Gender equality and hiring process in oil mining companies: A case of Lokichar in Turkana, Kenya

This paper centers on the findings of a study done by the authors of this paper in 2019 titled Change in Gender Roles as a Factor in Gender Participation and Empowerment in the Oil Mining Industry: A Case of Lokichar, Kenya. One of the objectives; determining whether the oil mining companies promotes gender equity in Lokichar is explored. The null hypothesis testing on whether there is no relationship between equal hiring and equal opportunity for men and women to work in mining activities is discussed. The data was collected from a sample of three hundred (300) respondents selected through systematic random and purposive sampling methods. The studies target group was the active labour force aged between 15 to 64 years. Those who retired from work were also targeted. Two levels of analysis were adopted: Univariate and Bivariate. Chi-square was used to test the hypotheses. Major finding indicates that there is a relationship between equal hiring and equal opportunity for men and women to work in mining activities. The paper recommends that issues like compensation, decision making, royalty sharing, power relations are well spelt in policies like the Mining Bill (2014) to ensure gender mainstreaming and no ambiguity in interpretation.