EFFECTIVENESS OF THE SANITATION AND HYGIENE POLICY LINKS IN KAKAMEGA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Sanitation is one of the major issues confronting humanity today. Many households within the developing world are exceptionally a long way from accomplishing adequate degrees of sanitation and hygiene notwithstanding the policies put in place. The majority of the sanitation facilities in the developing nations are inadequate and unimproved. The broad objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of sanitation and hygiene policies through the provision of essential and fundamental services like sanitation and hygiene in Kakamega County. This study was done in an informal and rural setting of Lurambi Sub-County, Kakamega County. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional study design whereby 156 households were selected by simple random sampling in Lurambi Sub County. Six officers in the WASH sector were purposively sampled for the interviews. Study tools that were used included structured questionnaires, Key Informant Interview schedules and observation checklist. Management of the collected data was done using the IBM Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (version 25).Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics including the cross tabulation and frequencies were used. The study results demonstrated that the level of knowledge and awareness among the community members on the sanitation and hygiene policies was poor; the sanitation and hygiene facilities were unkempt, unmaintained and inadequate in more than 70% of the households. This demonstrated that little investment had been made in proper sanitation and hygiene facilities. The predominance of WASH related-diseases like diarrhea among the community members was attributed to the inaccessibility to safe water for drinking, and poor sanitary and hygiene conditions. I concluded that the sanitation and hygiene policy links in Kakamega are least known by both the residents of the study area and the actors which has contributed to poor sanitation and hygiene behaviors that has contributed to the high prevalence of the water-related diseases in the region. The study revealed that everyone has a role to play in ensuring proper implementation of sanitation and hygiene policies and also holds the government responsible to the people because it is for the people. There is need for cooperation amongst all stakeholders including national and county governments as well as development partners in order to achieve the objectives of efficient and effective service delivery and good governance in the Sanitation and hygiene sector. All actors should play their role to increase the level of compliance to the set policy and reduce the risks associated with poor sanitation and hygiene.