dc.description.abstract | Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is a decentralized strategy in Kenya that was
established to increase community participation in development projects. The Fund was
established with the aim of improving service delivery, alleviating poverty, enhancing economic
governance, and ultimately spurring development in the constituencies thereby contributing to
socio-economic development of all the constituencies. There is no doubt that CDF is a novel
concept and one that have major positive impact on development at the grassroots. In addition to
advancing the welfare of the people through community projects, CDF has a salutary effect on
participation which is itself pivotal to empowerment of communities. Because of the apparent
positive evaluation by beneficiaries of CDF, A number of African countries e.g. Ghana, Liberia,
Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have realized
the significance of local initiates in coping with development problems and are now trying to
incorporate local people in development under the CDF module. Since the inception of CDF in
Kenya in 2003, various developments have been achieved e.g. roads, schools, hospitals although
there was continuous outcry from stakeholders on the management of the projects funded by
CDF and this was blamed on poor implementation of projects by Constituency Development
Fund Committee (CDFC). Some of the weaknesses that have been cited through studies done on
CDF include political patronage and administrative influences, top-down mentality and
mismanagement. This has greatly hampered community participation in CDF funded projects.
This study was carried out to find out the factors influencing community participation in CDF
funded projects in Mathira Constituency in Nyeri County, Kenya. The objectives of study were :
To establish how level of awareness influences community participation in CDF funded projects
in Mathira Constituency, Nyeri County, to determine how political factors influence community
participation in CDF funded projects at Mathira Constituency, Nyeri County, to determine the
extent at which the level of formal education influences community participation in CDF funded
projects in Mathira Constituency, Nyeri County, and finally to determine how demographic
characteristics influences community participation in CDF funded projects in Mathira
Constituency, Nyeri County. The study employed a descriptive survey design. The researcher
relied on a target population of 148, 847 community members in Mathira Constituency and used
the Krejcie & Morgan table to determine the sample size. To draw a representative sample,
stratified random sampling was employed using the administrative ward assembly units as the
strata. Equal proportions of 64 participants were drawn randomly from each stratum. Primary
data was collected by use of a questionnaire while secondary data was gathered from the
NGCFDB Website as well as reports and handbooks at the local CDF office. From the
regression analysis, as explained by R Square which is basically the Coefficient of
Determination, 81.50 % of the variation in the Community Participation (the dependent
variable) is explained by variability in the independent variables i.e. Level of Awareness,
Political Factors, Level of Education and Demographic Characteristics. The study established
that all the four variables considered, that is, Level of Awareness, Political Factors, Level of
Education and Demographic Characteristics were useful predictors of community participation.
All the four variables considered were also found to yield a positive relationship with
community participation. The study recommended the improvement of the community
participation model being used in the constituency and particularly the methods used for
information sharing for awareness creation, more civic education forums, and consideration of
the interest of special interest groups and checking of political interference. | en_US |