Influence of Public Participation on Implementation of County Government Projects: Case of Makueni County, Kenya

Abstract

Projects are the foundation of local development in any nation that is developing. Despite the significance of county government projects to society, the majority of these initiatives have delayed, failed, or otherwise fallen short of their goals. The study aimed at assessing the influence of public participation on implementation of county government projects: case of Makueni County, Kenya. The study was guided by following specific objectives; to determine the influence of public participation in project identification process, budget preparation process, governance process and monitoring and evaluation process on implementation of Makueni county projects. A descriptive research design was used for this study. There were 330 project personnel working on projects throughout all Makueni County constituencies and this formed the study population. Thus, the target population was the project committee members, executive project management consultant members and technical officers involved in implementation of the projects for the last at least three years at Makueni sub-counties. Using a stratified random sampling procedure, 99 respondents (30% of the population) were chosen from the target population. The study used primary methods in data collection using questionnaires. Content analysis method was used to examine the qualitative data from the open-ended questions. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 22 was used to interpret the quantitative data from the closed-ended questions. Descriptive statistics, such as frequencies, percentages, standard deviation, and arithmetic mean, were used to examine the results. Inferential analysis was used in determination of the relationship between the variables. The results of the analysis were subsequently shown in charts and tables. The coefficient results show results that budget preparation process and governance process have a significant positive influence on project implementation, with standardized coefficients of 0.555 and 0.761, respectively. Meanwhile, monitoring and evaluation has a significant negative influence on project implementation with a standardized coefficient of -0.479. Project identification pross, on the other hand, does not have a statistically significant impact on project implementation.