Factors influencing implementation of sustainable community based projects in Kenya: a case of Raya Water project in Garissa County

Abstract

Communities have always tried to organize themselves to· plan, start and implement many projects of their own that is of their common interest, without waiting to be probed by the government to do so. Some of the most common community based projects include borehole digging, dairy farm projects, fish farming projects and so on. While some of these projects succeed, a considerable number of them fail along the way before reaching the intended destination. Reasons for the success of some of the project, and failure of some of them are not quite clear. This study therefore sought to explore the factors that influence the implementation of community, based projects, with special reference to Raya Water project, located in Raya Division, Garissa District.

The study adopted a descriptive survey design to collect primary data from primary sources at the place where the project is being implemented. The targeted population was a total of 1654 that included 1631 project members, 15 members of the management committee and eight employees of the Municipal Council water department. 164 project members were selected by a combination of stratified and systematic random sampling techniques, in which the group members were grouped into five strata according to the location of origin of the members, and each of the groups stratified further into males and females. From each of the strata, systematic random sampling technique was used to select 10% of all members as advocated fro by Gay (1992).

All committee members and employees of water department were included in the sample. Two sets of instruments were used to collect data for the study, one for the members of the project and a second one for the management committee members, which was also responded to by officers from water department. The instruments were piloted in Raya Division, which was then not used for the main study. data for the study was collected personally by the researcher, assisted by two research assistants, and analysed through tabulation, content analysis thematic analysis and discussion. The study found that members' participation in group projects, project leadership and resource mobilization approaches, especially human resource, are crucial project implementation determinants that if well handled can lead to fast implementation of projects. The study therefore recommends that these crucial implementation determinants should be properly interacted for optimum project implementation.