Political Factors Influencing Performance of Road Construction Projects in Laikipia County- a Case of Nanyuki-doldol Road Construction Project

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the political factors influencing performance of roads construction in Laikipia County; a case of Nanyuki Doldol road. The objectives of the study were to determine how political leadership influence performance of road construction projects, to assess how political environment influence performance of road construction projects, to examine how political involvement influence performance of road construction projects, to ascertain how political stakeholder mapping influence performance of road construction projects in Laikipia County. The study was guided by theory of performance. The study used descriptive survey design. A pilot study was conducted before the actual study to ensure validity and reliability of the instruments. The population of the study were the government road engineer, road constructors, public participants and local community leaders. The population of the study was 86 representatives including government road engineers, road contractors, youth representative, women representative, local community leaders, member of county assembly representative, Member of Parliament representative and county executive member in transport. From this a sample of 74 was obtained by use of Yamane formula. The respondents involved in the study were chosen by use of simple random sampling technique to avoid biasness. Data was collected using questionnaire. Data was analyzed quantitatively using frequencies and means while qualitative data was analyzed thematically and interpreted in context. Descriptive statistics such as means and percentages were used to analyze various variables. From the findings 84% of the respondents believed that political leaders are never available and are not committed to roads projects while 75% of the respondents believed that there was high level bureaucracy in the government such that it was not easy to request for a project, 89% of the respondents believed that political competition delays construction of roads. Also 37% of the respondents believed that political stakeholder mapping happened before initiation of roads projects. Lastly 81% of the respondents were not contented with the progress of the road construction. The researcher recommended that the government should empower oversight bodies that are not necessarily constituted of politicians to caution halting of projects during elections, make the tendering process more transparent, penalize contractors who are not able to complete projects in a timely manner and allocate more funds for completion of the Nanyuki Doldol Road. The researcher proposes that more studies to be done to ascertain whether financial constraint is a reason why contractors are not able to complete roads projects in time