Communication Strategies and Terrorism Risk Preparedness among the Residents of Nairobi City County

Purpose: The main purpose of the study was to establish the association of communication strategies and terrorism risk preparedness among the residents of Nairobi City County. Materials and Methods: This study followed a mixed-methods design mainly of a questionnaire survey complemented by observation, key informant interviews and document analysis, The design employed the Concurrent Convergent (Triangulation) Parallel strategy. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Nairobi City County has a resident population of 4,397,073. A further estimated 2.5 million non-residents troupe to the city-county daily for business and employment or as tourists and travelers in transit to other counties. Therefore, the target population for this study was approximately 6.5 million. The study population was drawn using stratified purposive random sampling technique where the list of all the sampling locations was categorized into four strata. The sample size was 640 respondents who were proportionately drawn randomly drawn from four different strata. Findings: Regression of coefficients showed that research and alerts in communication and terrorism risk preparedness were positively and significantly related (β=0.293, p=0.000). In addition, results showed that emergency action and public education and terrorism risk preparedness were positively and significantly related (β=0.109, p=0.004). Governments that fail to warn their citizens when aware of imminent or possible terror threats will be accused of failing in their duty. Implications to Theory, Practice and Policy: The study concludes that the use effective communication strategies is critical for terrorism risk preparedness, as they enhance message reception and thus motivate preparedness planning and action taking. This in turn can help in detecting and thwarting attacks before they happen, mitigate the impact of attacks, promote public safety during attacks, and build community resilience. Therefore, the study recommends that organizations, be they government agencies, first responders and corporates should incorporate effective Communication strategies into the overall crisis preparedness plans, in order to enhance their ability to communicate and respond effectively during terrorism attacks.