Love Maps and marital quality among members of Karura Community Chapel (KCC) in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Guided by the Gottman Method Couples Therapy framework, the research employed a correlational research design. The target population consisted of 375 married individuals, from which a sample of 194 respondents was selected using stratified sampling method. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed using correlation and regression analysis in SPSS 29. Results indicated a significant positive relationship between Love Maps and marital quality, with Love Maps explaining 33% of the variance in marital quality. The study highlights the importance of integrating Love Maps with broader marital interventions and suggests avenues for further research into additional predictors of marital satisfaction. Cultivating an intimate understanding of a partner’s inner world is an important factor in promoting marital quality. Counsellors should intentionally guide couples in developing their love maps at an early stage by facilitating structured activities that help partners explore each other’s emotional needs, beliefs, values, expectations, and long-term goals. Married couples are encouraged to actively prioritize the development of love maps by intentionally seeking a deeper understanding of each other’s thoughts, emotions, aspirations, and personal experiences.

Objective: Operational inefficiencies and service delivery deficits persist in Kenyan County Governments despite the devolution mandate. This study aims to address these behavioural gaps by proposing a conceptual framework linking Self-Leadership Strategies (SLS) to Organisational Performance through Innovative Work Behaviour (IWB). Theoretical Framework: The paper integrates Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) to argue that SLS enhances self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. These psychological states are posited as necessary antecedents for the multi-stage process of IWB (Idea Generation, Promotion, and Realisation). Conceptual Model: The framework proposes a partial mediation model where IWB mediates the relationship between SLS and the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) performance perspectives (Internal Processes, Customer, Financial). It explicitly incorporates “Relatedness” in the idea promotion stage and identifies organisational moderators (Bureaucracy, Political Interference) specific to the Kenyan context. Policy Implications: The study suggests that to improve public sector performance, policy must move beyond structural reforms to foster individual behavioural agency. Practical recommendations include establishing “innovation circles” to satisfy social needs and reducing bureaucratic red tape to allow self-led innovations to flourish.

The rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming public sector organizations, reshaping policy design, service delivery, and decision-making processes. While much research emphasizes technical and operational dimensions of AI, less attention has been given to the leadership capabilities required to navigate AI-driven transformation. Drawing on Adaptive Leadership Theory, alongside public administration scholarship and emerging AI governance literature, this article develops a conceptual framework for AI-informed public sector leadership. The framework identifies key adaptive challenges, including ethical accountability, algorithmic bias, transparency deficits, data governance gaps, skills shortages, and risks to public trust. It also highlights opportunities such as evidence-based decision-making, operational efficiency, strategic foresight, and enhanced citizen engagement. The study argues that traditional bureaucratic leadership models are insufficient for governing AI-enabled systems. Instead, public leaders must cultivate AI literacy, ethical stewardship, interpretive competence, and adaptive capacity to mobilize collective learning and institutional change. Effective leadership in the AI era requires balancing technological innovation with democratic accountability and institutional legitimacy. By integrating adaptive leadership theory into AI governance discourse, this study contributes to research on digital governance and public sector transformation and offers a structured framework for responsible and value-driven AI adoption.

Introduction: This qualitative phenomenological study applies Virginia Satir's Personal Iceberg Model to explore placating behaviours among the African spouses of incarcerated Nigerian men. Satir conceptualised placating as an incongruent stance characterised by excessive compliance and self-negation. Method: Drawing on the hermeneutic phenomenology of semi-structured interviews and two focus-group discussions with 10 Yoruba women, this paper reinterprets placating within African cultural contexts that valorise endurance, harmony, and moral loyalty. Results or Findings: These findings show that placating is an essential component of Yoruba cultural traditions, promoting flexibility and noble interrelatedness. Discussion or Conclusion: Viewing this viewpoint (the Yoruba cultural-context perspective) via a different lens, such as Satir's, may result in a misconception. The study advances a culturally contextualised reading of Satir's humanistic theory and highlights its implications for cross-cultural family therapy.

