ABSTRACT
Successful implementation of a project is usually difficult and complex and appears to be one of the most difficult aspects of a manager‟s job. Implementation of any project depends on various factors. These factors include; proper planning, adequate financing, organizational factors and effective communication between the stakeholders. The implementation of CDF has been marred by repeated accusation of abuse of funds, patronage due to excessive powers of the members of parliament, incomplete projects, and lack of technical capacity, poor planning and a litany of other weaknesses which threaten to undermine the very success of the fund. The general objective of this study was to investigate implementation practices of constituency development fund projects in Wajir East Constituency, Kenya. The study will be beneficial to various CDF committees including the planning and implementation committees as well as the government. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The target population for this study was CDF committee members and managers in Wajir East Constituency. The sampling technique that was used in this study was stratified random sampling. Both primary and secondary data were collected. The study sought to find out whether they consulted the stakeholders before implementing the projects where the majority (61.90%) answered in the affirmative. The study sought to find out whether skills of the project teams affected successful implementation of CDF projects where the findings indicated that 74.6% of the respondents agreed. Majority (89%) of the respondents indicated that CDF was the main source of funding for the projects. Results indicated that 82% of the respondents agreed that governance affected implementation of CDF projects. The study recommends that there is need to have skilled project managers to ensure that there is efficiency on the performance of CDF funded project. The study recommended that the department of social development should strengthen regulatory measures to ensure that group and committee members elections were being conducted yearly. CDFC members need to be individuals who have the interest of the public at hand so as to involve them in all CDF funded projects stages to realize ownership of CDF funded projects. The CDFC and by extension PMC need not be „recruited‟ basing on political cronyism so as to have some standards of professionalism in CDF management. Various government ministries need to be fully involved to give the much required technical input throughout CDF project cycle and not at convenient stages as is the current case
