Abstract:
This rearch was conducted in Tana River County Kenya. Early warning communication is a branch of
crisis communication that has been adopted into community knowledge and practice for disaster preparedness.
There are, however, concerns that in many cases, early warning on impending disasters has not translated into
appropriate and timely actions towards saving lives and livelihoods. While early warning is known to be necessary
for reducing disaster losses, studies indicate that early warning communication does not necessarily lead to early
and appropriate response from the target communities.The objective of this study was to evaluate the
dissemination strategies used to communicate the messages to the community and their adequacy in
communicating early warning to the community. Qualitative approach to the research was used where interview
schedules and focus group discussions were adopted in data collection method. A sample of 25 respondents were
interviewed, three focus group discussions were held and seven key-informant interviews were carried out. The
study used purposive and snow ball sampling procedures. The data obtained was transcribed and analysed for
themes relevant to the topic. The study found that there are considerable weaknesses in dissemination strategy by
institutions charged with the early warning communication, The study recommends that there is need for
communicators of early warning messages to look at the design of the messages on flood warnings and to take into
consideration the three elements of early warning communication, which are forecasting, dissemination and
response. It is envisaged that the findings of the study will be helpful to the communicators of early warning
messages to reconsider strategies of communication. The findings will also assist in guiding the formulation of
future disaster management policy.
