Media is a vehicle for social change and development. The inception of Counties in 2010 led to establishment of county development programs. Vihiga County hosts several community radio stations broadcasting in various dialects. This study therefore endeavored to investigate the role of community radio programmes in the implementation of development programs in Vihiga County. This study was guided by the development communication and participatory communication theories. The study used a descriptive case design. Glenn Israel’s sampling formula (1992 was used to calculate the sample size from a population of 331, 654 and a multistage cluster sampling procedure was used to administer the questionnaires. Purposive sampling was used to sample three community radios in Vihiga county while twelve county government officers (CGOs) and six community radio staff (CRS) were sampled from populations of 118 and 60 respectively using 10% of Mugenda and Mugenda (2014) formula. Qualitative data was collected through interviews and analyzed thematically. Interview schedules were used for CRS and CGOs and Questionnaire for the general public. Quantitative data was analyzed using tables and charts. The study revealed that there are community radios to which most of the people listened to (73.8%) and that most of the programmes aired were not on development (59.8%) and neither did the programmes sensitize people on county development (62.6%) nor did Vihiga county communicate its development agenda through community radio (67.8%). The Study recommended that the county should create a framework of engagement with community radios through integrating communication via Community radios during programs implementation. The findings of the study will help Vihiga County plan effective framework of engagement with community radio stations through development of policies. The study has provided data on importance of radio programmes in community radios and their effectiveness in enhanced programs implementation.

Keywords: community radios; community radio staff; county development programs; county government officers; implementation.