Citizen participation and public service delivery in Kisarawe district and Kinondoni municipal Councils

Citizen participation is regarded as a process which provides private individuals an opportunity to influence public decisions and has long been a component of the democratic decision making process. The main purpose of this study is to seek to resolve the puzzle of citizen participation in Tanzania by attempting to decipher why public participation is said to be ample but the quality of health care and education services provided is still perceived to be questionable. The study is based on qualitative research. Data was collected from Kinondoni Municipal Council and Kisarawe District Council. The work contains five sections. Chapter One deals with background to the study, statement of the problem, research hypothesis, research questions and objectives of the study, significance of the study, research design, research methodology as well as operational definitions. Chapter Two deals with Literature review which informs the Theoretical Framework that is discussed in Chapter Three. Chapter Four presents an analysis of research findings while Chapter Five provides conclusions and recommendations. One of the major findings of this study is that in instances where citizens effectively participated such as in construction of class buildings and through neighborhoods or village, hamlet or vitongoji government meetings where citizens have been given chance to air out their discontents regarding maladministration, there have been positive results but in most cases where citizens are not given chance to meaningfully participate especially in the prioritization of local needs, the study found out that dissatisfaction with the kind of social services provided by the government is high. It is therefore concluded, in this study, that strengthening local participation is an indispensable ingredient for successful provision of quality services to the citizens. It is recommended that citizens must know their rights and responsibilities through civic education for this will enable them to demand accountability from their leadership and ensure effective citizen participation in the planning process.