Abstract:
This study sought to identify the role of strategic leadership on execution of development plans by county governments in Kenya. The objectives of the study were: To analyse the role of envisioning in execution of development plans by county governments in Kenya, to analyse the effect of institutionalization of programmes in execution of development plans by county governments in Kenya, to explore the role of innovation in execution of development plans by county governments in Kenya, to analyse the role of monitoring and evaluation in execution of development plans by county governments in Kenya and to establish the moderating effect of policy framework in execution of development plans by county governments in Kenya. The target population of the study was government officers from five counties which was 10% of forty-seven counties who comprised of 5 County Secretaries, 5 Heads of Monitoring and Evaluation, 5 Chairs of Public Accounts Committees and 5 Clerks of the County Assemblies. Others are 48 Chief Officers and 55 Directors. The target population was 123 participants and sample size was 92. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument. Data analysis and interpretation was based on descriptive statistics and inferential statistics namely, Pearson correlation and Analysis of Variance. In addition a multiple regression model was used to explore the relationship between the variables. The study adopted the multiple regression to assess the effects of the moderating variable (Policy framework) whose findings indicates that a 6.2 % change in variation after introduction of the moderator variable was realized. The effect of the moderator on the relationship between the independent variables (Monitoring and evaluation, Strategic direction, Organization structure, Innovation, Organization culture, Communication) and dependent variable (Execution) is statistically significant (F (7, 55) = 9.544, p-value = 0.000).Envisioning role was found to positively influence the execution of CIDPs. Institutionalization had a positive influence on execution of CIDPs. Innovation role in the execution of CIDPs was significant. Monitoring and evaluation role in the execution of CIDPs had a significant relationship with execution.The study recommends that county governments should embrace innovation for better service delivery through county integrated development plans. Monitoring and evaluation should be embraced and qualified and competent staff should be hired and the function should be adequately funded and be independent of the execution for it to function properly. Also National government to allocate funds to counties that utilize their funds transparently and starve funds to counties that do not account for the allocated funds. Senate to take its oversight role seriously by ensuring that counties deliver without deviating from the crafted county integrated development plans. The study concludes that County governments should exercise strategic kind of leadership in the execution of CIDPs as its role has proved to have impact on the execution of CIDPs.
