Socio Economic Factors Influencing Completion Of Selected County Funded Construction Projects In Kitale Town, Trans Nzoia County, Kenya

Abstract

Completion of county funded construction projects in Kitale town, Trans Nzoia County records dissatisfying views on the schedule performance of most of the projects. The study investigated socio-economic factors influence on completion of construction projects in Kitale Town, Trans Nzoia County. The study were guided by the following objectives; to establish how procurement capacity influence completion of county funded construction projects in Kitale town, Trans Nzoia County, to determine influence of human resource capacity on completion of county funded construction projects in Kitale town, Trans Nzoia County, to establish how funding activities influence completion of county funded construction projects in Kitale town, Trans Nzoia County, to determine the extent to which controlling activities influence completion of county funded construction projects in Kitale town, Trans Nzoia County and to assess the extent to which adequacy of construction materials on completion of county funded construction projects in Kitale town, Trans Nzoia County, Kenya. This study is grounded on Goal-setting theory and Game theory. The study adopted a descriptive survey research. The target population for this study comprised of 508; County Administrators and Project managers who are responsible for Bus Park, stadium and hospital construction and Beneficiaries of the projects and the sample size were 223 respondents. The study used a semi structured self-administered questionnaire to collect data from the managers in the housing and urban development. The study also used an interview guide to obtain responses from representatives in the Ministry of Land and Planning. The collected data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods. Quantitative method involved descriptive and inferential analysis. Descriptive analysis such as frequencies, percentages were used to present quantitative data in form of tables. Data from questionnaire were coded and logged in the computer using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS V 20.0). Frequency tables were used to present the data for easy comparison. Content analysis were used for the qualitative data and then presented in prose. Quantitative data was analyzed using a Pearson‘s correlation analysis to establish the relationship between the variables. The study findings based on funding activities objective showed that 87.36% (mean=4.37, Std. Dev=0.899) of the respondents accepted funding for the construction projects are delayed because most of the county budgetary allocated money are delayed from the national government, poor management of resources by the managers in charge, prioritizing salaries paid to workers and failing to give similar weight to the construction of projects and also, some contractors may lack enough money to facilitate the completion of the projects. Inferentially, funding activities attributed to (β=.227 p<0.036) on completion of county projects thus a unit increase in funding activities improved completion of the county funded construction projects by 22.7%. The study recommends to the members of the county assembly to pass proposed bills that are viable and fruitful to the development of the county. Project completion time should be checked to ensure efficiency.