Browsing by Author "Komen, Leah Jerop"
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Item Correlates of Mental Health Conditions and Prolonged Grief Disorder among Widows from Selected Churches in Nairobi County, Kenya(Open Access Library Journal, 2024-06-30) Kyalo, Emily Mwikali; Mageto, Peter; Komen, Leah Jerop; Ojuade, Samuel O.Background: Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is a chronic mental health condition that causes functional impairment in which about 45% - 50% of bereaved individuals adapt to the loss quickly, whereas the rest of this population prolong the symptoms of grief for more than a year after the loss of a loved one. PGD often co-exists with other mental disorders such as PTSD, depression, anxiety and many more. Objective: This study sought to investigate the correlates of depression, PTSD, and complicated grief among widows from selected churches in Nairobi County, Kenya. Methods: A total of 253 widows with age ranges from 30 to 80 years with a mean age of 45.3 ± (SD: 10.698) were recruited into the study. The tools for data collection were a researcher-generated social demographic questionnaire, Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and Harvard Trauma Questionnaire Revised (HTQ-5). Results: The results of Pearson correlation test indicated that there was a strong positive correlation between PGD and depressive disorder at 2-tailed significant level (r = 0.825, p = 0.001), between PGD and PTSD (r = 0.760; p = 0.001), between the participants’ years of marriage and PGD (r = 724; p = 0.001), between depressive disorder and PTSD (r= 0.619; p = 0.001). However, this study showed a negative correlation between the period of widowhood and depressive illness (r = −0.011; p = 0.05). Conclusion: This study concludes that while screening widows for PGD, clinicians may assess other comorbidities of PGD such as depression and PTSD early enough.Item Doing Mobile Media and Communication scholarship in different keys: Sounding out structure and integration in the field(Mobile Media & Communication, 2023) Campbell, Scott W.; Komen, Leah JeropThis special issue marks an important milestone in the maturation of the growing field of Mobile Media and Communication (MMC). When this journal was launched a decade ago, some were still trying to make sense of what this field entails, what to call it, and whether it even exists (Campbell, 2013). Although there was no question as to the growth in this new area of scholarship, the field’s coherence was highly questionable. When this journal was launched, the editors echoed concerns that: although mobile media scholarship has begun to grow, it is by no means a coherent field of scholarship, and there are still many areas in need of elaboration and differentiation […] mobile media in an age of smart-phones requires that we not only attempt to articulate the field but also to more systematically understand its various dimensions. (Hjorth et al., 2012, p. 1, cited in Jones et al., 2013). If the last decade has provided us with anything, it is perspective on where MMC scholarship has come from and how it is growing. A short article is no place to fully map out paradigmatic structure and change in a young and dynamic field. However, it is a good place to start the conversation. Toward that end, we take up the metaphor of musical structure to help identify structure in MMC scholarship and opportunities to integrate in harmonizing ways. This article focuses on two overarching traditions that have helped structure the field, “everyday life” and “development,” which have been foundational and remain highly active areas of scholarship. By examining where these research traditions intersect, we gain improved understanding of the uses and consequences of MMC around the world, while also helping to articulate aspects of the field’s structure and how they fit together in ways that foster intellectual bridging and integration.Item Engaging the disengaged: Examining the domestication of mobile telephony among older adults in Trans-Nzoia and Bungoma Counties in Western Kenya(Journal of Development and Communication Studies, 2020-12) Komen, Leah JeropThe world is growing older. Considering the increasing number of older adults, it is imperative to consider how technology design can meet the needs and wants of these important user groups. Mobile phones offer great potential in improving quality of life for older adults in areas of, healthcare, independent living, communication and reduced isolation. There have been numerous studies on technology design for older adults (Fisk, Rogers, Charness, Czaja, & Sharit, 2004), but much of the work has focused on indoor and stationary applications such as desktop computers (Zajicek & Brewster, 2004). Although older people need support beyond stationary situations inside and outside their homes (Goodman, Brewster, & Gray, 2004), limited number of mobile functions are used by older adults due to high cost associated with mobile phones (Lee: 2007). Conversely, Nimrod (2015), argues older people use mobile phones extensively but little is known about relevant domestication processes involved and the extent to which older adults adopt and use mobile phones. This study interviewed 40 older retired civil servants aged 60 years and above in Western Kenya. Using domestication theory, this study examined the appropriation (Possession and ownership), Objectification (meaning and symbols), incorporation of mobile phones in older people’s everyday life and conversion (unintended uses) process of the domestication of mobile technology by the said group. Findings showed that mobile phones both enhanced closeness with their children and isolated them from them too. Majority felt mobile phones had become their ‘extended family members’ bringing the news of the world to them via mobile phone calls and texts. However, the small font size of texts and the fact that phones were getting smaller in size made it difficult to use. Their favourite mobile phone application was the mobile money locally dubbed M-pesa as they could now receive cash transfers from the government.Item “Here you can use it”: Understanding mobile phone sharing and the concerns it elicits in rural Kenya(for (e) dialogue, 2016-03) Komen, Leah JeropGlobally, mobile phones are mostly used as personal items largely due to their data storage and services provision. However, various features enable mobile phone sharing and this subverts the notion of a single individual use. In cultures where communal sharing is valued and seen as normal, it