**3.4. Data analysis**

calculated from the target population with a 5% margin error [57, 58]. In the formula, n = the

A reconnaissance visit was prudent to help gain basic understanding of the potential respondents for the study, and this helped in deciding what to include in the survey instruments. After the initial visit, a week was spent preparing questionnaires for the survey, and another week for training of research assistants on how to effectively administer the questionnaires and also iron out any challenges regarding translation of questions and responses (from English to the local languages and vice versa where applicable). The services of a translator were employed where necessary. A total of 30 questionnaires were piloted. The results of the pilot were used to improve the efficiency of the data collection instruments for the main survey. The study also employed ethnographic approaches such as participant observation, transect walks, key informant interviews and focus group

Participant observation is considered a primary method in anthropological research, especially for ethnographic studies. One of the first instances of its use is in the work of Frank Hamilton Cushing who spent four and a half years as a participant observer with the Zuni Pueblo people (northwestern New Mexico) around 1879 [59]. The aim of participant observation was to

understand the social world from the subjects under investigation's point of view [60].

desired sample size, N = the target population and e = margin of error.

**Figure 2.** Conceptual model of the study (source: author's own conceptualization).

discussions.

168 Indigenous People

*3.3.2. Participant observation*

Data analysis comprised both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Quantitative data on the one hand were cleaned, coded and entered into the Epidata 3 software prior to exporting it into the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 16 for analysis. Descriptive and cross tabulations were carried out. On the other hand, qualitative data followed a fourpoint data analysis schema involving reading, coding, displaying and data reduction. The transcripts were entered into Nvivo 10 program (Scolari Inc., SAGE Publications) based on the template of topical categories drawn from questions and issues covered in the field guide and from the themes emerging from the interviews themselves. The program facilitated easy coding, displaying and data reduction.

#### **3.5. Ethical considerations**

Prior to participation in the study, an informed consent of all participants was sought. The researcher acknowledges that many of the cultures from which traditional knowledge is collected are more endangered than the ecosystems in which they reside. When their local knowledge and information is published or supplied to databases, industry or the general public, a unique opportunity exists for these communities to receive economic or nonmonetary benefits from its use. If this opportunity is missed, their knowledge, once published, becomes part of the public domain and it is no longer their own to monitor and control. Yet, ethnobotanical information is often recorded without fully explaining to communities how it will be used or how local rights to control its use might be affected. Similarly, biological samples are sometimes collected from indigenous reserves without local communities' full consent. The ethical issues that were addressed by the researcher in consultation with Kenyatta University Directorate of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) included:


While systematic documentation captures and preserves orally transmitted knowledge for present and future generations, it exposes local farmers to the risk of losing their IPR through piracy and commercial exploitation. Cognizant of this, the research team strived to use creative ways of documenting oral ethnobotanical knowledge while protecting the IPRs of the community right at the beginning of the study. The provision of an explanation on the objective of the study hopefully led to a relaxed and positive attitude from the respondents to facilitate data collection. Additionally, field observations, photography, participatory resource mapping and transect walks were employed in data collection.

The inclusion of the community in the study by giving local people a chance to coordinate the study process enabled the research team to build linkages and ensured that the local community owned the work. The local community benefited in three ways:


Such collaboration through an exchange of seedlings between the community and researchers as well as empowerment of the research team to cascade the gained knowledge about ethnobotanical resources enhanced the buy-in of study results and recommendations to improve the current environmental policy with a view to integrating indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge in development programs for sustainability.
