Strategies Employed by Wakilisha Program in Communicating Alcohol Abuse Messages to the Youth in Vihiga Sub County, Kenya

Numerous studies emphasise the media's crucial role in spreading health information, encouraging healthy behaviours, and influencing public health outcomes. Radio remains the dominant medium for accessing information in Kenya, with around 74% of Kenyans aged 18 and above and approximately 21 million citizens, regularly consuming radio content. Despite the Wakilisha radio program running from 2016 and focusing on topics like drug and alcohol abuse, alcohol abuse remains a significant issue in Vihiga County, especially among the youths. This study therefore purposed to assess the strategies employed by the Wakilisha Program in communicating alcohol abuse messages to the youth in Vihiga Sub-County. This study adopted a cross-sectional mixed-method research design. The study population consisted of 22,047 youths, the head of programmes and one radio presenter. The researcher used Yamane (1967) formula to get a sample size of 393 listeners. The study used systematic random sampling to select radio listeners’ respondents from Vihiga subcounty and purposive sampling to select the two radio personnel. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data from Wakilisha programme listeners and two radio personnel. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data was analysed through textual analysis. The study found out that the programmes used the following strategies; audience- preferred language, the preferred programme format, and preferred timing and engagement of listeners in determining Wakilisha content.