is natural for mobile phones to be incorporated into other traditionally shared support systems, such as meetings summoned by elders, which involve social, economic, cultural and political activities. This paper draws on a recent doctoral thesis to examine the role of mobile telephony in the social transformation and development of Marakwet, a sub-ethnic group of the Kalenjin community in the Rift Valley region of western Kenya. The paper argues that the adoption and domestication of mobile telephony is both innovative and a source of problems for the Marakwet, depending on how the device is used in everyday life. The paper shows that while mobile phone sharing amongst the Marakwet is the most preferred practice, privacy and data security are key concerns among users.Item Influence of Media Messages on Self-efficacy Towards Cervical Cancer Screening Among Women Aged 18-30 Years in Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology(2016) Karaimu, Paul K; Kimotho, Stephen Gichuhi; Komen, Leah JeropItem M-PESA: A socio-economic assemblage in rural Kenya(Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network, 2016) Komen, Leah JeropThe role of information communication technologies in development is contested between those who view it as facilitating broad based human development (Waverman et al., 2005; Jack, Suri and Townsend 2010) and those that view it as counterproductive (Donner 2008, Castel et al 2007). Mobile telephony, in particular, is seen as the most techno-social transformation to occur. For instance, at a macro level, Waverman et al. (2005) note that ‘mobile telephony has a positive and significant impact on economic growth and this impact may be twice as large in developing countries’. Kenya’s M-PESA is a case in point. This paper looks at M-PESA as a site of inclusion and exclusion, focusing on two elements: emerging accounts of M-PESA usage, and security on money transfers. The paper presents M-PESA as a social assemblage by adopting DeLanda’s (2006) assemblage theory, which opens up macro and micro dichotomies. Data obtained from ethnographic interviews shows that although M-PESA is meeting some needs, it also has deterministic tendencies, such as power and gender hierarchy distributions, though complex in nature. The paper has studied mobile money as a socio-economic assemblage that shows the dynamics of social change not as given, but as constantly forming and reforming.Item Mobile Assemblages and Maendeleo in Rural Kenya(Langaa RPCIG, 2021) Komen, Leah JeropItem Mobile Assemblages and Maendeleo in rural Kenya: the case of Marakwet(University of East London, 2014) Komen, Leah JeropResearch on Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Development involves assumptions about the potential of such technologies to engender social transformations and development. Corporate organisations have financed studies that seek to understand the impact of such technologies in a bid to push for their business agenda (Castells et al., 2007; Vodafone, 2005; ITU, 2004) and also act as a means of helping developing nations eradicate poverty levels in the wake of the millennium development goals (MDGs). This kind of development is seen as synchronic, without considering the target populations’ involvement in decision making, and also tends to dictate what development should look like in the eyes of most development economies where such ICTs like mobile telephones have come from. Such development is also considered as being linear in nature (Melkote and Steeves, 2003; Donovan, 2011). This thesis is an attempt to advance the second kind of development that is diachronic in nature, which pays attention to the interrelationships of human technology rather than the former that privileges technology as engendering social transformations and development. This kind of development has been conceptualised as maendeleo, a Swahili term that denotes process, participation, progress and growth. Unlike the first perspective of development that views technology as causing changes, maendeleo sees social transformations and development as an interaction between mobile telephony users and their specific contexts. It is a localised understanding of development from the participants’ encounters with mobile telephony in their everyday life. This thesis thus examines the role of mobile telephony in the social transformation and development of the Marakwet people of rural Kenya, using ethnographic methods of data collection and assemblage theory as theoretical framework. Historically the Marakwet community of Kenya suffered from decades of insecurity due to cattle-rustling with their neighbours. Since its advent in Marakwet a decade ago, mobile telephony still remains complex. On one hand, it is seen as answering the insecurity question by allowing users to alert each other in case of an invasion, but at the same time is seen as the source of more insecurity, especially since mobile phones can also aid the enemies to cattle-rustle. Physical meetings that are the domain of most Marakwets are also affected by the technology, with it being seen as reducing the need 9 for social gatherings, yet enhancing it at the same time. Mobile money transfers, discussed as M-PESA, have not been spared either regarding services deemed to boost development and bring about social cohesion, on one hand, while still believed to cause disharmony within households and also be a ‘risky’ endeavour with lack of sufficient money deposit security, on the other. Twenty-five ethnographic interviews were conducted with 12 households, taking into account age, gender, literacy levels and the length of time the device had been accessed by users. The interviews were complemented with data obtained from 5 focus group discussions among homogeneous groups (women, men, clan elders, girls and boys). The findings show that mobile phone is implicated in everyday life of the people of Marakwet, challenging concepts such as co-presence, power and gender relationships, interpersonal networks and also the idea that the use of mobile telephony in the region incorporates older modes of communication models such as the community horn. Mobile telephony influences and is influenced by all areas of community life: health, education, and agriculture, religion forming assemblages of people (users), financial institutions, government and mobile phone service providers. This thesis challenges the dichotomisation of society into micro (individual or household) and macro (national or societal) that ignores the intermediate or meso levels. The boundaries