Abstract:

: This study was carried out to assess the role of public participation in Uwezo Youth Development Fund Program in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to establish the role of communication media on youth participation in YDF, the role of YDF program policies in youth participation, literacy skills influence on youth participation in YDF, role of marketing strategies on youth participation in YDF, finally, the performance of youth development funds. This study was guided by McClelland theory of acquired needs developed by McClelland in 1961 and Agenda-setting theory by McCombs et al., (1972). The study utilized descriptive study design and mixed method approaches. The study targeted 544,074 individuals and Yamane (1967) formula was used to arrive at 100 as the sample size. Information was also be collected from the all the 10 field officers who manage the Uwezo Fund. Purposive sampling was used was used to identify the respondents. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the both the Youth Uwezo Funds Officers and beneficiaries. Analysis of study variables to answer the research questions were conducted using descriptive statistics of frequency tables, charts, graphs and percentages. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings of the study established that media has played a great role in creating awareness to the public about Uwezo Funds.YDF policies influences youth participation in that the policies defines duties and obligations of the Uwezo Fund Beneficiaries and officers. Literacy skills directly and indirectly influences youth participation in YDF program in that all the beneficiaries are trained before receiving the Uwezo Fund loan as well as entrepreneurship training. On market facilitation, it was concluded that marketing strategies influences youth participation in YDF whereby the youths are to some extent facilitated with marketing facilities for their products. Finally, the study concluded that the there was increased performance of YDF which was characterized by enterprises owned by Uwezo Youth Fund beneficiaries. The study hence recommended that the media should do more in order to create enough public awareness on YDF, tough policies to be put in place to punish the staff members who participate in mismanagement of YDF in anyway, policy makers to fairly involve all the stakeholders during YDF decision making process, enough training to the beneficiaries on how to utilize the Market Linkages online in order to expand/create market for their outputs. Finally, political leaders need to minimize their involvement in disbursement of YDF to beneficiaries since they influence the process.