PhD thesis Title Page Final _Richard Juma - Victoria University ...

to thorough analysis to eliminate any errors. This included rationalised
selection of evidence after corroboration with other sources to ascertain
authenticity and validity of information. I then edited them again for
quality control purposes before developing a coding scheme. I coded the
responses and assigned numbers to the categories. Thereafter, analysis
was conducted within the context of the theoretical framework with the
aim of searching for emerging patterns, themes, or consistency in ideas.
The information was finally evaluated to determine its usefulness in
answering the research questions. The facts and opinions heard from the
informants are presented as well as author’s own observations.
Quantitative statistics such as ages were also utilized to find out if there
was any demonstrable difference in the impact of drought and famine in
the two research localities (Morulem and Lokichar), and to generalize the
study findings to the entire study population.
3.13 Research ethics.
My research fieldwork involved human subjects, and ethics approval
permission was required by the Human Ethics Committee of Victoria
University of Wellington in order to undertake research. An application for
ethics approval with full details was submitted to the committee and the
formal approval was received on 17 th December, 2006 (see appendix 6). It
was after receiving the ethics approval that I preceded to Kenya for
fieldwork.
Although my research topic was not sensitive in the Kenyan context, I was
still of the opinion that some ethical issues and concerns could still be
raised. It was therefore necessary to maintain a high ethical standard.
In rural villages in Kenya, getting a prior consent from participants for
such kind of work is not altogether easy. Most villagers feel very uneasy,
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