ROLE OF STAKEHOLDERS PARTICIPATION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF CONSTITUENCY DEVELOPMENT FUND PROJECTS IN MATHIRA EAST CONSTITUENCY IN KENYA
Jane Wamaitha Wamugu - Master Student, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Dr. Kennedy Ogollah - Lecturer, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
ABSTRACT
The Constituencies Development Fund in Kenya was created by the Constituencies Development Fund Act, 2003 with the primary objective of addressing poverty at grassroots level by dedicating a minimum of 2.5% of the Government ordinary revenue to grassroots development and the reduction of poverty. It targets all constituency level development projects especially those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots. Most of the projects derail in completion; others are left uncompleted while others are just non existing projects. The study assessed the Role of Stakeholders Participation on the Performance of Constituency Fund Development Projects in Kenya, a case of Mathira East Constituency. The dependent variable were the measures of CDF project performance including timely completion, quality output and efficiency in budget utilization, while the independent variables of study comprised Stakeholders participation in CDF Project Initiation, Planning, Implementation and monitoring and control. The major purpose was to establish the Role Stakeholders participation played on the Performance of Constituency Fund Development Projects in Kenya. A descriptive research design was adopted, whereby both quantitative and qualitative data was collected using a questionnaire from Mathira East constituency. The study population was the entire CDF project initiated in Mathira East Constituency in the year 2013/2014. The study sample for the respondents was obtained using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. To enhance the reliability and validity to the data collection tool, a pilot test was carried out in 10 percent of the study sample. Data analysis involved the use of both descriptive and inferential statistics using statistical package SPSS. The participation in initiation, participation in planning, participation in implementation and participation had a positive and significant effect on performance of CDF projects. The study concluded that most notably participation in project initiation activities such as identification screening and selection is the most critical as it is at this stage were stakeholder can have the highest influence on performance of CDF projects. The study recommends that CDF management board should strengthen stakeholder participation by removing the primary bottlenecks identified by the study- information asymmetry/lack of transparency, lack of clarity on stakeholder input and weak legal framework to support stakeholder participation.
