Critical Success Factors and Implementation of Development Projects in Laikipia County, Kenya

Abstract

Although development plans are supposed to benefit counties in economic and social development as well as growth through improving lives of the citizens, the implementation of these development projects faces myriad challenges; adversely affecting their completion and hence their efficacy. Consequently, development in Laikipia County is adversely affected by unsuccessful implementation of numerous development projects and the few that are concluded have really taken too long diminishing their value and usefulness. In Laikipia County, the citizens have complained of development projects taking too long to implement thus taking up a lot of resources and once complete, the impact is diminished. Despite scholars having extensively studied implementation of development projects and factors affecting such, most of available empirical studies have focused on donor funded projects and national government project, denying County Government value information for appropriate, successful and timely implementation of their development projects. Thus, there is scanty research of the factors affecting successful implementation of development projects in County Government of Laikipia Kenyan counties. This study focused on the effect of resources allocation, management support, stakeholder involvement (participation of key participants), staff competence (proficiency of staff), as well as monitoring and evaluation on implementation of development projects in Laikipia County. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population for this study was 97 development projects in Laikipia County. A sample size of 78 development projects was selected using stratified random sampling technique. Data was collected by a semi- structured questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions. The questionnaire was tested for content and construct validity through the help of expert judgment. The instrument’s reliability was tested using the Cronbach alpha. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used for data analysis. This analysis was done with the aid of SPSS. The results obtained were presented using tables and figures. The research exposed a positively significant relationship between each of; resource allocation, staff competence, managerial support, stakeholder involvement and monitoring and evaluation on the implementation of development projects in Laikipia county. This research revealed that at 5% significance level, resource allocation, staff competence, managerial support, stakeholder involvement, and monitoring and evaluation are suitable estimators of implementation of development projects in county government of Laikipia. The study recommends that the County Government of Laikipia should; provide for sufficient resources at the right time, absorb adequate proficient skilled staff, provide adequate managerial support always, ensure full stakeholder involvement, and enforce an effective and efficient monitoring and evaluation function. The findings of this study will inform policy makers in the development of project policies and it will also help the county government achieve their development objective.