Socio-economic determinants of public participation: a case study of the budgetary process in nandi county (2014-2017).

Abstract

This study examines the socio-economic determinants of public participation in the budgetary process in nandi county, namely education, income, gender and age. The study was guided by civic voluntarism theory, adopted cross-sectional research design and used modified multi-stage and snow-ball sampling techniques to obtain a sample of 55 respondents. Data analysis was done and presented using graphical displays and gamma measure of association. The study finds a significant positive association between education and public participation, showing that the more educated one is, the higher the likelihood of participating in the budget process. The results also show strong positive association between income and participation, suggesting that the higher the income, the more likely that one will participate in the budget process. The study further finds strong association between gender and participation showing that men are more likely than women to participate in the budgetary process. However, the study finds that public participation in the budgetary process does not significantly vary with age so that younger residents are just as likely as the older residents to participate in the budgetary process. In a nutshell, the effect of socio-economic factors on public participation varies with the factor in question. To remedy the scenario where the less education shy away from public participation, the study recommends that the county should adopt communication channels like radio that can widely reach the less educated. The county too can adopt mobile announcement mechanisms where vehicles mounted with speakers can go round announcing the meeting venues. To attract those who have less income the count should look at the timings of the budgetary meetings and even consider doing past working hours to enable those hustling attend the forums. Peer educators can also be trained and used as conveyers of information on the importance of attending budgetary meetings to appeal to with less income.