Strengthening Resilience to Fire Disasters through Community Participation in Gikomba Market, Nairobi City County, Kenya
Loading...
Date
2023
Authors
Ongoro, Daniel Juma
Muiya, Benard Munyao
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
EJ-SOCIAL
Abstract
Fire disasters accounts for 20% of the total disaster in Kenya, with direct
property loss estimated at USD 595,715 From 2014 to 2022, a total of 248
fire incidences were reported in Nairobi, about 30 of which occurred in the
Gikomba market. Contribution of community in disaster risk mangenet
can never be overlooked in disaster resilience building. Even though the
concept of multi-stakeholder has been adopted in Kenya, the community's
involvement in disaster risk management has always been passive.
Therefore, the objective of the study was to determine how the level of fire
risk awareness by the Gikomba community affects their participation in
disasters risk management. This study was guided by the model of Sense
of Community Responsibility (SOCR), Rocha’s community empowerment
model, and the theory of margin. A mixed research design was adopted in
the study. A stratified random sample was obtained by dividing the
Gikomba market population into several homogenous and nonoverlapping strata based on the nature of the business. Open-ended
questionnaires were administered to collect quantitative data from 384
respondents. On the other hand, the no-probability sampling technique
was used through purposive snowball sampling to collect qualitative data
through interviews. Key informants were mainly disaster experts drawn
from, national, county, and private stakeholders. Quantitative data was
analyzed through SPSS (version 26) software, while qualitative data was
organized into meaningful and reasonable units that were coded using
words or short phrases. The study established that level of community
understanding of their involvement in disaster risk management was low
since 52% of the respondents believed that disaster risk reduction was the
sole duty of the national government or county governments. Therefore,
this study recommends that, both national and county governments enact
and implement laws that will enhance community participation in disaster
risk management programs as part of the stakeholder group in line with
the existing multiagency concept of operation. Further disaster risk
awareness should be integrated into school curricula to improve disaster
awareness at the local level.
Description
Article
Keywords
Community Risk Awareness, Community Participation in Disaster Risk Management, Role of Community in Disaster Management
Citation
Ongoro, D. J., & Muiya, B. M. (2023). Strengthening Resilience to Fire Disasters through Community Participation in Gikomba Market, Nairobi City County, Kenya. European Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(2), 79-92.