This document provides a summary of Duncan Angwenyi Osieme's field attachment report from May to July at Muigai Commercial Agencies Ltd in Nakuru, Kenya. The report details Duncan's activities and experiences during the attachment period. It includes background information on the organization, its structure and objectives. Duncan's roles involved rent collection, estate management, data analysis and attending staff meetings. Through these activities, he gained practical skills in areas like communication, teamwork and time management. The report also outlines some challenges faced such as tenant conflicts and delays in rent payments. Overall, the attachment helped Duncan apply classroom theory to real work situations.

1. SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
FIELD ATTATCHMENT REPORT
Submitted to the School of Social Science, Department Of Economics as a partial
fulfillment of the regulations governing the award of Bachelor’s Degree in B.A
Economics.
By
DUNCAN ANGWENYI OSIEMO
REG NO: AS/ECO/003/2013
COURSE CODE: ECO 321
Supervisor: Prof. John E. Odada
MAY TO JULY

2. DECLARATION
Declaration by attaché
I hereby declare that this industrial attachment report is my original work and neither has it been done by any
other person nor presented in any institution for assessment.
Signature………………………………………………………………….
Date…………………………………………………..
DUNCAN ANGWENYI OSIEMO
REG NO.: AS/ECO/003/2013
DATE:
Declaration by University Supervisor
This report has been submitted for examination with my approval as Rongo University College
supervisor.
Signature………………………………………………………………
Date…………………………………………………………
Prof. JOHN ERNEST ODADA
ATTACHMENT OFFICER
School of Arts and social sciences
Department of Economics
Rongo University College
Declaration by Industrial supervisor
This report has been submitted for examination with my approval as Chief Accountant officer
supervisor
Signature ………………………………………………............
Date…………………………………………………………………

3. MR. DANIEL NJOROGE
ORGANIZATIONBASED OFFICER
Muigai Commercial Agencies
NAKURU
P.O BOX 1622-20100
info@muigaicommercial.org Tel: 051-2211645/6
APPROVAL
The research has been submitted for examination with our supervisor.
Signature Date:

4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It’s my sincere gratitude and special thanks to God who bestows his mercy to all his creation. He gave
me the peace of brain to think and look for knowledge.
My second acknowledgement, thanks to my family at large and especially my father and mother who
usually pray to God for my good guidance and support. Thanks dad and mum may the Lord look
after you as you did to me during my juvenile age. Also i give thanks to my brothers and sisters who
supported me spiritually not forgetting my cousin Eng. Okioga and his wife Mrs.Kerubo who
accommodated me the whole period of attachment, may the Lord bless all of you long.
I won’t deprive my thanks to my lecturers that supported my academic strength, special thanks to all
for their counseling and quality skills they put into my sense.
I’m most indebted to the Muigai Commercial Agencies Ltd Managing Director Mrs. Margaret Njeri
Muigai and Family for allowing me to conduct my practical skills in their organization not
forgetting all staff members who committed their selves in guiding and showing me on how to
conduct my practical and their generous contribution in providing conducive environment and their
support.
Of course I can’t forget to thank my supervisor (chief accountant) and other staff at the organization. I
salute them all for the practical experiences, supportive materials, piece of advice and the patience
they showed as I twisted and turned things struggling to put my theory in class to facts at field
practical, also granted gratitude’s to subordinate staff who were also of great importance to provide us
with security and food.

5. Lastly, special thanks to my colleagues who stood by my side during my attachment and assisted me
in one way or other giving me necessary support and extra knowledge to gain as we gave others the
mutual support as we had one goal to achieve and to all my friends and relatives who helped and even
advised me before, during and after this period of attachment Bravo all may God bless you.
DEDICATION
This industrial attachment report is dedicated to my lecturer and university supervisor , Prof
J.E.Odada, my Industrial-based supervisor Mr. Daniel Njoroge and more importantly my entire
family including my cousin Eng. Okioga and his wife Mrs. Kerubo who offered me great support that
was pertinent in making my industrial attachment a success.

6. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This attachment report explicitly explains the whole attachment process that I underwent in the
period between May to July. It begins with the chief executive officer where we have human resource
department. Under it are three managing directors and also branch manager and chief accountant.
During attachment, I dwelt mostly under these two main departments. Under chief accountant
department, we have assistant chief accountant and cashiers whilst under branch manager category
are estate executive department, field department receptionist and other office staffs like subordinate
staff. Shedding more light on the legal background, structure and the situation of the workplace, roles
played in the organization, experiences and outcomes gained as well as challenges encountered
during the period and the recommendations

7. TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
APPROVAL
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

8. DEDICATION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CHAPTER ONE
1.0: INTRODUCTION
1.1: BACKGROUND ON FIELD ATTACHMENT
1.2: OBJECTIVES OF THE ATTACHMENT
CHAPTER TWO
2.0: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
2.10: ORGANIGRAM
2.1.1: VISIONS
2.1.2: MISSION
2.1.3: CORE VALUES
2.1.4: OBJECTIVES
CHAPTER THREE
4.0: RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF COMMERCIAL AGENTS
4.1: REMUNARATION
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0: ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIENCES
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

9. This report covers the entire exercise done during industrial attachment. All the activities done
during the period are well captured in this report. It is an essential need and a crucial component of
any university undergraduate curriculum. As such, the third year studies cannot be complete without
the industrial attachment. The period of industrial attachment is usually eight to twelve weeks for
which the students are expected to have acquired enough skills through practical work experiences so
as to supplement their studies in the university. The students are to the world where they are able to
learn and face challenges which characterize their field of specialization in which they may consider
working with in future. To this end the report records an analysis of the organization of attachment
(Muigai Commercial Agencies), the various activities was involved in, the experiences gained and also
the challenges faced during the twelve week period.
ORGANIZATIONATTACHED
Muigai Commercial Agencies which eventually deals with debt recovery and also real estates in
general. The address of the organization is:
P.O BOX 1622-20100
Email: info@muigaicommercial.org
This organization is situated at Nakuru town, above Uchumi Business centre Equator House first floor.
BACKGROUND ON FIELD ATTACHMENT
Commercial agent is defined as “a self-employed intermediary who has continuing authority to
negotiate the sale and purchase of goods on behalf of another person (“the principal”), or to negotiate
and conclude the sale or purchase of goods on behalf of and in the name of that principal…” For this
purpose a “self intermediary” will include companies and firms as well as individuals and the principal
in this case refers to the landlords/ladies or owners of the property,
GENERAL OBJECTIVES OF INTERNISHIP
Commitments are made. It provides students with the opportunity to test their interest in a
particular career before permanent commitments are made.
It helps the students to develop skills in the application of theory to practical work situations.
To gain and utilize technical background in commercial agencies and leadership skills.
To provide suitable background of experience for more advanced study by making individuals
aware of their abilities, areas of special interests and future specialization.

10. To impact as a sense of responsibility in oneself.
It provides the students with the opportunity to understand informal organizational
interrelationships.
To provide students with an in-depth knowledge of the formal functional activities of a
participating organization.
To have an opportunity to test the interest in commercial realtors and also real estates in
general, challenges and possible remedies before permanent

11. CHAPTER TWO
BACKGROUND OF THE ORGANIZATION ATTACHED
RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF COMMERCIAL AGENTS AND THEIR COUNTERPARTS (PRINCIPALS)

12. Under the regulations, a commercial agent owes certain duties to a principal. In essence these are a
general duty to look after the principal’s interests and act dutifully and in good faith. In addition, an
agent is required to make proper efforts to negotiate and conclude the transactions he is instructed to
take care of. An agent is also required to communicate to his/her principal necessary information
available to him and to comply with his principal’s reasonable instructions.
A principal has a corresponding obligation under the regulations to act dutifully and in good faith
towards his commercial agent. In addition, the principal is required to provide his/her agent with the
necessary documentation relating to goods and obtain for him information for the performance of the
agency contract.
ORGANIZATION CHART
C.E.O/HRD (1)
MANAGINGDIRECTOR (3)
BRANCHMANAGER (1)
CHIEF ACCOUNTANT(1)

