Project Risks and Perfomance of Kenya Power’s Last Mile Connectivity Project in Murang’a County, Kenya
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Date
2021
Authors
Sandeep, Dhanjal
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Research has revealed that government projects in different countries often underperform in terms of cost, time and quality of their deliverables. In the case of Kenya Power’s Last Mile Connectivity project, the situation is not different. While the aim of the project was to increase accessibility to electricity among rural Kenyans by 2020, quite a high population in the rural areas still are still not connected to the national grid. The fundamental question therefore, which calls for research, is what project risks have been affecting the performance of the Last Mile Connectivity project in the different parts of the country? Unfortunately, researchers have scarcely investigated project risks and performance of the Last Mile Connectivity project especially in Kiharu Constituency which was the focus of this study. The objectives were to determine the effect of political, environmental, socio-cultural and inflationary risks on the performance of Kenya Power’s last Mile Connectivity Project in Kiharu Constituency. The study was anchored by the theory of political ambiguity, contigency theory and project management theory. The study used descriptive research design and structured questionnaires as primary data collection instruments to collect data from the target population of 62 people who works in various capacities in the implementation of Last Mile Connectivity Project in Kiharu Constituency. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression model was used for data analysis and the results presented in form of tables and charts. Findings indicated that political risks, environmental, and inflationary risks involved in the implementation of the LMC project in Kiharu constituency are quite high with means of 3.77, 4.22 and 3.97 respectively, while the socio-cultural risks are to a moderate extent (mean = 3.13). The study concluded that only political and socio-cultural risks have a significant effect on the project performance while the environmental and inflationary risks do not have a significant effect on the project performance. The study recommends that politicians should avoid interfering in the various project activities in the LMC project in Kiharu constituency especially in contract awarding processes. Moreover, the county administration should organize for civic programs geared towards promoting integration and healthy coexistence between non-local workers involved in LMC project and the indigenous people. Further studies should be conducted to explore other risks apart from political, environmental, socio-cultural and inflationary risks that affect the performance of LMC project. It is also important that other studies be carried out to interrogate the project risk mitigation measures applied in LMC project in different regions and their impact on the project performance.
Description
A Research Project Submitted to the School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration (Project Management) of Kenyatta University, June, 2021
Keywords
Project Risks, Perfomance, Kenya Power’s, Last Mile Connectivity Project, Murang’a County, Kenya