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

the puzzling problem with numbers. This had to do with the way the
Turkana count their livestock and the possibility of exaggerating losses
ostensibly to gain sympathy from the interviewer. To counter this and
improve the reliability of the data, it was necessary to reduce the original
size of the sample population, limit the number of questions, and finally,
to use a large number of probe questions as a cross check mechanism. I
also continuously explained to the respondents that I was just a student
carrying out research, the content of which will be analyzed for writing an
academic thesis, and that it had nothing to do with availability of relief
food. My research assistants were also able to go to the nearby grazing
lands when necessary to physically count the animals.
8.4 Summary of the findings.
The testing of the first hypothesis revealed that Turkana pastoralists
sought help from quite a large number of ‘allies’ during the 2005-2006
drought and famine periods. Access to social capital made it easier for the
local people to access other types of capital. Therefore, social capital has
been traditionally and remains very important for Turkana society. For
instance, the evidence suggests that, as a consequence of the 2005-2006
droughts, Turkana people were compelled by sheer necessity for survival to
maintain trade ties with entrepreneurs and traders in the district and
symbiotic relations with pastoral neighbours, principally the Merille of
Ethiopia. Secondly, families were split, and as a survival strategy, children
were made to take refuge with friends, kinsmen, and affines as the
domestic food reserves dwindled. The evidence further indicated that in the
family splitting mechanism for weathering the drought and famine effects,
the school emerged as perhaps the most dependable ally. The sharp rise of
primary school enrolment in the study area as well as in the district as a
whole, was probably because of increasingly large numbers of hungry
children who were sent to school principally to feed rather than to be
educated, as the case should otherwise be under normal circumstances. It
245