The Role of Planning on Performance of Community Projects in Kenya

Community Bases Organizations have had a tremendous positive impact on development in many Countries around the world. In developing countries, community projects have made it possible for many local communities to see the light of day through programs such as Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable clean water provision, Construction of places of worship, schools among others. In Kenya, an estimated two million people are being positively impacted by community based projects efforts. When a community decides to come up with a development project, it is always critical to go through a project cycle and look at the key significance of their intended project, what they want to achieve, their goals, focus, the resources needed, the skills they require and the technical knowhow. It is during this stage of brainstorming that has been referred to as Initiation stage. It has been observed that in the project initiation, it is important to involve the whole community through participation in planning, providing views on what they want and how they want the project to run and how it will be executed. This is critical since it helps in bridging confidence between the community and the donor or government. It has been observed that performance and success of the projects have a high relation to how they were initiated and the community involvement. This paper seeks to study and establish the relationship that exists between the initiation of the projects and their performance in Kakamega County. Keywords: Planning, as used here, it encompasses community project initiatio