Question

Devolution in Kenya was touted as a solution to development inequalities in the country. The citizens believed in the constitution that the creation of the county governments would bring services closer to them, enhance access to leaders and ultimately achieve development at a faster rate. The performance of the counties has recently become a subject of discussion by every Kenyan. It has been over three years since, but tangible results are not evident with blame between National and County governments and institutions thereof increasing by the day. County governments have not established their foot in revenue collection, legislative agenda is yet to take root with the county assemblies having been grounded by the pull and push for higher pay by the members, minimal capacity of the MCAs to legislate and debate Bills and county residents developing apathy towards their county leaders. The Council of Governors is concerned with this and has instituted a research in which you are the lead person.   

a)Suggest an appropriate title that this research can take                                         

Solution

Devolution has made Kenya a better country

b)Outline any four specific research objectives for the study                                  

c)Draw a schematic diagram of a conceptual framework that the research should adopt clearly indicating the various types of variables.                                                        

Briefly explain any four ethical considerations that you would bear in mind while conducting your research.   

Answer 1

a)Suggest an appropriate title that this research can take                                          (2 marks)

A appropriate solution to research may be:

Devolution in Kenya leaping towards legislative strengthening and revenue generation agendas for the welfare of the people.

b)Outline any four specific research objectives for the study                                   (4 marks)

Four specific research subjects that can be inferred form the provided information are:

• Synchronizing the working of National and Country Governments in a way that there is increase in revenue collection and administrative co-operation.
• Ascertaining the pay levels for the members of the county assemblies.
• Identifying key policy and legislature requirements that set forth enabling features of the betterment of people and provide for efficient working of the system.
• Identify and take steps for reinforcing public trust in the constitutional bodies by realizing the agendas set forth by the Government and communicate to voters about the effects of the initiatives undertaken.
• Building public participation in the devolved Government through reaching the people with schemes and objectives of the decentralized system.
• Addressing social accountability of the Government framework.

c)Draw a schematic diagram of a conceptual framework that the research should adopt clearly indicating the various types of variables.                                                        (5 marks)

The conceptual framework of the research may be to start from studying the structure of the Government machinery set under the 2010 constitution of the country.

A through research and understanding then needs to be developed of the working of the National and the county Governments. Here there will be a need to understand the following:

• Objectives that the National and the County Governments need to work together to work on and what is the percentage of involvement of both the system in delivering the planned outcomes of such objectives.
• The chain of command how the administrative officials are working and form where the orders are originating and who is ultimately responsible to make thing work up to the ground level.
• The legislative layout of the county Governments and the extend the existing policies and frameworks the county Governments have been able to establish.
• The mechanisms for flow of aids of the government for realization of implementation of desired policies and regulations.

At this state when the research topic has some information on the working of the Government machinery then the county specific requirements and challenges needs to be understood by interacting with the people and sample groups and zero down to broad requirements and bottlenecks.

The interaction points can be suggested to the county governments and national government for policy formulation with policy advocacy inputs.

The re-engineering in the administrative setup will then be suggested for process simplification and removing bottlenecks in implementation aids reaching to the grass root levels.

A complete analysis report should be presented to the government at national and county government levels highlighting the key findings for the change to happen and objective realization.

Briefly explain any four ethical considerations that you would bear in mind while conducting your research.

Some of the ethical considerations that must be observed during this research are:

• First it must be understood that one cannot suggest a phase shift change to a Government model of working and every aspect must be according the guidelines of the Constitution.
• Acts, Bills, Guidelines should be for the betterment of the target classes and not for the benefit of a group of people advocating the regions and policy for it.
• The subjects of the research should preferable be humans and the method be human interactions.
• Nothing should be presumed and an open outlook should be maintained to understand and address the needs and wants of the people.
• All codes and guidelines of the organization and country for conducting research should be adhered to always.
• Codes address issues such as honesty, objectivity, respect for intellectual property, social responsibility, confidentiality, non-discrimination and many others should be abided by.