Influence of oil drilling on the socioeconomic wellbeing of Turkana community in Lokichar Location, Turkana County, Kenya

Abstract

Oil drilling is supposed to create economic development and improvement of living standards to the people living around the mine areas through job creation, provision of education and equal sharing of the benefits from the resource. Currently, poverty levels among the locals have not improved and the effects of environmental pollution from oil firms are clearly evident, influencing the wellbeing of the community. This study sought to examine the influence of oil drilling on the wellbeing of the Turkana community in Lokichar Location Turkana County, Kenya. The objectives were to; assess the influence of oil firm’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), environmental pollution and land acquisition on the wellbeing of the Turkana community in Lokichar Location, Turkana County. The ex post facto research design was used. A Stratified random sample of 384 households was selected and interviewed using a pretested structured questionnaire from two Sub Locations of Lokichar and Kapese located at a radius of five kilometers from Ngamia 1, Etuko, Twiga and Ekales Tullow oil wells. The sample was allocated proportionally within the two sub locations, 177 households in Lokichar and 207 in Kapese Sub location. Key Informants Interviews (KII) were conducted on purposively selected from key employees of Tullow oil, local community leaders, and Chiefs. Two Focus Group Discussions (FGD) targeting women living around the mine zones in the two sub locations were conducted. The resulting data from the KII and FGD were used to triangulate the data from the household survey. Descriptive statistics (frequency distributions, means and standard deviations) and inferential statistics (regression analysis and t-test) were used to analyze the data at 95 percent level of confidence. The socioeconomic wellbeing of the households found around the oil fields in Lokichar were found to be of low level (3.0 to 4.99) with a mean of 4.84 on a scale of 1 to 10. Statistical significant negative influences were found to exist between the socio-economic wellbeing of the households and involuntary land acquisition (β=-.567, p=.001) and environmental pollution (β = -.359 p=.017). Corporate social responsibility had no significant influence on wellbeing of the people living around the oilfields. The study concluded that the oil firms need to increase their corporate social responsibility, enhance pollution control measures and compensate the local people for their acquired land.