| dc.description.abstract | Community participation means an open process in which the rights of the
community to be informed, to provide comments to the government and to receive a
response from the government are met through expression of needs and goals. Effective
community participation ensures that government decisions and policies reflect the public
interest. It enhances transparency and accountability, project ownership and proper
utilization of resources. Despite the Government of Kenya's (GK) efforts to come up with
legislations that provide for people's participation, there has been challenges in terms of
informing the populace on these provisions and creating platforms and enabling
environment for involvement. The purpose of this study was to establish factors that
influence community participation and ownership of government sponsored projects,
with the case study of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) projects in Nyaribari
Chache Constituency, Kisii County, Kenya. Among the objectives that were studied
include; establishing how demographic characteristics influence community participation
and ownership of CDF projects in Nyaribari Chache Constituency, examining the extent
to which culture influence community participation and ownership of CDF projects,
assessing the level at which structural shortcomings influence community participation
and establishing alternative structural models that could enhance community participation
and ownership of CDF program in Kenya. The anticipated significance of this study was
to inform policy on CDFs, the structures of decision making on the use of the devolved
funds at all stages of implementation to help improve effectiveness and value for money.
The target population was 13,102 residents (IEBC, 2013) of Kiogoro Ward, which was
inclusive of ordinary residents, 220 Projects' Management Committees (PMC) members
from 20 CDF projects supported in Financial Year (FY) 2013/2014, 15 CDF committee
members and the CDF manager. The sample size was determined by use of Krejcie and
Morgan (1970) sampling table which made a sample size of 375 respondents. Purposeful
censuring method was used to select the CDF manager,S CDF committee members' top
officials, and 60 (chair person, secretary and treasurer) PMC members from 20 CDF
projects. Further a stratified random sampling method was used to select the 309
respondents from the three sub - locations in proportionate to their population sizes. Data
was collected using questionnaires with the help of 4 research assistants. The rate of
questionnaire return was 96.27% which was acceptable as it was within the range of
adequacy. The result of the study was analyzed using a descriptive statistics where
descriptive summaries like frequencies and percentages were used, and later presented
using frequency distribution tables. The findings of the study revealed that demographic
characteristics had insignificant influence in community participation and ownership of
CDF projects in Nyaribari Chache Constituency, culture of silence, corruption and
impunity had a negative influence of respondents to community participation and
ownership of projects, equality, structural shortcomings had an influence in community
participation ownership of CDF program in Kenya. In conclusion, demographic
characteristics is not a major factor in community participation, the people' involvement
in public affairs is influenced by the existing structures, perceptions, attitudes, ignorance
and apathy among the populace. Recommendations drawn from this study is that the GK
should embark in massive civil awareness and restore confidence of the electorates in the
CDF systems and structures. Suggested areas for further studies include, a similar study
be conducted in an urban setting, two with a larger population and with an elite society. | en_US |
