Influence of Monitoring and Evaluation on Road Development Projects Mombasa County,

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of Monitoring and Evaluation on road development projects in Kenya. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design and mixed method methodology to enable wider comprehension of the problem. The objective of this was to assess the level of stakeholder engagement on the performance of road development projects in Mombasa County, Kenya. The study utilized stakeholder theory mainly to address the shortcoming within project management. The target population was 40 county government officials, 20 National government officials, 60 community representatives and four project managers. A sample size of 124 was selected using the stratified random sampling technique. The primary data was collected using structured survey questionnaires to examine the independent and the dependent variables and their relationship to each other. The reliability and the validity of the research instruments were tested by carrying out a pilot study. During re-testing the Cronbach Alpha (α) above 0.7 is acceptable for internal consistency. The collected data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The study findings determined that the stakeholder had the right and responsibility to know what was happening during the project implementation. The study concluded that the road development project, in its entirety, accepted stakeholder involvement in the planning, assessment and analyzing efficiency and effectiveness of the project. The study recommends that stakeholder mapping is imperative for proper identification and categorization.


I. INTRODUCTION
This study sought to assess the influence of monitoring and evaluation on road development projects in Mombasa County, Kenya.The roads account for about 93% of the transport system within Kenya and they are the pillars of economic progress (Republic of Kenya, 2007).One of the key factors to ensure that economic growth is spurred is the infrastructural development in the sector of road network in Kenya.Mombasa being the country's main seaport, serves as a gateway to East and Central Africa and this means that the quality of the infrastructure in terms of road development should be impeccable.The key to success in road projects is project Planning.Good planning provides a road map that gives the direction and categorization of project tasks which must involve all those who will be affected directly or indirectly by the project.Projects should have logic in their strategy and it is imperative that during the planning stage projects to have a broad framework for the establishment of monitoring and evaluation.Still most projects don't pay sufficient attention to planning.These results in monitoring and evaluation being tagged as an afterthought.Projects add value to businesses, institutions and organization only if they are properly managed and the stakeholders should come up with a plan that serve as a roadmap.According to Miller (2015), the stakeholder plays a significant role in shaping any project's success.The project under study is the Dongo-Kundu Bypass that will connect Mombasa mainland west to Mombasa mainland south.The county government has tried to engage the stakeholders in defining work problems that might arise from the assigned sources to the problem of this road project.
The rate of failures reported in road construction projects could mainly be attributed to lack of proper stakeholder involvement throughout the project phases.There is very high and adequate knowledge regarding project management and planning but there is still a failure of these projects which are reported within Mombasa County.Studies done by Nyabera (2015) on the stakeholder influence in project implementation in Kenya, acknowledged that accountability and even transparency help the organization, national office, and the counties to meet the obligation to the community in which the project is being implemented.The stakeholders need to be looped in every phase of the project implementation.Lack of proper time management during the implementation of project task results to projects being delivered way past the stipulated timeframe and cost overruns is the main reason for project failures in Mombasa County.A well-managed project should meet the budget and project deliverables should be within the set timeframe (Akal et al., 2016).Therefore, stakeholder mapping is imperative for the proper identification and categorization of the stakeholders (Oruma, 2014;Kashiwagi & Byfield, 2002).
The objective of this study was to assess the level of stakeholder engagement on performance of road development projects in Mombasa County, Kenya.This study incorporated stakeholder theory mainly to address the shortcoming within project management partly contributed due to limited stakeholder engagement.According to the theory input-output models are identified by the stakeholder which incorporates the community's interest.Patton (2008) states that the main aim of this theory is to enable the project manager to be in position to understand the stakeholders, know how to loop them in and manage them.This theory emphasizes that successful completion of projects heavily relies on the relationship between the project staff and the stakeholders.This theory can be applied in identifying stakeholders to be involved in the project and the roles to be undertaken and to understand every stakeholder as well.
Previous studies from the literature support that stakeholder engagement is key during project implementation and brings about transparency and accountability.Henry (2016) asserts that for any development project to be successful the stakeholders should be involved during the life cycle of the project and that engagement of the stakeholders should begin right from the initiation stage.He recommends that for proper project management within the project's tasks, stakeholder mapping should be enhanced and stakeholder analysis tools would be of great assistance during project management.According to Askari (2014) involving the stakeholders is important, but too much involvement leads to undue process on the other hand, Mandala (2018) used explorative research to investigate the performance of road projects and how the stakeholders were engaged during the identification process.The study revealed that the project was successful due to stakeholder involvement.The recommendation from the study is that the stakeholders should be looped in on different aspects of the project.The Research was done Kobusingye (2017) on the influence of stakeholder engagement on the project's outcome, and the research was on a water sanitation project in Rwanda.In this research semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the community.The research revealed that the project's success depends on the community in which it was implemented since they are the ones to benefit and know what role they could play.This is in line with the study by Nyandika & Ngugi (2014) on the influence stake holder involvement on the performance of road development projects at Kenya Nationals Highway Authority (KeNHA).Study by Nyabera (2015) on the stakeholder influence in project implementation in Kenya acknowledged that accountability and even transparency help the organization's national office and the counties to meet the obligation to the community in which the project is being implemented.Saeed et al. (2012) did a study on the effect of stakeholder participation on the performance of project construction in Yemen and collected many data through a literature review that supports stakeholder participation through the project phases.According to Fontaine, Haarman & Schmid (2006), stakeholders' interest in projects need to be taken care of and this should be done through proper project management within the organization.The engineers working on road projects need to be the agents of stakeholders.This will ensure the project's survival in the long term.
The Conceptual framework allowed the interaction between the independent variable and the dependent variable.In this study independent variable included the participation of stakeholders in the identification of the project and the participation of the stakeholder in project planning.In contrast, the dependent variable is the road project's performance.

