Abstract: This study set out to examine the role of social inclusion as a means by which a county government in Kenya can use to empower marginalised minorities and in the process protect their rights and at the same time comply with the provisions of the law as a duty bearer with the obligation to that require county governments to protect the rights of minority groups within their jurisdictions. The objectives of the study were to establish the extent to which minorities in Kericho County were involved in citizen participation; determine the extent to which basic services were available to minorities in the county; find out the level of empowerment among minorities in the county and establish the extent of political engagement minorities were allowed in the county. The research design used in the study was a descriptive design which was considered appropriate in establishing facts as they were. The target population of the study comprised members of minority groups who were residents of two informal settlements within Kericho town and who were assumed to be marginalised. A stratified sampling method was used to select the respondents among members of the minority groups, while officials of the county government were purposively selected. The sample size selected was 290 individuals comprising 275 member of the minority groups and 15 government officials purposively selected. The instruments used to collect data comprised structured and semi-structured questionnaires, while IBM’s SPSS software version 21 was used to analyse the collected data. The key findings of the study have revealed that the level of citizen participation in Kericho County was not up to the recommended level, with a mean score of 2.94. This indicates that a majority of the respondents disagreed that citizens were involved in governance issues of the county. Regarding access to basic services, the results show that the county was performing poorly with a mean score of 2.94 for availability of safe drinking water in their village, mean of 1.87 for access to the nearest water point in their village. A mean of 3.53 for level of health services available near their village was also established. This indicates that a majority of the respondents disagreed that citizens had adequate access to basic services. The standard deviation of the responses was however less than 2 indicating there were no big variations in the responses given. The study also confirmed the reviewed literature that there is a statistically significant relationship between citizen participation, access to basic services, empowerment and political engagement and performance of governance and that this effect is differentiated. Each of the four independent variables of social inclusion were found to have differentiated effect on performance of county governance. Access to basic services was confirmed to have the highest effect (60.9%), followed by empowerment (56.6%), citizen participation (51.4%) and the least was political engagement (39.2%). In conclusion, from the research objectives and the research questions the underlying objectives of the study were achieved. It was evident from the findings of the study that the performance of county governance could be improved significantly if citizen participation, access to basic services, the empowerment and political engagement of minority groups were mainstreamed in appropriate processes of government. An intra-governmental team comprising officials of the executive branch of the county government and members of the county assembly could be formed to look at the entire issue of social inclusion/exclusion in the county with a view to coming up with the necessary mechanisms to improve on this area.
Keywords: Social Inclusion, Participation, Performance.
Title: ROLE OF SOCIAL INCLUSION OF MINORITIES’ PARTICIPATION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF COUNTY GOVERNANCE IN KERICHO COUNTY, KENYA
Author: BILL RUTTO, PROF. MIKE. A. IRAVO (PhD)
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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