Page 42 - EVOLUTION OF THE SUDAN PEOPLE’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT(SPLM),

3.2 Sampling Procedure

The sample of this study is drawn from all the major political players, actors and strategic elites of
SPLM and citizens of South Sudan. For the purpose of this study, purposive and snowballing techniques

were applied because they have an advantage over probability sampling because the selected sample
is representative of the whole and not everybody in the target population was knowledgeable of this
research. Snowballing is a respondent driven technique where those to be interviewed are drawn from
the acquaintances of those already interviewed (McMillan, 2008).

The sampling process, therefore, targeted political elites and citizens of South Sudan. From the
various groups, individuals were purposively selected to form a focus group discussion. A total of 150
respondents were interviewed. Both male and female were interviewed, aged between 18 and 80. Those

aged 18 were selected because they were of voting age while the older ones were selected because they
were knowledgeable of the movement and the liberation struggle. Generally, in the sample, people
from different levels of education, gender and religious affiliations were interviewed.

3.3 Research Instruments

Interview and focus group discussion were used as the instruments for this study because they guide
document analysis guide for purposes generate qualitative data concerning the SPLM. This study
also used interview guide for data collection from the selected informants. In-depth unstructured

interviews were used for purposes of understanding the political perceptions and opinions/views of
the South Sudanese residents regarding SPLM leadership. This method is ideal because it provided an
opportunity for respondents to give their views.

The study adopted document analysis in order to facilitate the study the SPLM leadership structures,

policies and programs. According to McMillan (2008), documents facilitate data verification obtained
from oral interviews. The documents such as books, newspapers, minutes and reports helped the
researcher to gain deeper understanding of issues. It was also useful for triangulation of data collected.

This study employed focus group discussion as a principal means of collecting data. The focus group

discussions (FGD) are important because they promote interaction and insights that would be less
accessible without the interaction found in a group (Flick & Foster, 2008). Furthermore, focus groups
are economically and practically efficient in terms of data collection from numerous participants,

hence increasing the overall number of participants in a qualitative study (Krueger, 2000). In addition,
the participants’ interaction can yield important data (Morgan, 1998). In this respect, the use of FGD
enabled the researcher to gain more views held by the group than individual standpoints on the SPLM.

3.4 Data collection Methods and Procedures

The study was carried out in South Sudan and interviewed actual participants in the SPLM/A struggle
against Khartoum regime. The researcher conducted in depth interviews among key informants
numbering 150 together with serving and former ministers in government. The information collected

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