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

ought in by the government. For instance, one respondent related how
the family migrated from the Lokwanamur area down the vast central
plains to Lokichar. When the family was faced with serious food shortages
on the way, he was forced to prematurely marry out one of his daughters
to a ‘rich’ herdsman in exchange for food. Two of their children remained
behind with the newly married sister, as the custom requires in order to
keep her company. The family now had enough food which lasted many
days as they travelled south. At the time of the interview, the two children
were still living with their sister at Lekudule, a few kilometres north of
Kakuma town. The parents still visit them occasionally.
Yet another interviewee told of the story of his trek from the Sudan border,
down across Turkana land and West Pokot to Kitale town, to look for
employment. There were many such stories whose content analysis helped
me to gain valuable insight into the adaptation phenomenon, and also
enriched the amount of data available.
3.10 Notes and data recording.
In my study, I used two different recording techniques to collect the data:
Note taking: Note taking was the most frequently used method to record
data. My notes included the names and ages of the informants and the
dates and places of interviews. Notes were taken during the formal and
informal interviews and elaborated later. A careful crosschecking of
interpretations of what respondents said, or how they understood their
own or other people’s words, was ensured. After each interview session, I
would sit down with my two research assistants, and review what we
recorded and saw. In addition, I would revise my daily work and write
down full notes at the end of each day. This included all the interviews I
conducted or participated in during the day, those whom I interviewed,
what I observed in relation to my study, and my comments on the
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