Abstract:
It has been observed that as human settlement activities in peri-urban areas increase, flooding
incidents have been noted to escalate. Although the government appreciates community
participation; and has encouraged and supported local community driven initiatives towards
disaster response, paticipaticipation by individual households in humanitarian assistance to the
disaster victims in peri-urban settlements is reported to be low. The objective of this paper was
to examine the relationship between the homeowners’ environmental attitude and the level of
humanitarian support given during flooding in Mavoko. The study targeted heads of household;
the general public; officials of government and quasi-government institutions as well as
professional and residents associations responsible for environment, settlement and disaster
mitigation; leaders of religeous and community organisations and societies responsible for
emergency management and humanitarian support in Machakos and Nairobi Counties. The
study took a survey design and used multistage random, snowballing, purposive and quota
sampling techniques to identify participants. The study used mixed methods to collect
quantitative and qualitative data using questionnaire, interview guide, document analysis, focus
group discussions and observation. Data were analysed through descriptive analysis,
Nomothetic evaluation, Chi-square test at a level of significance of 95% (α = 0.05), and
Crammer’s V analysis. The study revealed that there was a significant relationship between the
homeowners’ environmental attitude and the level of humanitarian support given during
flooding. The study recommends that policy makers and settlement planers, together with other
players, to packages that will generate generating attitudinal and behavioural change.
