An Assesment of Strategic Leadership Respons of Drugs and Substance Abuse In Lari Constituency , Kiambu County, Kenya

Abstract

Within the complex and dynamic management of counties in the 21st century, strategic leadership responses play a very vital role in effective and efficient service and improvement in performance. There is need therefore, to ensure that strategic leaders have capabilities that provide relevant knowledge; skills and attributes to ensure service delivery to the citizens in way that is distinct to the people. The purpose of this study was to assess the strategic leadership responses to the economic consequences of drugs and substance abuse in Lari constituency, Kiambu County in Kenya. Five specific objectives guided this research: to assess the level of leaders involvement in responding to the economic consequences of drugs and substance abuse; to examine the extent policy formulation contributes in addressing the economic consequences of drugs and substance abuse; to examine the extent development of strategies contributes in addressing the economic consequences of drugs and substance abuse; to determine the extent implementation of strategies contributes in addressing the economic consequences of drugs and substance abuse; and to determine the extent monitoring & evaluation of strategies contributes in addressing the economic consequences of drugs and substance abuse in Lari Constituency. This study was anchored on four theories: chaos theory, upper echelon theory, neo-leadership theories and emergent leadership theory. The research design was descriptive. A target population of 1978 leaders of different management cadre in Lari Constituency in Kiambu County was used in which a sample size of 333 was randomly selected using stratified random sampling method. Data was collected from primary and secondary sources. The researcher administered a structured questionnaire with closed-ended questions so as to gather substantial information. The collected data was then fed into computer software SPSS (V.21.0) and analytical techniques such as frequency both absolute (frequency and relative (percentage) was used to describe the findings. The findings alerts the leadership of the existence of a critical mass of leadership of up-to 96.6% in Public Benefit Organizations .Further, the findings indicated that most of leaders in Lari Constituency (47%) rated their level of involvement in responding to the economic consequences of drugs and substance in Lari Constituency as creative level which implies a visionary leadership where most change efforts attempted to create a creative institutional culture that is flatter, agile and requires higher ownership and creative involvement at lower levels. Most of the respondents indicated to a small extent and to no extent do policy formulation, development of strategies contribute to address the economic consequences of drugs and substance abuse in Lari constituency. However, of the variables used to indicate the strategic responses, Monitoring and Evaluation of strategies was ranked as the highest contributor in responding to the economic consequences of drugs and substances abuse. The study concludes therefor that a relationship exists between strategic leadership responses and economic consequences of drugs and substance abuse in Lari constituency. It is therefore recommended that leaders ought to be committed in undertaking Monitoring and Evaluation of the projects in the constituency that are helping to respond to the economic consequences of drugs and substance abuse in Lari constituency. More so, they ought to evaluate either mid-way or at the end of a project, the effects and impact a project has had on the citizens and involve stakeholders all along in formulating policies, developing and implementing those strategies that address the economic consequences of drugs and substance abuse in Lari Constituency. Finally it is further recommended that the research be made on the remaining eleven Constituencies of Kiambu County, Kenya before the research is generalized.