Effect of Contractor Capacity and Monitoring and Evaluation on Completion of Water Projects among Water Services Boards in Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya, many water projects experience delays in completion even after substantial investments. The main objective of this study was to determine the influence of monitoring and evaluation and contractor capacity on completion of water projects among Water Services Boards in Kenya. Lake Victoria Water Services board was used as a case study. This study employed both quantitative and qualitative research and adopted descriptive research design. The target population for this study was 50 water projects all of which were studied as a census. Census technique was used to select all 200 engineers who had been previously directly involved in the construction of the respective projects to participate in the study as respondents. The main data collection instrument was a semi-structured questionnaire. A questionnaire return rate of 84% was achieved. Data analysis employed both descriptive and inferential statistics. Measures such as frequencies and percentages and Karl Pearson’s correlation were computed and used to explain the relationship between the variables. Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) factors studied included stakeholder participation and communication strategy which had a weak but significant positive relationship with project completion (r = 0.299, p < 0.01). Contractor capacity had a moderate positive relationship with project completion (r = 0.657, p < 0.01).