Legal Frameworks, Normative Action, Political Environment and Performance of Bio-social Projects in Informal Settlements in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

This study investigated relationship between Legal frameworks, Normative action, Political environment and Performance of biosocial projects in informal settlements in Nairobi County, Kenya. The inquiry investigated mediating and moderating influence of normative action and political environment respectively on affiliation amongst Legal frameworks and performance of biosocial projects. This body of knowledge was anchored upon five objectives and five theories with an intent to support each study objective with a theory; Classical management theory summarized the five theories, Classical communication theory supported legal frameworks, social cognitive theory supported normative action, theory of diffusion supported political environment, project theory supported moderating influence of political environment on predictive and dependent variables while biosocial theory supported mediating influence of normative action on predictive and dependent variables, lastly theory of constraint supported dependent variable. This study adopted pragmatism paradigm and mixed research approach to assess effect of legal frameworks upon performance of biosocial projects while descriptive and correlational research designs were embraced. Self-dispensed structured questionnaire was used to amass quantitative data whereas interview guide assembled qualitative data after pilot testing for validity via content connected logic besides reliability amidst test-retest criterion of instruments of research. A sample size of 183 respondents from 61 biosocial projects were selected from a target sample of 70 biosocial projects in Nairobi County. Quantitative data was computed from structured questionnaires dispensed to 61 staff members working in the biosocial projects and 61 beneficiaries of the biosocial projects besides qualitative in- depth interviews with 61 State and non-state actors through purposive sampling technique. Arithmetic mean and standard deviation were the statistical tools of analysis that were expended for descriptive data while Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (r) and Stepwise Regression (R2) were statistical tools of analysis that were used for inferential statistics. Hypotheses in the study were tested through F-Tests. To avert invalidation of statistical analysis tests of statistical assumptions were executed earlier. Out of five hypotheses tested in this study, four were rejected whereas one was accepted. With r = 0.382, F = 15.207 at p = 0.000<0.01, H01 was rejected and resolved there is moderate relationship between Legal frameworks and performance of biosocial projects in informal settlements. With r = 0.586, F= 40.454 at p = 0.000<0.01, H02 was rejected and it was established that there is a strong significant relationship amongst normative action and performance of biosocial projects in informal settlements. By r = 0.313, F = 8.988 at p = 0.004<0.01, H03 was rejected and it was resolved there is moderate significant relationship between political environment and performance of biosocial projects in informal settlements. With adjusted R squared statistics reducing from 0.136 in step one to 0.128 in step two, the conclusion to this was acceptance of null hypothesis (H04) that the association amid Legal frameworks and performance of biosocial projects in informal settlements in Nairobi County does not depend on political environment. With increase of adjusted R squared statistics from 0.136 to 0.337 representing an increase in 20.1%, the conclusion is that H05 was rejected and an affiliation was established between legal frameworks and performance of biosocial projects in informal settlements in the county of Nairobi is mediated by normative action. In conclusion, performance of biosocial projects in informal settlements was proven to be able to unlock potential for people living with disabilities thus leading a meaningful life and participating in national and global matters.