Abstract
Water projects in Northern Kenya continue to experience challenges related to cost overruns, schedule delays, and inadequate service delivery despite substantial public investment. Effective stakeholder management has been identified as a critical factor in improving project performance. This study examined the influence of stakeholder identification and stakeholder monitoring on the performance of water projects in Northern Counties, Kenya. The study was guided by Resource Dependence Theory and Realistic Evaluation Theory and adopted a descriptive research design. The unit of analysis comprised 28 completed water projects, while the unit of observation consisted of 182 respondents selected using stratified random sampling based on Yamane's formula. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaires, complemented by secondary data on project performance. Instrument validity was established through content and construct validity, while reliability was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha. Data were analyzed using SPSS Version 28 through descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that stakeholder identification had a significant positive relationship with project performance (r = .560, p < .001) and significantly predicted project performance (β = 0.633, p < .001). Stakeholder monitoring also exhibited a strong positive relationship with project performance (r = .792, p < .001) and emerged as the strongest predictor of project performance (β = 0.639, p < .001). The regression model explained 80.0% of the variation in project performance (R² = .800), indicating that stakeholder management practices substantially influence the success of water projects. The study concludes that systematic stakeholder identification and continuous stakeholder monitoring significantly enhance the performance of water projects. It recommends that project managers adopt structured stakeholder identification frameworks, institutionalize continuous stakeholder monitoring, strengthen stakeholder feedback mechanisms, and utilize monitoring results to support project decision-making and improve project outcomes.
Keywords: Stakeholder identification, stakeholder monitoring, project performance, water projects, stakeholder management, Northern Kenya.