13. VISION
MISSION
CORE VALUES
The core values the company is guided by include:
 Leadership
 Integrity
FIELD OFFICERS(4)
Ass.ACCOUNTANT(1)
CASHIERS (2)
ESTATE EXECUTIVE (1)
RECEPTIONIST(1)
OFFICESTAFF(2)
SURBODINATESTAFF(3)

14.  Quality services
 Customer focus
 Loyalty staff
 Creativity and innovation
 Team work.
OBJECTIVES
 To reduce accumulated arrears.
 To be the most successful firm in the country.
 To meet customers’ demand.
 To boost growth of the firm through reducing arrears and increasing rent collection.
 Boost profitability of the organization.
 To provide quality services to the community and also the public.
RENT COLLECTION
Rent collection is the major role played by all commercial agents. There are various methods used to
collect rent. Agents may decide to advise tenants to come themselves to the office to pay the rent or
they give them Pay bill number for those who cannot make it to the office. Basically, it is advised the
tenants to pay rent in the office because they always receive their payment receipts on spot whilst pay
bill one has to wait for four days or more. For efficient rent collection, field officers are served with
vehicles others motor cycles for easy access to various areas of residence. For, in Muigai Commercial
Agencies, there are four motorcycles and also some two cars which ferry them to different areas
where tenants stay. These enable them to reach those tenants who have delayed to pay the rent or
other relevant utilities like that of water and electricity. In analysis done during the attachment
period, several tenants are surcharged because of late payments. A good number of files of surcharge
are closed down because receipts become excess which forces new files to be opened. This means that
surcharge payments are of high percentage compared to other charges.

15. ESTATE MANAGEMENT
New landlords who own properties which they want to let via agency are directed to estate
department. There are two main aims in the estate management
1. For premises to let
2. For estate manage
Due to the good name of the company, the clients just present themselves and they request the
company to take over the control of the property. The client may decide to find the tenants and the
rest is done by the company, but the client has to inform the tenants about it through writing the
letter and the company has to attach theirs which will make the tenants satisfied. Also the client may
come and request the company to let the vacant units and also manage. The client has to sign a
contract which resemble that there is an agreement between them. They have to agree on the
following; the agreement fee, commission (negotiable), and deposit. On the other hand the tenants
have to sign the agreements and has to be signed by atone so that it can be a legal document incase of
anything it can act as the evidence. Tenants are required to come with them PIN, certificate if
necessary, ID card, colored photograph.
REAL ESTATE DEMAND CONCEPT
The analysis done at the field was that in real estate terms, a lower amount of space or number of
units is demanded at higher prices. This concept obeys the law of demand. . Increases in demand are
not triggered by the actual price increases but by the expectation of further increases in the future
(assuming that no other changes that would trigger an increase in demand are taking place in the
marketplace). To elaborate this concept, a market was considered where housing prices rose initially
due to massive immigration of households to Nakuru County and also the resultant increase in
demand for housing. It was observed that this initial increases in housing prices ignited in the minds
of housing buyers’ expectations of further price increases in the future. Diagrammatically, this can be
elaborated as follows:
P” P”
P’
P’

16. Q’ Q” Q’ Q”
In the case of the single-family market, while actual price increases may discourage some households
from realizing their plans to buy a house because they can no longer afford it, expectations of further
price increases in the future may motivate some other households to accelerate their decision to enter
the market before prices climb at even higher levels. Similarly, in the case of the office market,
expected rent increases may motivate office firms to engage in the so-called “banking of office space”,
that is, lease more space than they currently need for future use. Therefore, under the assumption of
reasonably behaving households and firms, expected price or rent increases may result in an increase
in demand for housing or office space, which is opposite of the effect actual price increases would
have. Such a behavior explains the phenomenon of increasing demand during periods of increasing
prices or rents. The effect of expectations for higher prices represents, therefore, a shift of (and not
movement along) the demand curve. In this fashion, expected price changes are exogenous
determinants of demand. Other exogenous determinants include: market size; income/wealth; and
also price substitutes.
FIELD DATA ANALYSIS

