This study was cross-sectional in nature, and both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection were employed. Data were collected using household interviews, direct observation, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Qualitative data were analysed according to the themes in the research objectives. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS software.
Sample size and sampling procedure
A total of 400 respondents were interviewed. These consisted of 206 men and 194 women. Men are the household heads and women were interviewed in cases where men were not found in the homesteads. To get the respondents, the researcher visited the senior chief of the area who assisted her to identify three villages based on the following reasons: majority of the population being pastoralists, accessibility of the villages and security of the study sites. The villages identified were Kambi Odha, Kambi Mbulle and Kambi Garba. The researcher had initially anticipated using a ready-made household sampling frame from the chief’s office to select the respondents, but the area chiefs were reluctant to give named lists of their villages' inhabitants, probably because of the prevailing insecurity situation at the time of the study.
To arrive at the designated sample size, systematic random sampling was used. Sketch maps of the three villages were drawn, and landmarks in the selected settlements. These included chiefs’ camps, shopping centres, schools, churches, mosques and roads. Straight lines were drawn connecting two landmarks, for instance, a land-mark in the north was joined to a land-mark in the south and land-marks in the west were joined to those in the east. Respondents were interviewed along those lines, starting from the first landmark four households were skipped and the fifth household was considered for the interview and this exercise continued until the designated sample size was achieved.
Household interviews
Household interviews were conducted with household heads, male or female, through the administration of a questionnaire to the respondents. The enumerators were recruited and trained before data collection. Where a household was identified for the interview and the head was not present at the time of the visit, effort was made to revisit the household until one of them was found and interviewed. The questions answered by household heads were on the external agencies assisting the pastoralists to cope with various disasters, the type of assistance given and whether the assistance given was satisfactory or not.
Focus group discussions
The researcher had initially anticipated conducting three focus group discussions, but it was not possible due to insecurity. Therefore, only two focus group discussions were conducted, and each group had 10 participants who were selected purposively. Each group had men and women who were above 45 years of age. The issues discussed included development agents existing in the region, type of assistance given and pastoralists’ attitude towards the assistance offered.
Key informant interviews
Key informants were selected purposively, focusing on those informants with rich information on the topic and who were willing to share the information in order to increase the scope or range of our data. A total of 12 key informants were interviewed, which included the chief’s representative of various villages, the Senior chief for Isiolo Central, a biometrician with Ewaso Nyiro Development Authority, project coordinator from Food for the Hungry International, Livestock officer, Agricultural officer, project coordinator Arid-lands, Kenya Forest Service officer, water and irrigation officer and an officer from National Agricultural and Livestock Extension Programme.
Data processing and analysis
Data obtained from focus group discussions and key informants were sorted out and interpreted in relation to the research general objective. On the other hand, quantitative data derived from the household interviews were edited, coded and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20 spreadsheets. Descriptive statistics were run to give frequencies and percentages.