Organizational Factors Influencing Performance Of Rehabilitation Projects For Social Reintegration Of Juvenile Offenders In Kirinyaga County, Kenya

Abstract

Every society welcomes the aspect of the residents being social, living in harmony with the set norms that directly relate well to their traditions, believes and values. The juvenile are no exception though usually not subjected to prisons, making the government adopt various invention approaches like rehabilitation to support and ensure that social reintegration is efficient even after the care, protection, correction and re-unification back into their communities. The purpose of this study was to assess the organizational factors influencing performance of rehabilitation projects for social re-integration of juvenile offenders in Kirinyaga County, Kenya. The study was guided by the following research specific objectives; to evaluate the influence of co-ordination of activities on performance of rehabilitation projects for social re-integration, to investigate the influence of financial support on performance of rehabilitation projects for social re-integration, to determine the influence of staffing capacity on performance of rehabilitation projects for social re-integration and to determine the influence of government policies’ status on performance of rehabilitation projects for social re-integration of juvenile offenders in Kirinyaga County, Kenya. The study used descriptive research design approach. Specifically, the study target population comprised of 60 officials (Institution staff, probation officers and children officers) respectively working in Kirinyaga County, Kenya. This study used stratified random sampling technique to give a sample size of 52 possible respondents. A questionnaire was used as the tool for data collection. To ensure validity of the instruments, the researcher discussed the questionnaire with the supervisor. The reliability test included 10 respondents from Othaya Rehabilitation School. Data collected in this study was analyzed via quantitative approach and assembled to form the final findings and interpretations. Data gathered quantitatively from various close-ended questions were classified into various categories and analyzed. The responses were further coded by allocating identifiable symbols, figures, numerical or other signs. The SPSS (Version. 22.0) was used as the main statistical tool of calculating the expected parameters. The study also concluded that out that the staff in the county of Kirinyaga that comprised of children officers, probation officers, staff at Wamumu Rehabilitation Centre were in agreement that; they were happy that coordination of activities in the enhancement of rehabilitation projects outcomes for social reintegration of Juvenile Offenders has been efficient despite there being inadequate coordination by state and government officials which might be a root factor on the efficiency running of rehabilitation centers. The researcher concluded that that most the same staff believe that the financial support has been key towards the efficiency of administrators in addressing issues in rehabilitation centers that are project and processes efficiency despite still believing that there is a resource scarcity. The study concluded that; there were inadequate staff in the administration of rehabilitation centers in the region which lead to a decrease in productivity which brings about stress hence poor performance of rehabilitation projects for social reintegration. The study concludes that the staff associated with the rehabilitation projects agreed that there were challenges related to government policies implementation. The study recommends that further studies should be done to establish other factors like personal juvenile characteristic based, environment based or cultural based among others that equally influence the performance of rehabilitation projects for social reintegration of the juvenile offenders in Kirinyaga County besides the ones studied above.