THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRINCIPALS LEADERSHIP AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIC PLANNING IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ELDORET WEST SUB COUNTY, KENYA

The purpose of the study was to investigate relationship between principals? leadership and implementation of institutional strategic planning in Eldoret West sub-county public secondary schools; Kenya. Many schools have come up with strategic plans as directed by the Ministry of Education. There are those who have successfully accomplished their set objective but some have failed to. The current study adopted a descriptive survey design using mixed methodology. The study targeted 53 principals and 724 teachers. Krecjie and Morgan determination formula was used to obtain 276 teachers and 166 principals. The sampling procedures which were used in this research included, stratified, simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data from teachers while interviews were used to collect qualitative information from the principals. The validity of the research instruments was determined through expert judgment while reliability was obtained through piloting and use of Croncbach Alpha where a correlation coefficient of 0.79 was obtained on teachers? questionnaire. Qualitative data was analyzed through the use of frequencies and percentages and inferential statistics while qualitative data was thematically analyzed. The study found out a significant positive relationship between leadership r=0.559) and implementation of strategic plans and recommended that there is need for secondary school leadership to have the competencies required for effective implementation of strategic plans. These competencies include idealized characteristics, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. In addition, the study further recommends that there is need for budgeting of available resources.