Factors Influencing Health Service Provision In Pastoral Communities In Kenya: A Case Study Of Wajir County

Abstract

The study seeks to find out factors affecting health service provision in pastoral communities, it                   is focusing Wajir County. The County Government is mandated to provide services including the                     health services which have been enabled by devolution functions such as transfer of funds.              However, Counties especially within the patrol communities have been faced with myriad of                       challenges in obtaining the standard services from the County offices such as medical and                         education services. Some of the mentioned causes of poor  services to the community from the                literature has been leaders  who are not objective in practicing the best human resource practices, poor communication facilities in the County thus community are not able to access the needed services in timely manner and lot of corruptions in the County offices. In addition, there is lack of proper structures or systems put in place to account for the resources allocated. From the past studies in the related fielded also present a methodological gap where most analysis is based on County reports lacking quantitative analysis while others uses only descriptive statistics to analyze the data.  This study thus, fills the gap by looking at broad construct which give a broader picture of the health service provision. In addition, this study combines both descriptive and inferential statistics to determine the relationships between the study variables.  The study therefore hypothesizes that: There is no relationship between devolved resource allocation and quality of health services provision (H₀₁) and there is no relationship between human resource practices and quality of health services provision (H₀₂); Research study was anchored on institutional theory. Descriptive survey was used; The findings of the research will be used by other researcher’s  as a reference to what they will do in future not forgetting that it was used as a source of literature review to their studies. 65 respondents were chosen through random sampling that was stratified. The research questionnaires were administered by the researcher himself to the respondents. Focus group discussion was also done to the community members. Data was analyzed through f(n) and descriptive statistics and presented using tables and graphs. The research study established that resource allocation and human resource practices have a great influence in the provision of health services. The study recommends that Governor   of Wajir County should develop and formulate guidelines, governing structure and strategic plans for effective implementation of county resources and revenue that will enable provision of quality healthcare.