The Influence of Stakeholder Involvement on the Implementation of Urban Strategic Development Plan in Kapsabet Town, Nandi County, Kenya

Development planning in the urban areas in Kenya has taken a paradigm shift over the past decade and more so after the enactment of the new constitution in 2010. This study sought to investigate the influence of stakeholder involvement on the implementation of urban strategic development plans (USDP) in Kenya.The study was carried out in Kapsabet town, Nandi County. A sample size of 118 respondents was obtained from a population of 170 using Krejcie and Morgan method. They mainly came from the county Departments of Planning Infrastructure Development, Devolved Units & Special Programmes. Others were professionals and stakeholders in the town. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Questionnaires were used to collect data and the return rate was 95.8%. This study used both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis. The study also adopted a descriptive analysis where descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation were used to describe the basic features of the data and to provide simple summaries about the sample and the measures. The study found out that majority (58.4%) of respondents believed that stakeholder communication has got a positive influence on the implementation of USDP. In addition, majority (55.8%) of the respondents support stakeholder training as a way of achieving success in the implementation of USDP. Similarly, it is important to be accountable to the stakeholders in the implementation of the strategic development plan as 61% of the respondents attested to its importance. The research findings and recommendations are useful in assisting the town managers, the Nandi County Government and all the stakeholders to take measures geared towards enhancing the implementation of urban strategic development plan and the realization of the vision and mission statements of the town. © 2017 Elixir All rights reserved. Elixir Project & Quality 112 (2017) 48997-49002 Project and Quality Available online at www.elixirpublishers. com (Elixir International Journal) Rotich Mathew Kiprono / Elixir Project & Quality 112 (2017) 48997-49002 48998 devolution is to "enhance the participation of people in the exercise of the powers of the State and in making decisions affecting them. " Article 184(1)(c) further requires that mechanisms "for participation by residents” be included in national legislation to urban areas and cities governance and management. Sessional Paper No. 3 of 2009 on national land policy in Kenya states that development in urban and peri-urban areas has been inhibited by poor planning, rapid growth of human settlements and activities, unmitigated urban sprawl and inadequate provision of infrastructure. Proper planning will facilitate coordinated development of urban and peri-urban areas in terms of housing, commercial, industrial and infrastructure development to accommodate changes in lifestyle and economic activities. In promoting stakeholder involvement, the paper states that the government shall facilitate the preparation and implementation of local area development plans for all urban and peri-urban areas in the country in a participatory manner. The government shall also establish an effective coordinating mechanism for the preparation, implementation of plans and development control. According to Craythorne (2006), every municipality in South Africa must have a comprehensive strategic development plan, which must reflect various interrelated aspects. It is when contemplating these aspects that the integrated nature of strategic thought at the local sphere of government can be better understood. Myeza (2009) holds that the Urban Strategic Development Plan (USDP) serves as the principal plan of a municipality, and that it supersedes all other development initiatives at the local sphere of government. An interesting observation at this point is that USDPs are nationally prescribed strategic plans for municipal organisations, with a local/community focus. Patel (2004), states that the urban development planning process should be used as an opportunity for the municipality to debate and agree on a long-term vision and strategy (20-25 years) that provides the basis for the shorter 5 year objectives and strategies. Patel (2004) continues to argue that the municipality should develop this long-term vision through consultative processes with local residents and all other relevant stakeholders in the municipal processes. It is evident that firms which implement strategic planning achieve better performances than those without such planning, but these strategies often fail due to problems encountered at the implementation stage (O'Regan & Ghobadian, 2002). Strategic decisions should, however, be implemented with an awareness that their success is vital for the organization in question. By identifying the factors that influence the process and outcomes of the strategy implementation stage, an organization will be better prepared for its future performance, which will ultimately contribute to its bottom line. In the Kenyan context, each county government has a major role in urban planning as outlined in Urban Areas and Cities Act (UACA, 2011). The promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya (CoK, 2010) placed the role of planning and management of urban areas on county governments. The enactment of the County Government Act (CGA, 2012) one year later provided an avenue for planning in the urban areas. The counties are mandated by law to develop a comprehensive plan dubbed the county integrated development plan (CIDP). It is from this comprehensive plan that urban areas and cities are required to develop their strategic development plans. This paper aimed at investigating the influence of stakeholder involvement on the implementation of urban strategic development plan in Kapsabet town, Kenya. 1.1 Statement of the Problem McNamara (2008) observes that a frequent complaint about the strategic planning process is that it produces a document that ends up collecting dust on a shelf – the organization ignores or fails to make good use of the precious information depicted in the strategic planning document. African context studies (Aosa, 1992; Fubara, 1986) noted that many firms created strategic plans which are rarely implemented according to the planned schedules. Even though Aosa (1992) looked into the implementation issue, he mainly took focus of large manufacturing private firms whose set up is very different from that of county governments which are specifically non-profit making organizations. There is evidence of gaps in the implementation of strategic urban development plans in towns across the country. This is from reports showing the glaring disparities between the plans and the final output at the end of the implementation period of the urban strategic development plans by the urban authorities. Thompson, Strickland and Gamble (2007) and Evans (2007) proposed further studies on management in instilling high levels of commitment to strategic success, lack of detailed planning to support goal achievement, poor communication and coordination, as well as strategy and culture misalignment as reasons for failure at strategic implementation. This study investigated the Influence of stakeholder Involvement on the Implementation of Urban Strategic Development Plan in Kapsabet town, Nandi County, Kenya. 2.0 Literature Review According to Thompson and Strickland (2003) strategy implementation is viewed as the process that turns formulated strategy into a series of actions and then results to ensure that the vision, mission, strategy and strategic objectives of the organization are successfully achieved as planned. According to Wheelen (2009) strategy implementation is the process by which strategies and policies are put into action. Strategic formulation includes planning and decision making involved in developing organizations strategic goals and plans. Organisations that develop the strategic plan must expect to include a process for applying the plan. Strategic implementation is a fundamental step in turning an organizations vision to reality. According to Dransfield (2001), strategy implementation involves the development of the strategies, policies and operational planning procedures to translate strategy into action steps and then carrying out the required actions. Strategies then need to be monitored and evaluated to ensure ongoing improvement. Effective leadership is important for implementing strategy in terms of the creation of strategies. Stakeholders of organizations seek some sort of directive leadership from senior managers. The responsibility of the senior management team within an organization is to create strategy after a wide process of consultation and then to set out the structures for implementing the strategy. For the past two decades strategy formulation has been widely regarded as the most important component of the strategic management process more important than strategy implementation or strategic control. However recent research indicates that strategy implementation rather than strategy formulation alone is a key requirement for superior business Rotich Mathew Kiprono / Elixir Project & Quality 112 (2017) 48997-49002 48999 performance (Kapln & Norton, 2000). In addition there is growing recognition that most important problems in the field of strategic management are not related to strategy formulation but rather to strategy implementation (Speculand, 2009) and that high failure rate of organisational initiatives in a dynamic business environment is primarily due to poor implementation of new strategies. In order to create a strategic plan organizations spend a lot of money, time, personnel and other resources. According to Speculand (2009), United States managers spend more than US dollars 10 billion annually on strategy analysis and strategy formulation. Besides money, for many organizations, the process has