Effects Of Public Participation On Budgeting And Utilization Of Devolved Funds: Webuye Sub-County, Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study was aimed at investigating the Effect of Citizen Participation on Budget Implementation in Kenyan Counties with a special focus on Webuye West Constituency, Bungoma County. The research was guided by one main objective: To examine the effect of citizen participation on budget making process and implementation in the Kenyan county governments and how the independent variables: Citizen Participation and Funds Availability influence the dependent variable: Budget Implementation. The research design of this study was a descriptive survey with a target population of the study was the entire number of the registered voters in Webuye West Constituency 44,237 people. A sample of 200 participants, distributed across the entire constituency, was identified using simple random sampling method. Questionnaires and interviews of the key informants were used to collect data from the respondents. The analysis of the collected data was done both qualitatively and quantitatively. From the research findings, it was evident that most of the residents that go to public participation fora hail from the urban centres such as Webuye town, Misikhu, Lugulu and Bokoli markets revealing the high gap in population as a majority of citizenry in Webuye West Sub-County live in remote areas. Majority of the respondents who indicated having attended one or more public participation fora were males, aged 20-40. Additionally, most of the respondents who attend public participation fora have at least attained secondary school level of education. This clearly shows that those with little or no education shy away from public participation. They however indicated dissatisfaction with the way public participation is conducted, citing that their views are hardly ever taken into consideration. Thus, the County government of Bungoma should conduct civic education across the county so that the public is informed of its civic rights, public participation being the most sovereign. The researcher hopes that the conclusions made in this study will go a long way in enhancing public participation not only in Webuye West Constituency but in the entire Bungoma County and the Western Region at large. Asked about who informed them about public participation for those who understand what public participation meant most of the participants cited the media, an indication that the media (Print, television and radio) while others cited the constitution which shows that most of the residents have read the constitution and civic education fora as indicated by 30% of the participants. Questioned on how participants learnt about the date and venue of the public participation fora. Majority urban residents indicated that they got the information from gazette notices in the newspapers (for instance the Western Chronicles) while others pinpointed radio announcements especially by the vernacular radio stations like Nyota fm, Sulwe Fm, Western fm, Radio Mambo and televisions adverts as their major source of such information. This study also intended to investigate whether public participation empowers the community and a good number of respondents felt that it does. Respondents were further asked to give their views on some statements regarding public participation and budget implementation, 43.4% were in agreement that the county government gives timelines and venues for public participation in advance, 81% agreed on the same with regard to the county assembly showing that the county assembly is slightly more vibrant in preparing for public participation. Respondents were however not in agreement concerning access to the relevant materials for public participation on time prior to the date of public participation for perusal with 50.6% indicating that they are not able to access the materials. On issues regarding incorporating the comments gathered from public participation 56.8% indicated that their comments are not incorporated in the final approved budgets, 5ion during budget making process from the county government, 63.4 indicated that the county government does not involve them in implementation while 69.3% indicated that the county government does not involve the citizens in project monitoring. Further, majority of the respondents were of the opinion that projects incorporated in the county budgets were not community-needs driven and hence not helpful to the communities at all. Further from the regression analysis funds availability from the exchequer highly influence budget implementation. Among the researcher’s recommendation conduct civic education across the county so that the public is informed of its civic rights, public participation being the most sovereign.