Community stakeholder involvement and project delivery: the case of community projects funded by Tullow oil exploration company in Turkana, Kenya

Abstract

Business organizations are increasingly being held accountable for their environmental and social impacts making it necessary to involve community stakeholders to ensure successful project delivery. Over the years, during and after oil and gas exploration and discovery in South Lokichar Basin in Turkana by Tullow Oil, there has been growing disquiet and disappointments amongst the different community stakeholders over project delivery. The purpose of the study was to establish the effect of community stakeholder involvement on project delivery in the south Lokichar Basin in Turkana, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to: Determine the effect of the identification process on project delivery; Examine the effect of planning process on project delivery; Investigate the effect of the implementation process on project delivery; Assess the ramification of monitoring and evaluation process on project delivery; and examine the moderating consequence of management of community expectations on the relationship between community stakeholder involvement and project delivery. The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive survey and covered villages proximal to the oil wells of the two Wards of Lokori \ Kochodin, and Lokichar with a target population of 1,401 people and a sample size of 138 respondents comprising the host communities’ members. The 138 respondents were sampled using cluster sampling at the village level and systematic sampling (k=10th) at the household level. To collect quantitative data, a structured questionnaire was used representing about 10% of the total target population while purposive sampling was used to collect qualitative data from 30 key informants through a semi-structured interview guide. Based on cross-tabulation with chi-square and Binary logistic regression analyses, the study found that community stakeholder involvement in the identification had no significant effect on project delivery. However, stakeholder involvement in project planning, implementation as well as management of community expectations had a significant effect on project delivery (p=0.05). The study recommended that projects should be identified by all relevant community stakeholders in order of priority. It also recommended that there should be a proper understanding of the various interests, expectations, and demands of community stakeholders. This study made a significant contribution to the understanding of successful community project completion grounded on community stakeholder involvement, granting the increasing rates of investments in rural settings.