17. Rent arrears reduction report for quarter ending 31st
June 2016
Field data analysis is carried a quarter a year, that is, every three months to show the performance of
the business and also the financial position of the business. For every three months, rent arrears
reduction report is analyzed since the major objective of the business is to reduce rent arrears. All
records from various field officers are tabled down and challenges faced are solved. The following
table shows how the variance was gotten for the business.
Zone
Name
Opening
balance
Reduction /Increase
(Months)
Closing
balance
variance
Western
/southern
Date 1st
2nd
3rd
Net Date Date
Kshs
Closing
balance
575900
Closing
balance
635590
Closing
balance
754600
Kshs Kshs Kshs
540800 Inc/Dec
35100
Inc/Dec
59690
Inc/Dec
119010
213800 754600 213800
EXPLANATION FOR SIGNIFICANT VARAINCES
1st
Month 2nd
Month 3rd
Month
OVERALL REMARKS FOR THE QUARTER

18. Other zones covered include:
Nakuru East: Sec 58, Kiti, Pipeline
Western: Koinange, Gilani’s
Southern: Kenlands, Mwariki
North Eastern: Racetrack, Pangani, Langalanga, and Lakeview
Eastern: London, Kiamunyi
Industrial Area: Industrial Area
Central: Freehold
North tenants: Ngala/centre
CBD: CBD
Observation made was that rent arrears were reducing gradually from one month to another due to
improvements in rent collection. Holding of staff meetings real improved the performance of the
business as some of the problems were solved immediately.

19. CHAPTER FOUR
4.0: ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIENCE
Working days begin at 8:15 a.m. and ends 5:00 p.m. every Monday to Friday. Daily activities were
guided by a program given by the supervisor.
Knowledge and skills acquired
 Professional skills.
 Inter-personal skills.
 Positive work attitudes.
 Team-work.
 Corporate culture.
 Time management.
Achievements
After this training, am able to;
 Apply theoretical knowledge and skills acquired in class to real life situations.
 Understand and appreciate the constraints of real work environment and functional relations
within and between organizations.
 Develop positive work attitude such as self-reliance and maturity.
4.1: ATTENDINDING MONTHLY STAFF MEETING
On monthly basis, all staff members hold a meeting with agenda of discussing the progress of the
business for the month ended. Since this year as from January the arrears were so high, it forced the
managing directors to hold hands together and have a meeting on how to reduce by halve the arrears
before the end of this year (2016) It was decided to have monthly meetings to see by which extent
goals targeted will be measured. Another agenda of the meeting which was held in 28th
June 2016 was
to motivate staff members for the work done during the month. All the challenges were tabled down

20. some which included; lack of cooperation from the tenants whereby a tenant accumulating many
arrears may decide to flee away without payment, conflicts which arise between the tenants some
being more personal to handle and also others complained about uneasiness of accessing some places
due to weather changes. It was finally concluded that no tenant should be allowed to accumulate
arrears of more than one month and if incase the tenant wants to vacate, he or she must write a
vacation letter on one month notice so that the field officers to do inspection of that house before that
tenant vacates not forgetting he or she must clear the utilities before vacation. It was agreed that all
field officers must be supplied with vehicles/motorcycles for easy access on various places.
.
4.2: FILING
In any organization, keeping records is of paramount importance.
Importance of records:
i. Recording the daily rent arrears collection.
ii. Records are used for reference.
iii. Records are used for security purpose.
iv. Records are used to prepare final accounts.
v. They are used to show the performance of the business
vi. They are used to correct the invoices which are negatively charged or the computer error
encountered during the recording of transactions.
vii. The records also show the balances which the tenants have not paid. This will ensure that they
are followed and made to clear the balances.
viii. They show success and failure of business.
ix. Finally records help in decision making and analysis.
This means that filing is of paramount importance because of the following reasons too:
Importance of filing
i. For future records
ii. They show all the transactions
iii. To make work easier
iv. To enhance easy access of records.

