The Contribution of Institutional Governance to Water Services Delivery in Kenya

Abstract

This study explored why water service delivery in Kenya continues to face significant challenges, despite multiple governance reforms efforts to address these challenges. The overall objective was to establish how the current institutional governance structure has affected water service delivery with a particular focus on the effects of intergovernmental functional assignment, intergovernmental coordination, and institutional autonomy of water service providers on water services delivery. To realize these objectives, qualitative data was collected to understand this phenomenon from the perspective of policy actors from both levels of government. Semistructured interviews were conducted with a total of 37 respondents including individuals and organizations involved in water services delivery at the national and county government levels, representatives from non-governmental organizations, as well as community-level representatives. The findings of the study show that contestations over the legitimacy of intergovernmental functional assignment for water services delivery has led to persistent disputes over perceived encroachment of the national government into county government’s functional mandates in water services delivery; weaknesses in the mechanisms for intergovernmental coordination and limited autonomy of water service providers (WSPs) from political interference and capture. These governance challenges have impacted water services delivery in various ways including inefficiency in the deployment of resources, as both levels of government deliver water services in parallel rather than in a coordinated manner, resulting in duplication of efforts and waste of resources; delays in enacting critical policies as the two levels of government contest overlapping mandates and pursue conflicting policy objectives; accountability gap to citizens as both levels of government shift blame to each other for unmet water service needs, and weak and financially unsustainable WSPs dependent on county subsidies rather than operating as commercially independent state-owned agencies. This study concludes that that policy leaders at both the national and county levels of government in Kenya involved in water services delivery have failed to harness the strengths of polycentric diversity to accelerate the progress towards achieving universal access to affordable, equitable, and sustainable water services delivery.