Opinion leadership strategies for communicating adaptive climate change information to residents of Kitui Central Constituency in Kenya

Abstract

This study was conducted to appraise opinion leadership strategies being used to communicate adaptive climate change information to residents of Kitui Central Constituency (KCC) in a bid to improve their adaptive capacity so as to reduce their vulnerability to climate change. The aim of the study was to evaluate opinion leadership strategies used in communicating adaptive climate change information to residents of KCC. The study was guided by four specific objectives which included to investigate levels of knowledge among residents of KCC on adaptive climate change information that would be useful in evaluation of opinion leadership strategies, to evaluate attributes of individuals who use opinion leadership strategies to communicate adaptive climate change information, to examine ways used by opinion leaders to communicate adaptive climate change information and to determine the moderating effects of socio-cultural factors on effectiveness of the opinion leadership strategies used to communicate adaptive climate change information to residents of KCC. The study was informed by the two step flow and the diffusion of innovations theories of communication. The mixed research design was adopted. Multistage sampling technique was used to select a quantitative sample of 573 respondents that was arrived at using standard sample size calculation formulae. Purposive sampling was used to select 32 key informants for the qualitative sample. The survey method was used to collect quantitative data from four randomly sampled sub-locations of KCC and a 98.4% response rate was achieved. To collect qualitative data interviews with eight key informants were conducted and four focus group discussions comprising of 23 participants were done. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (mainly percentages) and inferential statistics (the chi-square goodness of fit test) with the aid of SPSS (version 20.0) and the results presented using tables and bar graphs. Qualitative data was analyzed using emerging themes and presented as narratives that were triangulated with the quantitative data. The study concluded that although many KCC residents had basic awareness that climate was changing and there was need to adapt to it they lacked comprehensive adaptive climate change information. Secondly, residents rated opinion leaders who had been engaging them in the adaptive climate change information discourse as more effective if they were knowledgeable, gregarious, trustworthy and credible, frequent communicators, easily accessible and had communication prowess. Thirdly, although opinion leaders had managed to demystify the complex issues surrounding adaptation to climate change by providing simple, applicable and understandable adaptive climate change information through the highly rated face to face interactions they lacked in the intensity in which they engaged with their audiences. Fourthly, the study established that various socio-cultural and economic factors had moderating effects on opinion leadership strategies thus complicating the task of disseminating adaptive climate change information and the residents’ ability to put the received adaptive climate change information into use. The study recommended that opinion leaders should be supported and trained by various climate change stakeholders to empower them to surmount the challenges they faced when communicating adaptive climate change information. The study will not only benefit residents of KCC but also various climate change stake holders working in Kenyan ASALs and beyond.