suggested by such categorisation are blurred by communication technologies that re-define terms, such as time and space, public or private places, here and there. In a way, macro and micro distinctions also assign power to macro forces to determine the micro, which in the advent of technologies, the micro can only be changed if they so wish and not necessarily because change has been decided, packaged and delivered to them via mobile telephony or any other communication technologies. Instead, it is how they negotiate power, gender relations, cultural inclinations and socio-economic dispositions in their domesticated use of mobile telephony that facilitates social change and development.Item Mobile telephony and copresence in Marakwet, Kenya(Journal of Development and Communication Studies, 2017-06) Komen, Leah JeropThe integration of mobile phones into social life has attracted divergent views on its technosocial capacities for social transformations especially its disruption on the integrity of space and time. While celebrated as a technology that liberates users from the constraints of time and place, it is equally reviled for the defilement of place or space and face to face social encounters (copresence). This paper discusses the influence of mobile telephony on social interactions with specific focus on conversations around copresence in Marakwet. Through ethnographic interviews and observational notes, the paper argues for the need to study mobile telephony as a social assemblage. Drawing from Delanda’s (2006) version of assemblage theory, the researcher finds that copresent encounters has changed the way time and place is conceptualised, with distinctions between private and public places blurred and transformation of social interaction evidenced.Item My Mobile Phone, My Life: Deconstructing Development ( Maendeleo ) andGender Narratives among the Marakwet in Kenya(Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, 2021-02) Komen, Leah JeropThe increased adoption of mobile telephony for development is based on the assumption that mobile telephonyhas the potential to foster social change. To some, such technology can aid most developing countries to leapfrogstages of development. Yet to others, the technology is at most counterproductive: development has beenunderstood differently by the developed in comparison to the underdeveloped. Missing in this narrative is thepeople’s own conceptualization of the term development as well as their gender roles, often a component ofdevelopment programs. This study presents findings on an alternative conceptualization of development, dubbed maendeleo, a Swahili term that denotes process, participation, progress, growth, change, and improved standardof living—as defined by the people or women themselves as they interact with mobile telephony in rural Kenya.Using Manuel DeLanda’s assemblage theory to analyze interviews, this study proposes an alternativeconceptualization of development. This different perspective on development denotes both process andemergence, through the processes and roles that mobile telephony plays in the techno-social interactions ofusers, context, and other factors as they form social assemblages that are fluid in nature, hence challenging theWestern proposition that new technologies produce development understood as social transformation.Item NO! We don’t have a joint account’: Mobile telephony, mBanking, and gender inequality in the lives of married women in western rural Kenya(Information, Communication & Society, 2021-06) Komen, Leah Jerop; Ling, RichardThis paper examines how mobile communication and mobile banking is used by women in rural western Kenya (Elgeyo Marakwet), a resource-constrained area where women must carefully monitor the flow of money through their households. Also, women face structural inequality. Among other things, polygyny (one husband and several wives) is legal. Based on the inductive analysis of 25 interviews with women, and using the lens of intersectionality, we examine their use of mobile banking. We examine how mobile technology plays into the management of the household economy, and how it is used in extramarital relationships. We discuss how women use mobile communication in their collective savings groups (chama). We see how the mobile phone can be the locus of tensions within the household and how mBanking both supports the lives of the women but also how this can eventually undercut social support.Item Perception of HIV/AIDS infection and its effect on condom use among the youth of Kenya’s Kibera Slum(Journal of Development and Communication Studies, 2020-12) Nganda, Jeremiah M.; Komen, Leah Jerop; Mbogoh, BeatriceWhile studies have shown that the total number of new HIV / AIDS infections globally is on the decrease, many Sub Saharan countries continue to record high HIV prevalence. This is the case especially among the youth living in informal settlements such as Kibera slums in Kenya. Proper and consistent condom use has been presented as one of the best ways of preventing the transmission of HIV among the youth whereas abstinence has been found to be a challenge for the youth who are seen as sexually active. Though several behaviour change campaigns have been done in Kenya to promote the use of condoms among the youth, their uptake is still low (Coma, 2014). Consequently, this study sought to find out the factors were influencing condom use decisions among the youth. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour that links behaviour change to intention to perform behaviour greatly influenced by attitude, social norms and perceived behavioural control. Data for this quantitative study was collected through a questionnaire administered to 400 youths in Kibera and 356 were completed. Data collected were keyed into SPSS for analysis and presented in tables and graphs. Findings of the study revealed that many of the youth were sexually active (51 per cent) but were not using condoms. Their perception was that they were at no risk of infection (53.2 per cent). This perception of not being at risk impedes condom use among the youth hence the high HIV prevalence while another group felt that the free distributed condoms were of low quality. The study recommends that communicators, especially in this era of new media should tailor campaigns to address the perception of youth towards condoms. In addition, condom communication campaigns should link condom use to perception of risk of infection.Item Struck Down, but Not Destroyed(Syaviha Mulengya, 2019) Komen, Leah Jerop