Influence of governance on project environmental impact assessment implementation and follow-up in Nyeri County, Kenya

Abstract

Although EIA has been accepted worldwide as an effective tool of sustainable development, environmental performance of some projects in respect of which EIA has been conducted has been found dismal. This would imply that project EIA implementation and follow-up is being neglected, making the realization of maximum environmental effects benefits of EIA difficult. Studies conducted internationally and locally and observation of the local environment led to the identification of a gap in knowledge in EIA implementation and follow-up that incited the conduct of a study to investigate the influence of governance on project EIA implementation and follow-up in Nyeri County, Kenya. Extensive literature review was conducted to gain insight into the work that other researchers had already done in the area of study and a theoretical framework to guide the study contrived. The influence of governance on project EIA implementation and follow-up was identified as the study problem. The study employed a descriptive design and questionnaires and interview schedules for data collection from respondents selected by judgemental sampling design. Data analysis was done using SPSS tool. Correlation and regression analysis were performed to determine the relationships between variables. Only 42% of the variations in the dependent variable could be explained by the five independent variables, the remaining 58% being due to factors not considered in this study. The study identified gaps in the legal, institutional and regulatory framework; finance; monitoring and evaluation; management structures and institutional capacity which will need to he covered in order to improve ETA environmental performance in Nyeri County. The study concluded that there was need to train all stakeholders in EIA in order for the high environmental outcome potential of ETA to be realized in Nyeri County, Kenya. The effect of institutional capacity on project EIA implementation and follow up cannot be overemphasized. Further research to cover the contribution of proponents and ErA practitioners to project ETA implementation and follow up has been recommended.