Sorry about the delay in replying - I've only just returned to the forum.
Contacts ? - well, not really - I'm a bit out of touch with this area of beekeeping - but as you probably know the modern TBH resulted from the work of Tredwell and Paterson in 1965, which was then introduced into Kenya by Maurice Smith and Gordon Townsend of the University of Guelph in 1971.
Gordon Townsend wrote a very interesting paper (or booklet ?) entitled "Beehive Designs for the Tropics" in 1984. There are copies floating around the internet, but if you have difficulty sourcing it - drop me a PM with your email address, and I'll swift a copy over to you.
As there has been recent interest in another thread about the feasibility of converting a TBH to take Langstroth frames, perhaps I could quickly give a small quote from Townsend's paper:
The modified African long hive with movable frames is a very useful transitional hive for use with the tropical African bee. If the frames are made with sidebars and a median cross bar or a thin cross strip of wood or bamboo, the colony can be moved and the combs handled without breakage. This hive also has all the advantages of the Kenya top bar hive, at very little extra cost. The combs can be interchanged with Langstroth frames if it is so desired.
There's nothing new under the sun
So - although Townsend has been 'the big name' at Guelph in the world of beekeeping within developing countries, a quick tour of the Guelph website this morning turned up a couple of rather more up-to-date names:
Professor Gard Otis, School of Environmental Sciences, gotis(at)uoguelph.ca and
Ernesto Guzman, Professor and Head of the Honey Bee Research Centre, guzman(at)uoguelph.ca
Hopefully one or other of those guys would be able to assist you.
Hope this helps ...
LJ