Influence of Resources Availability on Implementation of Rural Electrification Projects Within Central Rift Region in Kenya
Authors: Kiarie Methodius Njoroge , Gakuu Christopher , Kidombo Harriet , Gatotoh Augustine Mwangi 
Published: September 2024

Resources availability is a key institutional determinant that has been examined in respect to its influence on project implementation traits. The institutional resources can be categorized as all capabilities, assets, firm attributes, organizational processes, information and knowledge possessed by a firm that enables it to conceive and implement strategies efficiently and effectively. The objective of the study was to establish the influence of resources availability on implementation of rural electrification projects within central rift region in Kenya. This study made use of pragmatism research paradigm. This study used the correlational research design. The target population is a critical aspect of the research methodology. The unit of analysis for the study is the 646 projects covered by the rural electrification program in Central Rift Region under Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC). The unit of observation was the staff drawn from the 73 labor and transport project contractors/sub-contractors, their project managers and supervisors making 21 respondents. The study used Taro Yamane formula to get a sample size of 142. Data was collected using structured questionnaire. The study examined the correlation between resources availability for project implementation and implementation of rural electrification projects. Resources availability (β = .654, p < .001), the results indicated that involving stakeholders in the project planning and implementation process can leverage the positive effects of institutional determinants such as government policies, regulations, and funding, thereby increasing the success rate9of rural electrification projects. The model with the interaction effect had a significant improvement in predicting the dependent variable (F (3, 112) = 14.74, p < .001), and the R2 increased from 0.30 for model 1 to 0.42 for model 2, which also included the interaction effect. The results indicated that there was significant positive correlation (r=0.654, p<0.01) between the two variables. This suggests that when resources are more readily available for project implementation, the likelihood of successful implementation of rural electrification projects increases. For the rural electrification project implementation study, the observed t-value for the independent variable resources availability is 0.25 with a p-value of 0.00, indicating that the coefficient is statistically significant that is t(116) = 0.25, p = 0.01. The unstandardized regression coefficient for the constant is 1.250 and for resources availability for project implementation is 0.64. This indicates that for every unit increase in resources availability for project implementation, there is an average increase of 0.64 units in the dependent variable Project Implementation. In conclusion, the results of the t-test and unstandardized regression coefficients suggest that resource availability has a significant impact on rural electrification project implementation. Organizations involved in rural electrification projects must ensure that adequate resources are available for effective project implementation to achieve success.