Determinants Of Community Participation In Development Projects In Tana River County, Kenya
Abstract
Despite the emphasis of citizen participation in policy formulation and implementation by the
Revised Kenyan Constitution 2010, policymakers have inadequate information about the
determinants of community participation in development projects since research has yielded
mixed results. The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of community
participation in development projects in Tana River County, Kenya. The objectives of the study
were to determine extent to which the level of education, culture, household income and project
leadership influences community participation in development projects in Tana River County. In
the study the dependent variable was community participation while the independent variables
included the level of education, household income, project leadership and culture. This study
employed a descriptive survey research design. The researcher used community awareness of the
project, access to project data and involvement in project planning as proxies for community
participation. To measure the independent variables the proxies for the level of education were
community communication and use of knowledge; the proxies for culture were community
beliefs and values and gender roles. Household income was measured by land size, number of
livestock owned by the household and number of people employed in the household. Project
leadership was however measured by the leadership style, level of reporting and disclosure and
leaders election. The researcher used stratified random sampling technique to draw a sample 70
respondents from the list of beneficiaries of education, infrastructure, water and sanitation,
agriculture and sports projects implemented between 2011 and 2015 in Tana River County. Data
was collected using questionnaires. The research findings indicated that 98% of the respondents
were of the opinion that the level of education very much influences community participation
and people with secondary education are more likely to participate in development projects as
compared to other levels of education. In terms of culture 89% of the respondents cited that
culture very much influences community participation and hierarchal interrelationships are the
major for community participation. It was also observed that male members of the community
are more likely to participate in development projects as compared to female members. 86%
indicated that project leadership very much influences community participation and it was also
observed that demographically elected project leaders are more likely to be respected and
accepted to mobilize the community to participate in development activities. However only 14%
of the respondents indicted that household income very much influences community
participation but 67% indicted that household income has a slight influence on community
participation. On the basis of the research findings the researcher concluded that the determinants
of community participation in development projects in Tana River County are level of education,
culture and project leadership. The Researcher could however not draw conclusions on the
influence of household income on community participation and therefore suggests that further
research should be conducted using a different measure of household income for instance
farming, livestock production, employment among others to determine the influence of specific
income sources on community participation in development projects. The researcher established
that 62% of the respondents were illiterate and hence the level of education is low across
households in Tana River County, it is therefore recommended that the government should put in
place deliberate measures to improve literacy levels in Tana River County to enable meaningful
participation as effective participation requires some level of literacy.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [5979]
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