CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ROAD PROJECTS IN WAJIR COUNTY, KENYA
Muktar Ahmed Osman - Master of Business Administration (Project Management), Kenyatta University, Kenya
Gladys Kimutai - Lecturer, Department of Management Science, Kenyatta University, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Roads are the most common mode of transport in the county despite their poor state. Even though the road network has improved since the county government came into place, most of the roads are still rendered impassable during rainy season thus curtailing all movements by road within the county. Wajir County is one of the counties facing with poor road conditions whereby during the rainy season the county is cut-off from the rest of the country. Even though the First County Integrated Development Plan 2013-2017 showed that 40 projects aimed at improving the road conditions had been proposed, the County Annual Development Plan 2016/17 showed that only 4 of these were ongoing and the rest were behind schedule. This raised issues pertaining to the commitment of the County Government which continued to propose new road projects when a large number of the previously stipulated projects were yet to be implemented. The purpose of this study therefore, was to assess the critical success factors in the implementation of road projects in Wajir County, Kenya. The study sought to examine the influence of contractors’ competencies/capacity, resource mobilization, target beneficiary participation, political goodwill and governance and monitoring and evaluation on the implementation of road projects in Wajir County. The study was founded on the theory of project management, participatory development theory and the program theory. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The study targeted 5 county officials under the transport and infrastructure department, 280 project management committee members drawn from the various road projects in the county, 27 registered road contractors involved in the various road projects in the county as well as 300 local community leaders representing the local residents who are the target beneficiaries of road projects drawn from various project and development committees in the county. The study used primary data collected using a structured questionnaire. The data collected was analysed using quantitative method. Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to analyse the data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were extracted. A multiple regression model was used to show the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variables. The study found that contractors’ competencies/capacity, resource mobilization, target beneficiary participation, political goodwill and governance and monitoring and evaluation positively and significantly influence the implementation of road projects in Wajir County. The study found that resource mobilization had the largest influence on the implementation of the road projects in the county followed by contractors’ competencies/capacity and then monitoring and evaluation. The study concluded that if the county was to witness improved implementation of road projects in the county, emphasis had to be placed on enhancing the level of contractors’ competencies/capacity, resource mobilization, target beneficiary participation, political goodwill and governance and monitoring and evaluation throughout the project lifecycles. Several recommendations were made among them the establishment of structures and guidelines which are adhered to during the selection of road contractors and that measures are put in place to tame corruption and political influences in awarding of contracts. The study also recommends the need for established system where the details and track records of road contactors are kept and integrated so that tracking of their delivery is made easy. The study further recommends that the county government should devise innovative ways of raising extra local funds to supplement the total funds from the central government and there should be diversification of sources of funding for road projects.
