| dc.description.abstract | Despite the initiative by the government to introduce devolved funds in Kenya. The real influence of the initiatives is yet to be experienced in many communities in Kenya. Presence of devolved funds at community level seems to spark little concern among community stakeholders yet, the funds are meant to bring change in community development. There has been overemphasis by previous studies on the issues that address challenges and administration of devolved funds with less regard on the real influence on community development projects. This study therefore sought to examine the influence of devolved funds program on community development with reference to Nairobi’s Embakasi constituency. The study sought to examine; the influence of constituency development fund, bursary funds, and local authority transfer fund and poverty eradication funds on sustainability of community development projects. The study was expected to contribute to existing literature which majorly emphasised on community development with regards to complexity of communities within which projects thrive, barriers to community participation in project development, potential for community based projects and way in which community development can reduce poverty in Kenya. The study used descriptive survey design to accomplish the research objectives. Stratified random sampling was used to select 50 projects within Embakasi constituency to be studied. Data was collected via questionnaire whose reliability and validity was tested prior to the study. Data analysis was done using quantitative technique. Statistical Package for Social Science was used analyse data. The output of data analysis was presented in tables and charts and interpretations made based on the research objectives. The study findings indicated that devolved funds had majorly contributed to community development in Embakasi constituency. Constituency Development fund particularly played a critical role in establishment of basic amenities such as schools, health centres, and resting places along bus stations. Local Authority Transfer fund, though expected to support many projects in the community was found to have little contribution towards meeting community needs. Bursary fund was actively used to sustain needy students in schools and thus a large contributor towards retention of students in school. Poverty eradication fund has catered for peoples’ welfare through various dimensions through provision of funds for business, which largely improved peoples living standards. The researcher recommended that a need for the City council to do vetting of the LATF management to ensure adequate service delivery to citizen, a need to establish and maintain an appropriate balance between the amount of decentralized financial resources and the services devolve d to local government at different levels and match this with their technical capacity to utilize the funds and proper management of Poverty Eradication Fund need to avoid misappropriation of funds and to ensure that the fund meets its goals of eradicating poverty among the Kenya citizens. A further study should be undertaken to examine strategies used to effectively manage devolved funds, to ensure that they enhance community development | en |
