Monitoring and Evaluation Techniques and Performance of Management Systems of Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies in Kitui County, Kenya

Abstract: Savings and credit co-operative societies (SACCOs) hold the savings of a large share of Kenyan households, and the quality of the systems through which they are managed bears directly on members' money. This study examined the influence of four monitoring and evaluation (M&E) techniques, namely monitoring initiation, monitoring planning, evaluation execution and execution control, on the performance of the management systems of SACCOs in Kitui County, anchored on goal-setting theory, expectancy theory and the resource-based view. A descriptive design was adopted. From a population of 255 staff and officials across the county's 18 SACCOs, a sample of 120 was drawn by stratified random sampling across managers, system specialists, training leaders, consultants and delegates, and 115 usable questionnaires were returned (95.8 per cent). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. Respondents reported high agreement on all four techniques (construct means of 4.12 to 4.24 on a five-point scale) and on the performance of their management systems (M = 4.20). All four techniques were positively and significantly associated with performance (F(4, 110) = 39.09, p < .001). Monitoring initiation carried the largest standardised effect (β = .521) and monitoring planning the most precisely estimated (t = 7.48), followed by execution control (β = .419) and evaluation execution (β = .306). The weakest-rated practices in each area were documentation, budget monitoring and corrective action on planning variances, the elements that convert monitoring into management decisions. The study recommends that SACCOs formalise when, how and by whom monitoring is initiated, adopt monitoring planning as an annual governance requirement linked to budgets, and close the loop between variance reporting and corrective action. Several features of the reported data, set out in Section 5.4, mean that the magnitudes should be treated as provisional until the analysis is reproduced from the raw responses. Keywords: monitoring and evaluation; monitoring planning; evaluation; management systems; performance management; SACCOs; co-operatives; Kenya. Title: Monitoring and Evaluation Techniques and Performance of Management Systems of Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies in Kitui County, Kenya Author: Jacquiline Ngina Katuta, Josphat Kyalo International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online) Vol. 14, Issue 4, October 2026 - December 2026 Page No: 104-111 Research Publish Journals Website: www.researchpublish.com Published Date: 14-October-2026 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23367386 Paper Download Link (Source) https://www.researchpublish.com/papers/monitoring-and-evaluation-techniques-and-performance-of-management-systems-of-savings-and-credit-co-operative-societies-in-kitui-county-kenya