Lack of or poor public participation in politics, policy discussions, and the ability to demand accountability of the government is a major deficit of democracy in Kenya. The general objective of the study was to analyse the influence of community participation on economic development projects in the Kajiado West sub-county, Kenya. The variables of interest were to examine the influence of community participation in project planning, project implementation, project monitoring and evaluation, and project coordination on economic development projects. The research methodology was mixed triangulation research which involved the use of both qualitative and quantitative approaches in data collection, analysis, and data interpretation. The study adopted a descriptive research design to allow the collection of comprehensive data. The target population was 1500 participants out of the entire population of the Kajiado West sub-county, which was approximately 104,376 people as per the 2009 population census. The sample size was 150 respondents from five wards. The collection of data was carried out using questionnaires and interview schedules. Questionnaires were circulated to traders, village elders, religious leaders, and farmers, while structured interviews were conducted with MCAs, chiefs, and assistant chiefs. The qualitative data was analysed using content analysis, while the quantitative data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics entailed mean, standard deviation, and frequencies, while the inferential statistics entailed the person correlation and regression analysis. The study found that community participation in project planning, project implementation, project monitoring and evaluation, and project coordination on economic development projects were positively and significantly associated.

The purpose of the study was to establish the effect of accountability practice on conflict resolution in oil and gas extraction in Turkana County, Kenya. It applied mixed research methods, and adopt concurrent triangulation approach since the researcher seeks to collect information from a diverse response base in Turkana to enhance use of both quantitative and qualitative data to define relationships among variables of interest. The study used census method which supports the enumeration of the entire target population comprised of heterogeneous items to ensure highest accuracy. The sample size for the study was 86 respondents, which constitutes 100% of the target population. The proposed study used a semi-structured questionnaire and interviews as the primary tools for data collection. A pilot-test was conducted in Lodwar town within Turkana County, as an approach to establish both reliability and validity assessment of the questionnaire. The obtained data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (version 22) supplemented with spreadsheets. Inferential statistics were used to compare data collected to determine relationships between the variables under the study. The study found out that accountability practice had significant correlation with conflict management. The study therefore concluded that accountability practices had an effect on conflict management in oil and gas extraction in Turkana County. The study recommended that the Turkana County and national governments should make efforts to improve on accountability practice since this study found out that they have significant effect on conflict management.

Abstract:The study sought to identify critical factors in affecting peace building initiatives in Kenya particularly focusing on the community policing implementation as a key factor. The justification being that the challenges facing the implementation of community policing in relation to peace building initiatives in Kenya have not been appropriately documented in the existing peace policies. The community policing concept is being used in remote parts of Kenya where the presence of regular police resources for the maintenance of peace is limited due to extremely harsh climatic conditions, harsh terrain and the vastness of the area to be covered with sparse population. Such areas include places like West Pokot where the pastoralist community often faces cattle rustling challenges as well as other security breaches from neighboring communities in Uganda. Cluster sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used to draw a representative sample consisting of 130 residents and 35 police officers. Data was collected using questionnaires and interview guides. Descriptive statistics namely frequency counts and percentages were generated to capture the distribution of responses on the key issues addressed in the study's questionnaire. The study found that 71.8% of the respondents agreed that community policing helped in peace building compared to 28.2% of the respondents who disagreed.