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

and the degree of variations (or homogeneity) within and between the
villages chosen. Pictures were taken to give an extra dimension to the
written information and to make the thesis attractive.
Throughout the research, the household (awi) 49 is used as the major unit
of analysis and comparison, and not the smaller mother and children unit
(ekol) which is often incorporated into a larger awi. Traditionally, Turkana
pastoralists shared their daily meals in the awi (Wienpahl 1984). Although
households (awis) may also form larger groups ‘neighbourhood’ (adakars),
matters relating to food security are still decided at household level as it
(the household) is the main production and consumption unit. 50
3.2 Selection of the study area.
As already discussed in chapter 1, I had selected the research area and
topic before starting a PhD program at Victoria University in 2006. Having
been a government officer in the Turkana District in 1999, I came to
realize that the district is one of the most marginalized regions in Kenya,
and has experienced serious food shortages since colonial days. I learnt
that one of the major causes of famine in the region is drought, and it was
my own conviction that more needed to be done to strengthen the
resilience of the local people to drought and famine. I observed that this
could be achieved through research of this nature.
A long spell of drought period from 2005-2006 which led to serious
national food shortages in the Turkana District made this study possible.
The Turkana District was reportedly the most affected district in Kenya by
2005-2006 drought and famine (UNICEF 2006).
49 For detailed description of the Turkana ‘awi’ and its role as a production and
consumption unit, refer to the discussion in Chapters 4 and 5.
50 For this reason therefore, much of the primary data used for this study has been
collected from the household unit.
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