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has led the AI community to speculate that artificial superintelligence (ASI) may be within reach, particularly if an AI system can iteratively search for solutions, learn from results, and leverage improved knowledge for more searches. In this context, this study explores the integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into Building Information Modeling (BIM) by focusing on the four key pillars of the OpenAI o1 model and their ethical implications. Through comprehensive analysis of existing literature, we examine these pillars—policy initialization, reward design, search strategies, and learning mechanisms—and their application in BIM-GenAI within a continuous improvement cycle. Results demonstrate that policy initialization generates human-like reasoning behaviors and domain-specific knowledge for BIM tasks. Reward design, central to reinforcement learning, optimizes BIM objectives through measurable metrics and learned evaluation methods. Search strategies prove valuable for exploring complex design spaces and generating high-quality BIM solutions, while learning mechanisms, including policy gradient and behavior cloning, enable continuous model improvement through feedback. The study emphasizes the importance of establishing BIM-AI protocols, maintaining human expertise in decision-making, and balancing automation with human input. Our findings suggest that while GenAI, powered by reinforcement learning, offers significant potential for enhancing BIM capabilities, three critical ethical considerations—data privacy and security, algorithmic bias mitigation, and transparency and accountability—must guide responsible implementation. This research contributes to the growing body of knowledge on AI in construction technologies and provides a foundation for the ethical advancement of BIM-GenAI systems using OpenAI o1.

Contemporary church leaders shoulder the responsibility of being visionary and fostering a culture that promotes the stability of Churches. However, the instability witnessed in many churches has brought forth numerous challenges, notably stemming from leadership tumult, which adversely impacts the affected congregations. The negligence of leadership succession and transition processes within churches is a significant contributor to this instability. This paper delves into establishing the effect of leadership succession planning on the stability of Evangelical churches in Nairobi County, Kenya. Drawing from 60 churches, 360 church leaders were sampled from whom data was collected using a questionnaire. The strategic leadership theory was used to explain how succession planning facilitates the establishment of strong connections between leaders and their followers, ensuring a smooth transfer of leadership responsibilities and ultimately enhance stability of evangelical churches. The study reveals that among the succession models examined, including mentoring, (M=3.96, SD=0.716), talent management (M=3.83, SD=0.770), employee retention (M=3.78, SD=0.931), and career development, (M=3.72, SD=0.764) mentoring emerges as a predominantly adopted approach by leaders in Evangelical Churches in Nairobi County. Moreover, the findings indicate that succession planning contributes significantly to church stability, accounting for over 18% of the overall stability. Consequently, the study recommends the integration of leadership and management practices through a holistic approach encompassing mentoring, talent management, career development, and employee retention strategies, complemented by tailored training programs to enhance church stability.

ObjectivesThis review aimed to synthesise evidence on (1) the prevalence of common mental health disorders (MHDs) in Cameroon; (2) the effectiveness of mental health management interventions; (3) the risk factors for common MHDs in Cameroon and (4) map the state of research on common mental disorders in Cameroon.DesignA systematic review.Data sourcesWe performed a comprehensive search for articles in major public health databases including PubMed, Scopus, Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL from inception of each database to June 2022.Eligibility criteriaPublished articles on the prevalence, risk factors or intervention for management of common MHDs in Cameroon met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review.Data extraction and synthesisThe abstract and full-text screening, and data extraction were performed independently by at least two researchers. The results have been reported based on a narrative synthesis.ResultsAfter the screening stages, 32 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in this study. A high prevalence of common MHDs among different groups, including teenage mothers, students and people living with HIV, was observed. We identified important risk factors for these conditions in the general population and among high-risk groups. We also identified two interventions which show promising results for the management of depression among individuals with HIV in Cameroon.ConclusionOur review recorded a high prevalence of common MHDs and identified important risk factors for MHDs among different groups. Increased priority and participatory action with all stakeholders including individuals, communities/policy holders and in research where a huge gap remains to be filled, is crucial in reducing the burden of MHDs in Cameroon.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42022348427.

The world is experiencing exponential growth in the elderly population. Old age is a difficult time characterized by unfamiliar terrain of loss of traditional family social systems, poor health, and social challenges. This study examined the elderly people's own perception of their social well-being in selected mainstream churches in affluent Karen-Langata, Nairobi, Kenya. The study used a qualitative descriptive phenomenological approach. A purposeful sampling method was used to select 11 respondents in the in-depth interviews and 12 respondents in the focus group discussions. The population of the study was the category of the young-old who were 60-75 years. Verbatim data were transcribed, and descriptive themes were generated to show individual perspectives. According to the findings, the death of spouses, dwindling social networks, lack of social roles, and broken family ties led to isolation, loneliness, and poor social integration. Their sense of solidarity and inclusion in society was experienced through an invitation to functions and receiving and giving aid, while it was also hampered by not being visited, loss of mobility due to illness, and by living in isolated neighborhoods. In addition, belonging to welfare groups, church fellowships, and receiving economic support and social support from significant others gave the elderly people a sense of belonging and therefore influenced their social well-being. The growing elderly population should prompt policymakers to give priority to measures that will improve their social well-being. The government should review the Ksh. 2,000 given to the elderly, considering those who also retired at 60 years. Elderly-friendly insurance plans or free medical services for the elderly should be available. The churches should also prioritize programs for the elderly.