An Assessment of Public Participation and Its Influence on Budget Outcomes in Machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

Participation is the process of interaction between an organization and the public with the aim of making an acceptable and better decision. Even though public participation plays a critical role in good governance and better budget outcomes, there have been several inconsistencies in implementing the same across counties since 2013. When there is no public participation in the budgeting process, it hinders accountability and optimization of resources. Machakos County scored low on providing information on public participation from the budget documents. The purpose of the study was to assess public participation and its influence on budget outcomes in Machakos County. The objectives were to: establish the level of public participation on budget formulation, assess public participation and its influence on budget outcomes and investigate the barriers that impede public participation in budget formulation in Muvuti/Kiima Kimwe and Machakos Central wards in Machakos Town Constituency, Machakos County. The study was guided by Stakeholder, Ladder of Citizen Participation and Participatory Democracy theories. The target population was 271 sampled residents aged over 18 years, 1 staff from the Department of Devolution and 2 staff Department of Finance, Revenue Management and Economic Planning and 2 members from the civil society. The study applied systemic random sampling and expert sampling to select participants of the study. Quantitative data was collected using a semi structured questionnaire while qualitative data was collected through FGD and interview guide. Descriptive and Inferential statistics were analyzed using SPSS and qualitative through thematic analysis. The study found that 75.7% of the respondents were not familiar with the budget formulation process. Spearman’s rank correlation revealed that there was a moderate, positive and significant correlation between attendance of budgeting forum and prior access to information (rs = .47, p=0.001) and weak positive and significant correlation between attendance and having received budget materials before the meeting from the ward administrator (rs = .28, p=0.001). This means that those who attend public forums are likely to have better access budget materials. However, there was a weak, positive and significant correlation between attending budget forums and the extent to which projects are developed in accordance with local needs (rs = .22, p=0.000) as well as inclusion of voices of women, youth and minorities (rs = .18, p=0.002) and perception whether the proposals are adopted by the county government (rs = .25, p=0.001). This means that all the anticipated budget outcomes were less pronounced. The barriers impeding effective public participation in budget formulation included ineffective communication and feedback mechanisms, inadequate civic education on planning and budgeting processes and poor design of public participation forums. The study concluded that public participation has resulted in limited budget transparency, weak accountability, inequitable and inadequate resource allocation and exclusion of marginalized and minority groups. The study recommends multisectoral collaboration in promoting civic engagement and education, strengthening existing communication and accountability mechanisms, equitable resource allocation across the wards and design public participation processes with the community for the achievement of quality and transformative budget outcomes.