21. v. Forms a base by which new comers can learn the company.
CHALLENGES FACED BY THE FIRM
 The parties concerned do not communicate. This is one of the major problems faced by
commercial agents. From the field, it was noticed that there were tenants who switched off
their phones when they were supposed to pay rent. Some even decided to lock themselves in
their rooms so that agents will not find them especially when they are bankrupt.
 Stiff antagonism from the impeding firms. This is another major problem which commercial
agents face. There are so many commercial agents in Nakuru which gave rise to stiff
competition. It becomes a problem whereby other commercial agents may decide to lower
their agency fee/commission so as to attract many customers. This in return reduced profit
margin of the organization since it is unhealthy to the organization.
 Slow response from the tenants during monthly collection thus the firm need to use force.
Some tenants opted for late payment because some receive their salary beyond date eight. They
saw better to be penalized since they had no any other option. late payment may earn extra
income to commercial agents but can also alter the agreement between the landlord and the
agents. The landlord can assume that it’s the failure of the organization to collect rent at right
time and may decide to opt for better agencies.
 The firm also faces economic challenges which face the like valuation and devaluation of
currency. Local or regional economic difficulties were cited as a major challenge. Areas
hardest hit by the recession continue to experience difficulties moving homes. Land is very
liquid and sensitive to price changes thus easily affected by valuation and devaluation of
currency.
 Ignorance from the clients. Clients who are so called landlords may decide to ignore the
agreement made between them and the agencies by giving them right and obligation to
correct rent on behalf. This is by receiving/ collecting rent themselves direct from the tenants.
This makes the tenants to be lazy in paying rent.
 Some clients may want to evade paying the commission thus they search their own tenants
whom the company has not vetted and known in their characters.

22.  Last but not least, almost all tenants configure internal conflicts. For instance the case which
was observed was that, in a certain apartment, some tenats decided to pay for water utility while
others did not. This raised an alarm for water offices to cut the supply of water to entire plot
which forced other tenats who had paid for to suffer.
POOSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO ABOVE CHALLENGES
 Tenants must be regularly contacted to remind them to pay rent in advance. According to the
meeting held by staff members, it was said that no tenant should be allowed to accumulate a
lot of arrears say more than a month. If it chances he or she is unable to pay as agreed, they
will be served with a one month vacation notice.

ACHIEVEMENTS
1Technically
Gained more knowledge on statistical software that is used in the analysis i.e. Excel and SPSS
and more knowledge on use of computer has been gained. Those technical skills gained will
help one to save time by solving technical problems in economics quickly.
Socially
I have gained the network of relationships and features of social life within the ministry and
the knowledge tied up and shared in these relationships. I have also gained the ability to work
together with other people in value creation, the corporate culture, beliefs lived and values
demonstrated by employees. Meeting people in the job also helped me to start building a
network of contacts, which can help me find a job later on. I have learnt about related jobs in
the same field, which could give me more ideas about what kind of career I might go into.
After this training, now I am able to:
i. Appreciate the importance of human relationships and work attitudes.

23. ii. Understand the constraints of working life and functional relationships within and between
organizations.
iii. Be orientated towards work processes.
iv. Apply theoretical concepts and school based skills to practice.
v. Develop work attitudes like curiousness, self-confidence, maturity and self-reliance. Obtain
knowledge of potential careers and develop new areas of interest.
Others skills include; Office administration, personnel administration and record keeping.
Respect for the privacy of others and the promises of confidentiality given to respondents
which cannot be over emphasized. I also learnt that organizations need to decide according to
strictly professional considerations which include scientific principles, on the methods and
procedures for the collection, processing, storage and presentation of data.
Professionally
During this period, I have seen first-hand what happens in a typical day on the job. I got a
realistic idea of the positive and negative parts of the job which helped me to make a more
informed choice. I had the opportunity to practically feel some of the academic work I acquired
from school during the attachment programme. Examples are:
1. Personal interviews
2. Data capturing onto computers
3. Management of recorded data
METHODS USED IN ANALYSIS
In order to ensure the success and effectiveness of this work, the following methods were adopted
i. Observation - This method was used to study some of the activities that go on at the office such
as; workers relation, workers attitudes towards work and the monitoring of staff.
i. Participation - This method was used to acquire knowledge on the use of computer software,
data collection, data entry and analysis.
ii. Structured interviews - Through interaction with the staff members, important information
about the HR activities, services, historical background and the organizational structure were
obtained. Busy schedules of the staff, however, made it difficult for discussions and
explanations to be asked for.