Factors Affecting Quality of Building Construction Projects in Informal Settlements within Nairobi City County, Kenya

Construction industry plays a major role in the development and achievement of society’s goals, contributing to about 10% of the Gross National Product (GNP) in industrialized countries and, it constitute 60-70% of the national wealth and about 20% of the annual wealth creation in less developed countries. Despite of the weight given to the construction industry, quality of construction projects has been questioned as indicated by widespread collapse of building structures in Kenya. This study sought to find out factors contributing to the quality of construction projects with the focus on the effects of technical factors and economic factors. A descriptive research design was adopted. The target population of 412 completed and ongoing projects was used, which had a workforce of 1678, from which a sample of 30% (503) was selected. Primary data was collected using questionnaire. Statistical Package for Social Statistics V 22.0 was used to analyses the data. Descriptive statistics indicated study variables were very important as shown by high values of mean and the opinions of respondents had low variations as shown by low values of standard deviation. The study findings indicate that technical factors and quality of the construction projects are positively and significantly relate (r=0.145, p=0.005) and economic factors and quality of construction projects are positively and significantly related (r=0.076, p=0.001). The study concludes that technical and economic factors contribute to the quality of construction projects in informal settlement and should be given weight they deserve. The study recommends that the government should ensure there is documentation and enforcement of the policies, systems, processes and procedures to help the construction practitioners manage construction work effectively.