People’s participation in community development trust fund projects in Kiambu county, Kenya
Abstract
The study sets out to investigate people’s participation in Community Development Trust fund
Projects in Kiambu County. The county is densely populated except for the semi arid areas of
Ndeiya division, Karai and Kikuyu divisions. These areas also have the highest poverty levels
hence the purpose for its choice as the research area. The main objective of this study was to
investigate people’s participation in the community development trust fund.The study was
guided by the following specific objectives: finding out characteristics of self help groups
participating in Community Development Trust Fund projects, finding out characteristics of
house holds participating in CDTF, establishing the nature and level of people’s participation in
the funds projectsandfinding out the type of projects funded by CDTF and their level of findings.
CDFT projects were the researchers units of observation and participating households as the
units of Analysis. This study sampled five (13 %) of the thirty-seven locationsin Kiambu County.
Lists of CDTF projects from the 5 locations were obtained from the CDTF office of Gender and
Social Department office. On the basis of the lists, 3 projects were purposively sampled and
included Education, Environment and Water. Using systematic sampling 8 households from each
location were sampled. This gave a total sample of 50 households. However, only 45 households
were contacted and interviewed. For each household, the household heads were also sampled.
The study targeted ten Key informants. Content analysis technique was used to analyze
secondary data so as to determine CDTF effectiveness towards poverty reduction.Self help
groups participating in CDTF projects promoted community participation since they had set
objectives. A majority of households participating in CDTF were married and the male sex
dominated in participation of the projects. Participants in the projects were self employed who
supported the project either materially or monetary. Most of the projects supported by CDTF
were water projects.The study recommends that dwellers of Kiambu County should be
incorporated in the groups by so doing they will improve development by bringing in new ideas
of development and hence speed up poverty eradication approaches as CDTF aims. The study
recommends that people’s participation should be encouraged in all projects. The study
recommends that more projects be introduced in the County. Further a study should also be
carried out to investigate the factors affecting the growth of CDTF projects in Kenya.