African Social Science and Humanities Journal

Does the internet add years to life? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Faustino Byanyima Byanyima, Bruno Lule Yawe, John Bosco Nnyanzi — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the world's lowest life expectancy, which averages 62.7 years compared to 81.7 years in high-income countries. Internet use in SSA, though rising, remains significantly below global averages. Whether internet use has led to improvements in life expectancy in SSA is still uncertain. This study examined how internet use affected life expectancy across 41 SSA countries from 2000 to 2023. The Panel Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) estimator was employed to address autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity, and cross-sectional dependence. Results indicate that a one percentage point increase in internet use is associated with about 0.09 additional years of life expectancy. However, these findings are conditional on other factors. Internet use yields greater health returns when institutional quality is stronger, but exhibits diminishing returns as electricity access improves. Immunization, electricity access, and political stability positively affect life expectancy, while under-five mortality and health expenditure reduce it. This study recommends that governments pair digital connectivity initiatives with governance reforms, electrification, and health system strengthening to maximize population health gains across SSA.

User perspective on post-occupancy residential spatial transformation: The case of Mlalakuwa, Dar es Salaam

Fortunatus Bahendwa — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Post-occupancy residential transformation is a defining feature of incremental urban housing across many African cities, yet the drivers and spatial logics of change remain insufficiently integrated into housing design and policy. This paper examines post-occupancy residential spatial transformations in Mlalakuwa, Dar es Salaam, focusing on how household dynamics, socio-cultural practices, and livelihood needs shape changes in domestic space over time. Empirical evidence is drawn from two respondent groups: 30 house owners/users across low-, middle-, and high-income categories and 30 building professionals, including architects and interior designers. Findings show that housing is continuously adapted as an adaptive socio-economic infrastructure, strongly shaped by livelihood strategies, notably rental rooms and home-based activities, the need for additional bedrooms and privacy, the cultural centrality of outdoor domestic space, and a widely expressed demand for flexible layouts. Extensions and additions—especially for rental rooms—are the dominant adaptation pathway, while living rooms and outdoor spaces emerge as key “adaptive hotspots.” Professionals largely endorse flexibility and user participation, yet also identify these as commonly overlooked in formal design, partly due to the persistent influence of Western zoning logic. The study argues for context-responsive housing frameworks that treat dwellings as hybrid domestic–productive environments, anticipate incremental growth, and embed outdoor and flexible spatial provisions as core design determinants.

Print media representation of Islam in the context of terrorism in Kenya: Implications on counter-extremism strategies

Nicholas Anyuor, Fredrick Ogenga, Fred Jonyo — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In the 2025 Global Terrorism Index Report, the number of countries experiencing terrorist incidents increased from 58 to 66, with an evident upsurge in attacks. Kenya was ranked among the top 20 worst-hit countries in the world. Another report released by the Kenyan government in 2024 found that more than 500 lives had been lost to terrorism between 1998 and 2023. In these attacks, the media have linked terrorism to Islam, labeling Muslims as ‘terrorists’; associating them with broader violent networks, and reinforcing stereotypes that fuel radicalisation, targeting over 2 billion Muslims worldwide. Newspaper representations of Islam and Muslims as terrorism sympathisers have fueled Islamophobia and promoted harmful stereotypes targeting the Muslim population across the globe. These biased narratives have led to mistrust and discrimination, significantly undermining crucial counter-extremism strategies put in place by law enforcers and policymakers. Although this area has attracted many studies, the situation is still worsening globally, further risking alienation, radicalisation, and discrimination. The scenario, therefore, calls for more in-depth research to understand this phenomenon better and to provide solutions. This study, therefore, developed two objectives to unravel the research problem. It analysed how print media in Kenya represent Islam in the context of terrorism and then assessed the influence of such representations on counter-extremism strategies in Kenya. The study was guided by gatekeeping and social identity theories. It adopted a descriptive research design and mixed-methods approach for data collection, analysing 676 copies of The Standard and Nation newspapers for qualitative data, complemented by interviews with 24 key informants drawn from journalists, religious leaders, media scholars, and counter-terrorism/security experts. Quantitatively, the study measured the frequency of words and phrases linking Islam to terrorism. Findings have indicated that Kenya’s print media have represented Islam as a terrorism sympathiser.

Leveraging remittances for financial inclusion and economic development in Zambia: Policy pathways and a conceptual framework

Jennifer Mukuka Njelesani, Abubaker Qutieshat — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Zambia has seen a surge in remittance inflows of 258% between 2020 and 2024. Despite this increase, the transformative potential for structural economic growth remains limited. This paper develops a conceptual framework that positions remittance as a critical financial intermediation mechanism that is capable of stimulating inclusive growth through productive investment, institutional innovation, and enhanced financial inclusion of citizens. Although remittances have grown rapidly, their impact on the Zambian economy remains largely consumption-oriented, and therefore their impact on economic growth is negligible. There is therefore a need to understand how remittances can transition from household-level support to broader developmental capital that supports national economic transformation. This paper adopts a systematic review of academic and policy literature and identifies policy incentives, digital infrastructure, and governance quality as mediating variables that determine the developmental impact of remittances. It further draws on various financial theories. The empirical findings are integrated into a multi-level conceptual model, which links macro-economic transformation, micro-economic enhancement, and financial-sector participation and inclusion. The framework provides guidance to policymakers and the financial sector on designing targeted, low-hanging interventions such as digital remittance platforms, remittance-linked financial products, and regulatory reforms. The resulting conceptual model shows how remittances can adapt from consumption-based transfers to productive capital that accelerates national economic growth and financial deepening. The framework offers theoretical and policy foundations for the development of remittance-based development policies and provides a platform for future empirical testing.

Communicative actions and intersectoral coordination in food system governance, in Migori County, Kenya

Andress Kathunzi, Charles Wagunda, Florence Odiwuor — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates how communicative actions shape intersectoral coordination in Kenya’s food system governance, which depends on communication across multiple sectors. However, in Migori County, communication remains administratively siloed, making intersectoral collaboration difficult. Drawing on Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action, the study adopted an exploratory sequential mixedmethods design, where the qualitative phase was followed by and informed the quantitative phase. This study was guided by two objectives: To examine how communicative actions shape the functioning of coordination structures in food system governance and to assess how communicative practices influence the participation of women and youth in food system governance. The total study population comprised 268 actors and 29 relevant policy documents, from whom a purposive and snowball sampling approach was used to select a sample of 255 participants. Thematic analysis guided qualitative interpretation, while descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and ordinal logistic regression were applied to quantitative data. Findings reveal that communicative coordination, though formally mandated, remains fragmented in practice, with weakly institutionalised collaborative structures and reliance on informal communication platforms. Secondly, the inclusion of women and youth is tokenistic, further weakening communicative coordination. These findings point to a central conclusion: communication is not peripheral to food system governance but foundational to it. Strengthening intersectoral coordination requires institutionalising communicative structures, joint planning mechanisms, and meaningfully inclusive participatory platforms across devolved sectors. The study contributes a communicative framing of food system governance theoretically and offers practical strategies for embedding communicative coherence.