| dc.description.abstract | The declared objective of the Kenya Government is to expand
the base of rural development by involving the citizens through
local interest groups such as cooperatives, self-help groups,
churches and the political party. In order to ensure such
involvement, development committees have been set-up at all levels
of the administrative hierarchy in what is now known as the,
"District Focus for Rural Development Strategy".
The rationale for involving local people in development is
based on the belief that their participation ensures mobilization
of local resources as well as maximum utilization of Government and
external resources.
This thesis addresses two issues. The first is that of
factors influencing participation of local people in self-help
groups. These are local organizations that are mainly started and
run by the people themselves. The second issue is that of 'factors
influencing participation in local development committees. The
factors are socio-economic characteristics and leadership style of
the members of these committees. The committees have been
initiated by the government in its desire to bring about
participation of local people in development efforts.
Participation was measured in terms of contributions in the
form of materials, labour and cash made by local people to their
self-help groups. In local development committees participation
was measured in terms of contributions made by their members in the
form of suggestions and criticisms during meetings as well as their
frequency of attendance of the meetings of the committees.
Data was collected in Khwisero and Butere Divisions of
Kakamega District, Kenya. In the divisions the study was focused
at development committees, community development committees and
self-help groups. The latter are registered by the Department of
Social Services.
The data was collected using questionnaires administered to a
representative sample of leaders of local development committees
and to both leaders and non-leaders of self-help groups. The
thesis is also based on secondary data, direct observations and
informal interviews of key informants.
Frequency and cross-tabulated tables are used in presenting
data collected through structured interviews. Chi~square is
calculated to show whether there were relationships between the
variables studied calculated to show
The Phi and Contigency Coefficients are also
calculated to show the strength of relationships between factors
studied.
The main findings of this study are as follows:
1. Harambee self-help groups are found to be engaged in a
variety of activities. They are also involved in
mobilization of labour, materials and financial resources
from their members' contributions of shares. Some of the
groups have received financial assistance from both
government and non-government organizations. In other
words, the self-help groups studied satisfy the basic
requirement for local participation. This is because
they ensure people's involvement in their initiation and
identification of projects.
2. Participation in activities of self-help groups is
influenced by factors which include; local leaders'
initiative, that is, articulation of problems and taking
action aimed at eradicating the problems; local leaders'
informedness about the history and objectives of their
groups; the regularity of receiving benefits from self help
groups; and leaders' commitment to their self-help
groups.
3. Participation in activities of local development
committees is influenced by the local people's lack of
representativeness. Local representation in development
committees decreases as one moves from sub-locational to
locational and the divisional development committees.
Community development committees appear more
representative of the local people.
4. The study shows that there is high participation in
activities of the committees among those with high
income, high formal education, those who are formally
employed and among males. It is found that the
development committee members' leadership style affects
the extent to which they participate in the committees.
That is, those who are authoritarian tend to participate
more in the activities of their development committees.
One policy implication of these findings is that of the need
for training leaders of self-help groups in communication and
planning skills. There is also need for understanding how the
apparent high participation of people in local interest groups
could be encouraged by local development committees. There is also
need for continuous monitoring and evaluation of activities of the
committees. Their meetings need to be planned ahead of time to
enable members to participate effectively. Effective discussions
in the meetings of the committees could be possible where minutes
of previous meetings were prepared and passed to the members early
enough. Finally, participation could be increased where government
agents like Social Development Assistants, chiefs and assistant
chiefs are well trained in community organization techniques,
including planning and programming of chosen actions | en |
