Influence of voter education approaches on elections outcome in Isiolo north constituency of Isiolo county, Kenya

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of voter education approaches on elections outcome in Isiolo North Constituency, Isiolo County, Kenya. It focused on study objectives which sought to establish whether the voter education content, training of voter education providers, methods used and time in provision of voter education would influence elections outcome. The study evaluated the works of various authors and personalities on voter education with highlights on the historical perspectives worldwide and traced its implication in management of democratic elections. The study adopted descriptive survey design to get information from the respondents. Data collection was made using questionnaires which were then administered to Election Administrators, Members of County Assembly, and Political Party representatives, Civil Society Groups and Faith- Based Organizations in Isiolo North Constituency, Isiolo County, Kenya with a target population of 80 respondents. The sample size of the study was 33 with all the categories of respondents, representing 41.3% of the population. The sampling procedure adopted in the study was stratified and simple random sampling. The data gathered were analyzed by means of Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS)software system and presented using descriptive statistics in form of frequency tables and percentages. A total of 33 questionnaires were distributed to the sample population of the study and 29 (88.88%) participated and returned the questionnaires, while 4 participants which was (11.12%) did not respond to the questionnaires. Fisher‟s Exact Test of significant was used to measure statistical dependence between variables for each objective. The study findings revealed that voter education content had the highest influence with a correlation of 52.5%, followed by training of voter education providers at correlation of 28.9%, then methods used for providing voter education was at 25.6%, while time had the least influence with a correlation of 15.9% on Elections outcome .Despite the fact that training of voter education providers, methods used and time in provision of voter education were noted insignificant, they were indispensible. The study came up with various recommendations which included: the electoral management body IEBC to review voter education contents and messages with specified electoral events so as to maintain relevancy in the circumstances, proper training of voter educators and coordinated engagement with civil society groups and other partners should be encouraged in order to enhance collaborative efforts in providing timely voter education to the general public.