PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND IMPLEMENTATION OF GOVERNMENT PROJECTS IN KENYA, CASE OF MACHAKOS COUNTY GOVERNMENT
Patricia Muthei Musau - Masters of Business Administration Degree (Project Management), Kenyatta University, Kenya
Dr. Caleb Kirui - Lecturer, Department of Management Science, Kenyatta University, Kenya
ABSTRACT
The Government of Kenya undertakes a variety of projects through its county governments, which are aimed at developing infrastructure, social welfare, health services, urban and rural development, as well as preserving culture and heritage. This directly or in-directing affects the lives of citizens and also reflects on the effectiveness and efficiency of Government. Thus far, all county governments in the country have shown major management gaps with regards to effective implementation of almost all their planned projects. This study seeks to investigate the extent to which project management practices impact the implementation of government projects in county governments, using Machakos County Government as an example. The specific objectives will include; evaluating the influence of project planning on management practices and implementation of government projects; determining the effects of stakeholders’ participation on management practices and implementation of government projects; and finding out the effects of monitoring and evaluation on management practices and implementation of government projects. The study will employ a qualitative descriptive survey research design on a population of 90 employees that are directly involved in the completion of county government projects. The respondents will be purposively selected; top-level management, middle-level management, and lower level management in order to get the sample size of 30% of the target population, which is termed as a good benchmark for use in a research analysis. The researcher will use semi-structured questionnaires to collect primary data from the sample population, and secondary data will be collected from the Government reports and other related studies. There will be a pilot test for the questionnaire before carrying out the data collection to determine instrument reliability. In addition, both closed and open-ended semi-structured questions will be used in the self-administered questionnaire. After collection, the data will be edited, coded, classified and analyzed through descriptive statistics and inferential statistics using SPSS software. Conclusions and recommendations will be drawn from the study findings.
