Influence of Strategic Management Practice on Successful Completion of Constituency Development Fund - Funded Projects in Rural Areas in Kenya: A Case of Trans-Nzoia County

Strategic management is a significant part of management and as such application of new strategic management knowledge is necessary for success or failure to complete projects in various rural developments. In Kenya most of the rural areas are under-developed and abandoned; not that they lack resources to boost development, but lack of proper strategies in the development agenda to successfully complete CDF funded projects in the Counties. The CDF was introduced in Kenya in year 2003 and since then, it has been one of the most popular development initiatives in the country. The community is entitled to receive the benefits of strategically completed projects in rural areas as intended by the government and other development partners. Yet, this has not been realized as exemplified by the fact that most of the development projects proposed by the government in rural areas have not yet started, while majority are incomplete. The current study sought to establish the influence of strategic management practice on successful completion of CDF-funded projects in rural areas of Kenya. In particular, it sought to investigate the effects of strategy implementation on successful completion of CDF projects. The study employed survey research method as part of descriptive research design. The target population comprised of 60 CDFC members drawn from the 5 constituencies of Trans-Nzoia County. A census survey was adopted; thus, the sample was equivalent to the target population. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data.6 CDFC members randomly selected participated in a pilot study that was conducted prior to the main study. The essence of the pilot study was to assess the reliability and validity of the research instrument. Reliability was tested using the Cronbach alpha () where factors whose 0.7 were considered. On the other hand, (content) validity was determined by seeking expert advice of the assigned JKUAT supervisor. Using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software, the collected data was analyzed by use of both descriptive and inferential statistics. All the study findings were presented in form of tables. The study findings revealed that there is a strong and positive correlation between strategy implementation and successful completion of CDF projects. It is concluded that implementation of pertinent strategies is very crucial to successful completion of CDF projects. It is recommended that the CDFCs ought to employ strategic management practices in light of CDF projects. Lastly, it is recommended that all the operations regarding CDF projects should be transparent and the political class should not interfere with such projects unless where it is deemed to be very necessary.