The Effect of Participatory Budgeting on Healthcare Services in Makueni Sub County
Abstract
Participatory Budgeting experiments in municipalities across the world have yielded
as varied results as there are municipalities. The Kenyan experience of participatory
experiments has not fared any better. These have so far registered mixed result in
promoting citizen-centred development. The objective of this study was to investigate
the effect of Participatory Budgeting on healthcare service delivery in Makueni Sub-
County. This study sought to examine both Makueni’s participatory budgeting
process and the level of citizen engagement in the said process. The study grounded
itself in participatory democratic theory to achieve its set objective.
The study employed a case study design to investigate the Participatory Budgeting
process in Makueni Sub County. Sampling was done purposively and through
snowballing for semi-structured and unstructured interviews of Makueni citizens and
key informants. The study, in response to its theoretical propositions, used pattern
matching, explanation building, content analysis and descriptive statistics as data
analysis techniques.
The study found that Makueni’s formal participatory framework has encouraged the
involvement of citizens in budget making allowing citizens, to some degree, influence
spending at the Ward level in line with their priorities. The study concludes that PB
has promoted healthcare services delivery in Makueni. But this is insofar as the
construction of healthcare facilities is seen as a sufficient proxy indicator for delivery
of healthcare services. There is, however, no evidence suggesting that Makueni’s PB
has directed any resources to the operationalization of these facilities, which entails
such concerns as equipping, staffing and running of medical programmes
Publisher
university of nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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