Effect of Public Participation on Performance of National Constituencies Development Funded Projects: A Case of Kinango Constituency in Kwale County, Kenya
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Date
2020-12
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Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Participatory governance is imperative at grassrools level because it is known globally that
engaging people in decision making processes enable government entities to be transparent and
accountable to the public for delivering quality services and development at local level. After
independence, Kenya as a Government initiated various decentralisation reforms geared
towards enhancing the lives of the people at grassroots. However, these strategies failed as a
result of financial hiccups and inability of the government entities to efficiently and effectively
involve the locals in project development among other factors. The CDF concept introduced in
2003 was aimed at funding developmental projects with an intention of enhancing the lives of
the locals and reduce poverty index at the constituency level.Scholars,researchers and
institutions have studied much on local government, but there is shortage of literature which
dwells on community involvement in projects at grassroots level. The studies had different
topics and also did not utilize the variables put ifito consideration in this study. Similarly, there
are few research studies conducted on public participation in grassroot development projects
especially on performance of national constituencies development funded projects in Kwale
county.The major goal of this research was to determine the effect of public participation on
performance of national constituencies development funded projects in Kwale county,
Kenya.The specific objectives of the study were to establish the effect of public access to
information, public capacity building, public consultation and government policy. The
Community Participation Theory and Theory of Margin were used in the study. The study used
descriptive research design and stratified random sampling.The target population for the
research was 107 respondents comprising of 85 PMC members, 9 TSC personnel, 8 CDFC
members, 5 Ministry of Education officials in Kinango constituency.The sample size was 85
respondents. Research instrument included questionnaires from which the data was collected.
The analysis of data was done by use ofthe Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)
software.Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyse quantitative and
qualitative data respectively. The data was presented quantitatively by use of percentages,tables
and bar charts. Regression analysis and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine
the relationships between the variables.From the study findings, it was revealed that a unit
increase of public access to information would lead to an increase in the performance of NGCDF funded projects.The study also established that capacity building enabled the public to be
active and effective in their engagement by providing them the requisite skills, knowledge and
attitude for active participation in project development.It was also found that increased public
consultation would lead to an increase in the performance of national constituencies
development funded projects in Kenya.It was also established that enhancing well-defined
legally structures of participation would increase the level of public involvement in project
development.The study recommends that the government should put in place legislations and
clear mechanisms for public participation. The government should also allocate more funds for
civic education and ensure that the methods of participation used sufficiently represent the
views of the community.
Description
A Research Proposal Submitted to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Public Policy and Administration of Kenyatta University December, 2020