An evaluation of citizen participation in management of constituencies development fund projects: A survey of Baringo north constituency

Abstract

Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) was established by an Act of parliament in 2003 to fund community projects in all constituencies in the country. Since its inception, thousands of projects have been funded throughout the country. However, there are a large number of stalled, incomplete, underutilized or unsustainable CDF funded projects spread across the country. Development literature promote decentralization and participatory approaches in poverty alleviation efforts in order to achieve equity in project distribution as well as their ownership which may result in successful implementation and sustainability of the projects. The purpose of this study is to establish the level of citizen/community participation in the identification and implementation of CDF funded projects in Baringo North Constituency and establish whether participation has any influence on the cost, completion and sustainability the projects. Naturalistic inquiry approaches will be used to gather and analyze data. Data will be triangulated through in-depth interviews, non-participant observation and document reviews. Five respondents (local community members) per purposively selected project will be interviewed at project site in order to gain insight on how the project was identified, implemented and maintained. The researcher will employ descriptive techniques that are more graphical in nature with a few quantitative techniques to analyze data. Analytical induction will be used in order to deduce relationship between the parameters under investigation. This approach will enable the researcher to summarize in a clear and understandable way the data collected, analyze and subsequently interpret and infer conclusions.