The Effect of Public Participation on Implementation of Development Projects in Lamu County, Kenya

Abstract

Institutions and individuals partaking in projects that have an impact on the wider community cannot overlook the power of public participation. The Kenyan constitution also applies this people-centred approach as enshrined in the creation of the National Government constituency development fund and the 47 counties. Key benefits of public participation include the inclusion of diverse perspectives in decision-making and a better understanding of the community’s needs. However, it appears that there is limited literature regarding how meaningful public participation impacts the capacity of a community to work in coordination and sort out its problems. The current study aims to address this gap by assessing the effect of public participation on the implementation of development projects in Lamu County, Kenya. The Ladder of Citizen Participation Theory was adopted in this study. In the study, all managers and staff members from the County Government of Lamu, who were 390 in total, formed the study population. A descriptive research design was employed. Stratified sampling and simple random sampling techniques were applied in the selection of the 196 study participants. The tools of study used were questionnaires and interview guides. Quantitative data from the questionnaires were analysed through descriptive statistical techniques. Further, there was hypothesis testing in quantitative data analysis to establish whether there is a relationship between public participation and project implementation in Lamu County. Specifically, regression analysis was adopted to establish whether there exists any association. Qualitative data from the interview guides were analysed through thematic analysis. The results reveal that public participation has a significant association with project implementation in Lamu County. Moreover, it was established that the public participation process is not effective when tested against evaluation criteria and recommends the establishment of an evaluation criteria that guarantees effective public participation