| dc.description.abstract | Mobile phone ownership has seen a steady increase in Kenya in the last five years and currently stands at 28.08
million mobile phone subscribers spread throughout the country. With poor road infrastructure, the mobile
phone has become invaluable in reaching many people and can be useful in broadcasting information such as in
education, health, agriculture and many other sectors. Previous survey and analysis indicates that
implementation of technology is one of the key effectors of turnaround of rural economies. The main challenge
that lies ahead is one of strengthening the innovation capabilities of African in order to be able to successfully
address negative impacts caused by climate change and achieve broader economic growth and development.
Like other regions of the world, Africa and Kenya in particular is a victim of climate change that emanates from
global warming. The negative impacts associated with climate change are also compounded by many factors,
including widespread poverty, human diseases and high population density, which is estimated to double the
demand for food, water, and livestock forage within the next thirty years. Nevertheless, despite the technological
advances in the use of modern scientific equipment to predict and manipulate weather, the study posits that
scientific methods of weather forecasting are flawed, to some extent. It shouldn't be forgotten that from time
immemorial, indigenous Africans relied heavily on close observations on environmental phenomena in regards
to weather forecasting. This study looked at the Nganyi community farmers in Western Kenya who have a wellestablished
traditional indigenous weather and climate prediction system through their rainmakers. The
rainmakers of the Nganyi community together with the Kenya Meteorological department in a project led by
IGAD Climate Prediction Center (lCPAC), have devised ways of combining traditional and scientific weather
prediction methods to combat the effects of climate change without neglecting the heritage of the Nganyi
people. Hence this study sorts to answer the following research questions; can creating knowledge alliances
create better communication of weather and climate information? Can weather forecasting systems be made
more effective by linking indigenous rainmakers' knowledge and meteorological science? What technologies
can be incorporated to develop weather and climate broadcast system for the Nganyi community farmers? The
aim is to bridge the gap in reducing vulnerabilities in communities who have available good western science on
weather predictions and indigenous knowledge forecasts. The assumption is that scientific findings and
indigenous knowledge are complementary and seek to overcome the false dichotomy that these two ways of
knowing were in opposition.
The methodology was guided by a process framework of integrating scientific and indigenous weather
information through community engagement, identification of vulnerable factors, Identification of indigenous
and scientific strategies and eventually, development of an integrated strategy. Data collection was done through
semi-structured questionnaires, contextual enquiries and observation. A design report was generated from
analysis of collected data. Use case diagrams and sequence diagrams were used to conceptualize the designed
system. | en |
