The performance of sanitation projects
The performance of sanitation projects in Kenya has continued to dwindled day in and day out. Kiserian Township Sanitation Project commenced on the year 2015 and was planned to be completed fully by May 2017. However, the data showed that only 35% of physical progress was complete by the end of December 2018. The broad objective of the study was to determine stakeholders’ participation and performance of the sanitation project in Kiserian town, Kajiado County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were; to assess the influence of stakeholders’ participation in project initiation on the performance of sanitation project, to establish the influence of stakeholders’ participation in planning on performance of sanitation project, to determine the influence of stakeholders’ participation in project implementation on performance of sanitation project and to assess the influence of stakeholders’ participation in monitoring and evaluation on the performance of sanitation project in Kiserian town. This study was anchored on Freeman stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory and institutional theory. The study used a Mixed Method research design where quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The target population was 663 respondents that involved 600 households, 5 Kajiado county government officers, 1 project consultant, 42 contractor employees and 15 Athi Water Service Board (AWSB) employees. Through simple random sampling, a sample size of 240 of 600 households was selected, further, through purposive sampling 1 project consultant, 42 contractors’ employees, 5 county government of Kajiado officers and 15 Athi Water Services Board officers were all selected to participate in the study. Quantitative data for the Households and Contractor employees was collected through questionnaires in the field and was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data for the project consultant, Kajiado county government officers and Athi Water Service Board (AWSB) employees were collected through a face-to-face interview in the field and analyzed through thematic content analysis and descriptive statistics. The study found out that stakeholders’ participation had a positive influence on the performance of the Kiserian township sanitation project from household members (R=0.422, p=0.001) and contractor employees (R=0.532, p=0.001). The households rejected the first three null hypotheses on stakeholders’ participation in project initiation (β=0.206, p=0.008), project planning (β=0.223, p=0.006) and project implementation (β=0.143, p=0.049). The Contractor employees accepted the first three null hypotheses on stakeholder’s participation in project initiation (β=0.038, p=0.832), project planning (β=0.110, p=0.631) and project implementation (β=0.171, p=0.362). Both the households and contractor employee accepted fourth null hypotheses on stakeholders participation in project monitoring and evaluation households (β=0.098, p=0.174) and contractors (β=0.375, p=0.69) leading to the deduction that there was no significant influence of stakeholders participation in project monitoring and evaluation on the performance of Kiserian township sanitation project. The qualitative data results showed that stakeholders’ participation had minimal influence on performance on the Kiserian township sanitation project. The study concludes that stakeholders’ participation had minimal influence on the performance of the Kiserian sanitation project as revealed from study results. The study recommends that stakeholders need to be consulted more to identify their specific needs before any project is launched. There is a need for residents to be educated on the importance of their participation in project phases. Training is needed to ensure their full participation in project phases for performance improvement. The study is relevant to policymakers in the sanitation sector and all stakeholders with interest in the sanitation sector. The study experienced the limitations of postponement of interview sessions and delays before getting consent from key informants with the key informants that resulted in the lengthening of the data collection period.
