Influence of Citizen Engagement in Budget Planning on Devolved Governance Systems in Mombasa County, Kenya
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Date
2024-10
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Publisher
IAJAH
Abstract
Public participation was at the heart of the
Kenya constitution 2010, which demanded
that public participation should be
employed in all county governments that
were established under the constitution. It
was incumbent upon each devolved unit to
develop a public participation policy to
encourage and guide how the citizenry were
involved in planning and implementation of
public projects. In Kenya, the primary
objectives of public participation in
decentralized governance systems were to
enlighten, involve, confer, cooperate, and
enable the populace through various
channels, such as elections or civil society
initiatives that solicited public opinion
throughout the policy-making process.
Public bureaucracy, on the other hand, had
a culture that discouraged public
participation and instead favored traditional
means of exchanging information, such as
public hearings, which were frequently
one-sided and unfocused on fixing
problems. Therefore, through genuine
public engagement, it was necessary to
change that mentality and guarantee that
citizens were partners in the governing
process rather than only clients. This study
aimed to ascertain how citizen involvement
affected budget planning in devolved
governance systems; second, to ascertain
how citizen awareness affected budgeting
and devolved governance and to explore the
influence of monitoring and evaluation in
budget planning on the performance of
devolved governance systems in Mombasa
county, Kenya. Stakeholder theory served
as the study's foundation. The study used a
descriptive research design. The aim of the
study was the Mombasa County population
of 378,422 households, and the Yamane
method was used to choose 400 families as
a sample. To improve the validity and
reliability of research instruments, a pilot
study was carried out. The primary research
instrument for gathering both quantitative
and qualitative data for the study was a self administered questionnaire. SPSS version
26 was used to analyze the quantitative data
both descriptively and inferentially. The
results were shown as frequency tables,
means, and standard deviations. Themes
were used to analyze qualitative data, which
were then presented narratively. To carry
out the study, the investigator obtained a
research authorization letter from Graduate
School, Kenyatta University, as well as a
research permit from the National
Commission for Science, Technology, and
Innovation (NACOSTI). The study
concludes that citizen engagement
positively affect the performance of
devolved governance systems in Mombasa
County, Kenya. The study recommended
that policymakers and governance leaders
in Mombasa County should prioritize the promotion of citizen engagement in the
budgeting process. This can be achieved
through the establishment of citizen
engagement forums, public meetings, and
town hall meetings where citizens can
discuss and provide input on budget
proposals.
Description
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Citation
Kioko, S. B., Moi, E. (2024). Influence of citizen engagement in budget planning on devolved governance systems in Mombasa County, Kenya. International Academic Journal of Arts and Humanities, 1(4), 451-464.