School of Communication
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Item ICT Enabled Peace Network: Case Study of Conflict Early Warning System in Kenya(Hal Open Science, 2019-09) Mukherjee Arunima & Mukoya FestusBuilding peace in post-conflict societies is a contemporary and urgent humanitarian challenge facing the world. ICTs can potentially play a role in this process, but how and why this can be done has not attracted adequate research attention, especially in the ICT4D domain which should naturally be at the forefront of such efforts. Drawing upon Castells’ notion of counter-networks, this paper based on an empirical analysis of peace-building efforts in North-West Kenya, examines the role of ICTs in enabling effectively information flows to strengthen the efforts in building a “peace network.” Important lessons are discerned on how such counter networks can be cultivated, and some reflections are presented on how these lessons may or not be applied to other conflict-ridden areas.Item ICTs as Enablers of Resilient Social Capital for Ethnic Peace(Espol Guayaquil, Ecuador, 2020-06) Mukoya FestusViolent conflict affects the lives, livelihoods and health of almost 1.5 billion people in the world. Efforts of intervention in violent conflicts through liberal peacebuilding strategies have not yielded fruits. This has paved way for resilience to be the new risk management strategy par excellence in peacebuilding in the Global South. Despite this growing enthusiasm for the focus on resilience, there remain significant debates and gaps in understanding about what actually constitutes resilience in conflict settings and particularly resilient conditions necessary for sustaining processes of preventing violent conflicts. The understanding become even more blurred when seeking to introduce Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) as an enabler of resilience in violent conflict settings. This paper therefore, argues that resilience for peace need to be understood in the context of both horizontal (bridging) and vertical (linking) social relationships that are influenced by the mushrooming and ubiquitous Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). The study found that ICTs play an important role in building resilient bridging and linking social relationships that are part of the process of preventing violent conflicts. The paper makes significant contribution to the theory of resilience as applied in ICT4D.Item “White Terror and Ghosts of Kenya”: Postcolonial, Socio-Political Imagery and Narratives of Kenyan Diasporas(RAIS Conference Proceedings, 2019-04) Ouma, Radoli Lydia“White Terror” (2013), a BBC documentary details colonial atrocities in Kenya and thereafter state of emergency. I argue, ghosts (memories) of the atrocities still haunt a few remaining colonial survivors. Socio-political colonial structures were inherited in post-independence Kenya. The documentary based on Harvard’s History Professor Caroline Elkins (2005) research was evidenced in a legal suit of five colonial survivors against the British government for torture. Post-2007 ethno-political conflicts in Kenya can be linked to misappropriations in the 1954 Swynerton land tenure reforms. British occupation of native land sparked an insurgency that resulted in a state emergency (1952-1960), and later turned into struggle for independence. To Kenyans, Mau Mau (largely Kikuyus) were freedom fighters, but inhuman savage terrorists to colonial agents. Geographical annexing of land placed the Kikuyu, a dominant ethnic group close to the colonial capital, while the rest of the tribes were disbursed in the peripheries. In postcolonial Kenya, political and economic disparities herald power struggles between dominant ethnicities, in the case of Kenya; Kikuyu, Luo and Kalenjin. Postcolonial theory was a result of colonial experience, “the testimonies of the third world countries and discourses of minorities within geographical and political divisions of “East and West”, “North and South” (Bhabha 1994). First generational Kenyans survived colonialism, but retain narratives of the struggle over colonial domination. Using a postcolonial and discourse theoretic qualitative methodology for documentary and interviews analysis, this paper traces narratives of postcolonial Kenya and impacts on present day social political challenges.Item Courting Trauma: An Unspoken Mental Health Crisis Among Journalists in East Africa(Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 2023-08) Radoli, Lydia OumaFor journalists covering trauma, capturing horrific images is part of the job. Each assignment feeds into the next, creating a cycle of witnessing horror. The story begins with getting the visuals, talking to witnesses, recording evidence, packaging, and relaying to the audience. The story is not worthwhile without visuals. However, every traumatic image captured is seared in the journalist’s cerebral cortex. In this delicate space, the images live and become part of the journalist’s internal memory. A silent companion, a constant reminder of the horror the journalist has witnessed - signaling a courtship of sorts. Using narrativity and in-depth interviews as qualitative methods, the paper situates the problem of a mental health crisis among journalists in East Africa covering traumatic events. Through in-depth interviews, narratives of journalists from Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda indicate a courtship with trauma in the line of duty. The journalists are contextualized as visual rhetors – engaged in the production and dissemination of horrific or difficult visual content. Frost (2019) describes visual rhetors as journalists who witness and produce visual frames of the dark side. This form of media practice produces images of violent conflicts. Learning from Visual Rhetoric and Dual Representation theoretical frames, the paper examines a correlation between visual rhetors ’exposure to horrific images and trauma. Arguing that visual rhetors’ multiple exposure to traumatic images in the production process causes trauma. The escalation of trauma as a mental health issue among visual rhetors is seldom talked about, yet it poses a mounting crisis that demands intervention.Item Balancing work and study: A necessity for successful distance learning(University of Nairobi, 2015-06) Ndiritu, A; Chandi, Rugendo; Rugendo, Caroline Marigu NyagaAs the country re- evaluates the achievement of Millennium goals, it becomes important for Kenya to take its toll. One of the intentions was to increase gross enrolment rate in higher education. The projection was to increase the number of students joining the universities to 450,000 by end of 2015 from 130,000 in 2008. This number was to be increased through expansion of courses done through distance education. The targeted population was of those already in employment. This group has to be able to balance the demands of their workplace and their social demands for the back to school agenda to be achieved. The University Of Nairobi School of continuing and distance education runs a course in distance education. However It has been noted that among the students who sit for university exams, many do not score 40% which is a minimum score for students to progress to the next level. The failure rate goes up to 63% with 27% out of 38% cases scoring below 40%, which is a very high failure rate. This failure rate prohibits students from graduating. it is worth finding out the cause of this failure rate. This study was carried out to find out if distance learners had a problem managing their time given the demands of the same among competing ends. An effort was also made to find out if this problem had an effect on their academic performance. From a total number of 4500 of students from the University of Nairobi in different levels of their B.Ed degrees, a sample of 650 students were selected using stratified random sampling technique .Data was collected using a mixed mode method and analyzed using Pearson correlations. The findings indicated a strong relationship between time management and academic performance (r=0.569)Item The prerequisite for degree courses through open and distance learning: a case of the university of Nairobi, Kenya(University of Nairobi, 2015-06) Rugendo, John; Ndiritu, Anne W; Rugendo, CarolineThe government of Kenya has recognised education as an important pre-requisite for it to become an industrialised country. This realisation has necessitated the need to raise the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at all levels of education. The participation rate in higher education is of importance for the populace to be able to acquire high-level skills necessary for development. This is however not possible through the traditional conventional education methods only but also through Open and Distance Learning approaches to be able to reach a large number of students. In this regard, the University of Nairobi runs a course in distance education. It has been observed that many students fail to score a total of 40% in a given course and they re-sit the failed units. The failure rate goes up to 63% with 27% out of 38% cases, which is a very high failure rate. The high failure rate and the ever increasing time taken to graduate are chronic problems in distance learning. One of the reasons why there could be poor performance is lack of post-secondary experience of whatever kind. It is therefore worth finding out how efficiency in distance learning can be enhanced. To find out the relationship between postgraduate qualification and performance in B.Ed courses, a total number of 347 students were selected using stratified random sampling technique. This sample was taken from 4,500 University of Nairobi students who were registered for the B.Ed degree in different parts of study in the School of Continuing and Distance Education. A mixed mode method approach was used in data collection. The study investigated if the independent variables ( academic qualifications ) had a relationship with the dependent variables (academic performance). Pearson correlations were used to establish if there was a relationship between the variables. The analysis indicated a strong relationship between post-secondary qualification and academic performanceItem Tobacco control interventions and their impact on cancer prevalence in Kenya(in EAMARC III Conference, 2016-11) Nyamasyo, E; Juma, Q; Wambua, BrendaThis presentation is based an on-going research on Tobacco control interventions and what impact these have on cancer prevalence in Kenya. It further identifies key gaps in both policy and research documentation and makes recommendations on priority areas required to strengthen existing tobacco control programs.