Independent variable Dependent Variable
Stakeholders in project identification  Hedge & Cooper (2009) research design gives a plan for data collection and analysis to reach the set objectives.The study adopted a mixed-method methodology because it enabled a broader comprehension of the problem in research.Mixed-method combines the elements of both the qualitative and the quantitative approaches in examining the involvement of the stakeholder in terms of the project performance in road development projects in Mombasa County, Kenya.It is an approach that allows to collect and analyze data systematically and a descriptive research survey design was also employed to best respond to the research questions.The design points out the relationship between the independent and dependent variables and to give the relationship between the involvement of stakeholders and their effect on road construction projects.The target population was 40 county government officials, 20 National government officials 60 community representatives and 4 project managers.The reliability and the validity of the research instruments were tested by carrying out a pilot study.During re-testing the Cronbach Alpha (α) above 0.7 is acceptable for internal consistency.The collected data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS).A sample size of 124 was selected using a stratified random sampling technique and the primary data was collected using structured survey questionnaires to examine the independent and the dependent variables and their relationship to each other

III. RESULTS
The questionnaire survey was used to collect data and the number of questionnaires given out was 124 in total, and all of them were returned.This means that the return rate was 100 per cent and this made it valid for this research.From the response of those who had a role to play in the project, the National government was represented by 16.1%, the county government were represented by 32.3% and the large number from the community was represented by 48.4%.The total number of those who participated in the research was 124 and from this figure 59 were male and 65 were female.This represents 47.6 per cent and 52.4 per cent respectively.There was no missing participant in the project.This implies that the opinion of women was fairly represented on how M & E is integrated into the performance of road development projects.The collected data was coded and computed into the SPSS version 25.The researcher used correlation analysis to be able to describe the relationship between variables and to assess the level of the scattered data.The coefficient of (+1) in a correlation suggested that there is a perfect interaction between the variables and the coefficient of (-1) suggested that the variables are not related.From the target population of 124 participants 53 agree that during the project implementation stakeholders were involved and 20 participants strongly agreed as well this makes a total of 83.
From the target population only two disagreed and feedback from 49 respondents was Neutral.
From this analysis stakeholders were involved a lot during Monitoring and evaluation process which means sharing a common understanding and even decision-making.The stakeholders were identified early and allowed interact and talk to one another.This led to the project be understood, and one component of a successful project is first understanding it, and this brings about accountability.This stakeholder engagement enabled the team to work in multi-dimensional capacities and this defined goals and the set objectives.

IV. DISCUSSION
The questionnaire survey was used to collect data and the number of questionnaires given out were 124 in total and all of them were returned.The return rate was 100 percent and this made it valid for this research.The stakeholders were identified early and were then let to interact.This led the project to be understood and one component of a successful project is first by understanding it and this brings about accountability.
The objective in this study sought to determine the level of participation from stakeholders and how it affects Monitoring and evaluation in projects.Many factors play out when it comes to the success of any development project, for example schedules, goals and management.Apart from this determinant.Successive outcome of projects is also based on people.This people are called the stakeholders.This study revealed that the stakeholder had the right and the responsibility to get to know what was happening during the project implementation.The stakeholders were kept in the loop since they were engaged and participated in terms of which aspects of the project needed corrective actions, decision making in terms of which project tasks needed time for adjustments before completion and how risks could be averted during the progress of the project.
The evaluation questions from this assessment helped the stakeholders to understand the project risks both positive and negative.From this study the stakeholder involvement in monitoring and evaluation assisted greatly in uncovering the risks that could affect the project and this led to the formulation of plans on how this risks could be mitigated, and this increased the success of the project.Inclusion of many individuals in monitoring led to common understanding, enhancing the accountability and better decisions were made to improve the project.This was important to ensure the target group (beneficiaries) benefited from it.The information collected by the stakeholders improved the performance of the project since it was emphasized on varying aspects.

Conclusion
The conclusions from the study were that the participation of the stakeholders during the project identification planning and implementation positively road development projects in Mombasa County, Kenya.The study also concluded that the road development project in its entirety accepted stakeholder involvement in planning assessment and analyzing efficiency and the effectiveness of the project.

Recommendations
Based on the findings, the study recommends that the groups within the community or the region where the road projects are being implemented should not be overlooked.They are marginalized and this can be done through stakeholder mapping which will at least ensure proper identification and categorization process.Secondly, the Agencies within the construction industries should improve stakeholder awareness through rolling programmes of consultation with the residents and representatives.Thirdly Project managers should ensure that all stakeholders are looped in every stage of road development projects and this can be done through proper communication during the implementation of project tasks.
This study suggests the importance of more and similar studies to be done in other counties within Kenya for the purposes of comparison.Some scholars argue that involving the stakeholders is important, but too much involvement leads to undue process (Askari, 2014).More research on this will bring more clarity.Apart from stakeholder involvement in project implementation, other external factors like government or the donor rules may also come into play and their impact need to be studied at depth when it comes to road development projects.

Table 1 :
Target Population

Table 2 :
Sample Size

Table 3 :
Role Played in the Project