Influence of Communication Strategies on Public Participation in Makueni County, Kenya

Abstract

One of the counties in Kenya, and probably all of Africa, with the strongest public involvement framework, is Makueni County. To ensure that the public is sufficiently involved in county development goals, the World Bank has advised other County Governments in Kenya to adopt the approach. However, according to the county officials in charge of public participation in the county, little study has been done to look at how public engagement is affected by communication tactics. This study sought to examine the influence of communication strategies in enhancing public participation. Makueni County Government has adopted the framework for public participation; however, there is limited information on how that framework has impacted the implementation of the county development agenda. Specifically, to; assess the influence of audience representation, communication content control, and communication feedback mechanisms in enhancing public participation on the county development agenda. The study was anchored on the communicative planning theory and employed a cross-sectional approach using a descriptive survey design. The target population for this study comprised county officials leading the implementation of the county development agenda, the county communication department, and local community members in Makueni County. Stratified sampling techniques were employed to select respondents from among the population where a total of 100 respondents were sampled. Data were collected using questionnaires, interview schedules, and focus group discussions. To analyze quantitative data, frequency distribution tables, percentages and frequencies were used. The findings indicated that the main modes of communication are arranged meetings, public notices, posters, print media, provincial administration, radio stations, brochures and flyers, and the public address system. To avoid content distortion there is a clear work structure on who will handle such information, how it will reach the target, and where and when it will be shared. Feedback is achieved through development committees, representatives, emails and replies back, and the use of bulk SMS on the venue and activities. Lack of political goodwill from some departments, thus bypassing the development committees and giving into the field, role conflict among employees, little or sometimes no facilitation, and allowances for public participation programs make it difficult for the involved promoters and political influence are among the challenges facing promotion of public participation. The is a need to enhance, strengthen and increase communication channels and structures to allow every member of the society to acquire information regarding county public participation programmes and contribute to the county development particularly to those community members leaving in remote areas. Budgetary allocations for facilitating public participation ought to be set aside and an increase in the amount to ensure that all possible channels of communication are utilized to enhance attendance in public participation through the provision of allowance (food and transport) and other forms of incentives to facilitate the meetings. Stakeholders should be engaged at all stages of service delivery to ensure that public participation evokes the desired impact and to continuously monitor communication to ensure that communication is always guided, and timely. Civic education on related projects should be timely and properly conducted to ensure that citizens acquaint themselves with relevant technical knowledge before their opinion is sought.