Impact of Public-Private Partnership on Water Service Delivery in Kenya

Abstract

Public-private partnership has increasingly become a preferred public service delivery approach in the provision of water services in Kenya. As a strategy, PPP in water service provision was started in Kenya following water sector reforms as contained in the Water Act 2002. In order to establish the impact of PPP on water service delivery in Kenya, a household survey of 288 respondents from seven (7) Water Service Providers (WSPs) comprising four Water Utility companies and three Community Water projects, under the Lake Vic-toria South Water Services Board (LVSWSB) umbrella was conducted. Using quantitative techniques to analyze the data under governance theory, the study established that compared to the period up to 2004, the households experienced better services in the year 2012 in terms of water quality, afforda-bility, access and customer service levels as currently observed compared to the period up to 2004 to the extent that public institutions that had adopted more private sector participation performed better than those that have not. On average, there was reduction in: distance to water point reduced by 78.3 m; frequency of coloured water by 0.2 days, time taken to restore water 3 days within the ten years period.