THE INFLUENCE OF STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATION ON CORRUPTION LEVELS IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE IN KENYA
Jacob Otachi Orina - PhD in Leadership and Governance, College of Human Resource Development, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Dr. Susan Were - Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Prof. Willy Muturi - Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
ABSTRACT
The study sought to establish the influence of governance on corruption levels in the Public Service in Kenya. One of the study objectives was to: assess the influence of stakeholder participation on corruption levels in the Public Service. A review of literature was done anchored on Stakeholder Theory. Further, the empirical review, critique of reviewed literature, a summary and the research gaps were presented. The study adopted both the correlational and descriptive research designs. A study population of 265 institutions (as at 2015) provided a target sample size of 157 institutions where 133 were positive. The target respondents (unit of observation) in the sampled institutions were public officers who had undergone training on the following disciplines: leadership, integrity, values and principles of the public service and management during the study period (2010-2015). These purposely selected respondents were subjected to questionnaire as a primary tool of data collection. To augment data from the questionnaires, 23 key informant interviews were conducted targeting senior officers in the public service, non-state actors and experts. Data collected was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. Data was presented in form of pie charts, graphs, tables and equations. The overall correlation analysis results showed that there was a significant but negative relationship between stakeholder participation and corruption levels as supported by correlation coefficient of -.741. The regression analysis results showed the coefficient of determination R square is 0.548 and R is 0.720 at 0.05 significance level. The coefficient of determination indicates that 54.8% of the variation on corruption level is influenced by stakeholder participation. The findings from the study are to benefit the policy makers, public service, citizens of Kenya and other stakeholders. It also fills the knowledge gap owed to previous little research on the influence of stakeholder participation on corruption levels. The study recommended that the public service should be keen to design policies and implement programs targeted on addressing the specific stakeholder sub constructs (stakeholder voice, openness, and partnership) so as to address the run-away corruption in the public service.
