Multilevel Water Governance for Transforming Water Services Provision in Kenyan Counties: A Case Study of Obunga Informal Settlements in Kisumu County

Efficiency and Effectiveness in governance is fundamental for management of water resources. Several countries across the world are racing to institute sound reforms to ensure people have access to clean, safe water in enough quantities. Kenya is among the countries that have strived to come up with a raft of reforms to ensure effective management and access to water resources for sustainable development. Whereas significant steps have been made to ensure there is reliable access to this precious commodity by most Kenyans, the challenge persists. It is estimated that over 17 million Kenyans still lack access to safe water sources. This has largely been attributed to lack of proper water governance, poor management practices by the informal and formal actors involved in water sector leading to dysfunctional water schemes. Urban slum residents are often impacted the worst with limited access to water and sanitation services leading to poor health conditions and in adverse cases deaths. The purpose of this study is to assess water governance in the context of water service provision in Kenya, taking a case study of Obunga informal settlement in Kisumu County. The study sought to examine the interactions between institutional actors in water governance, to examine the extent to which decentralization of governance affected multi-level partnerships in water service delivery and to examine the models through which multi-level partnerships can improve ownership inclusivity and accountability in water governance. The research used simple random sampling technique for the residents and purposive sampling for the water officials, the private sector as well as Non-Governmental Organizations involved in water governance in the study area. Primary data was collected and analyzed using SPSS and Excel and qualitative data was coded and categorized into themes using content analysis. Results were presented in charts and tables and using themes. The results revealed that the relations between institutional actors in the water sector directly affect access of the resource by residents, often leading to interruptions or even inaccessibility. This study also found out that water services provision is highly operated by middlemen at various stages of service provision including installation, management, access and payment collection. The decentralization of water governance somewhat increased access to water, however limited capacity at local level, unclear allocation of roles and responsibilities of actors and questionable resource allocation, lack of long-term strategic planning, poor legislation and poor economic regulation, insufficient means of measuring performance, weak accountability and transparency are just come of the challenges encountered. This study also found out that type two multi-stakeholder partnerships, modelled to be participatory and takes on a multi-stakeholder governance approach has great potentials translatable into tangible outcomes for majority of those in need of water. This study recommends that the water service providers together with other stakeholders in the water sector need to address reported water leakages to prevent further losses, it also recommends acknowledging the value of non-governmental stake-holders engagement in water service sector. A balancing act between the leadership of the government, political goodwill and genuine participation of non-governmental stakeholders in water service sector lies at the heart of the realization of SDG 6 and the human right to water as enshrined in the constitution of the Republic of Kenya.