Moderating Effects of Government Policies on the Antecedents of Occupational Safety and Health of Police Officers in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Résumé

The main study was entitled: Antecedents of Occupational Safety and Health among the Police Officers in Nairobi City County in Kenya. The subject of the paper is only based on one variable, government policies, practices and procedures. The objective or purpose was to determine on the moderating effects of government policies, practices and procedures on the antecedents of occupational, safety and health of police officers. The unit of study was police officers and Nairobi City County was chosen to collect data for it is the city headquarters of Kenya. The target population was 4,000 officers which included commanders. In this study, a sample size of 200 (5%) police officers was chosen through simple random sampling. In Nairobi, some 33 police stations were identified for the study and an initial 10% were picked for a pilot study. For the remaining, a sample of 5 percent of police officers and a commanding officer in each station were studied. Data from the respondents were collected by the use of questionnaires as a tool of study from the officers who were on duty but after permission had been sought from relevant authorities. Every officer commanding a police station was chosen. Each respondent was given an explanation on the importance of the study which was done freely with their willingness, at a convenient location. Each respondent was requested to confirm in writing, affirmative action or by signing a document without indicating their name to show that the study was done with their approval. The filled questionnaires were collected and kept with confidence. Through these modes of data collection, every population was well represented as a sample. The study used Cronbach Alpha Coefficient to test on the reliability of instruments. The validity of the research instruments was also tested.  Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in data analysis using SPSS version 20. Data was then presented in the form of figures, tables and charts. Through factor analysis, all the eight statements of a variable under study were retained for they were above 0.5. The response rate of the respondents was 75.5% which is acceptable. Majority of the police officers, 42.4% were of the view that government policies are helpful to them during emergencies. Reliability analysis was tested on the variable government policies using Crombach Alpha and it had a value of .787 which was greater than .7 showing reliability. In addition to the KMO test, the Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was also significant (.000, at p < .05) for all the study variables including government policies. These results provided an outstanding validation for further statistical analysis which was conducted. All the statements on government policies had a factor loading values which were greater than .5 and were therefore accepted and thus no sub variable was dropped. Results also showed that the R squared after moderation by government policies was .903 thus higher than the non-moderated effect which had its R square being .828. It means that government policies, practices and procedures moderates the relationship between leadership style, legal framework, nature of work environment, available resources and work load and occupational, safety and health of police officers explain 90.3% of the variations in occupational, safety and health of police officers in Kenya.