Multi-Level Governance and Service Delivery: A Kenyan Perspective

Inter-governmental relations (IGR) are critical for the effective and efficient service delivery by governments, as an important component of any political system with more than one level of government. The general objective of the study was to examine the role of IGR on service delivery in multi-level systems of governance in counties in Kenya. The specific objectives were: to establish the role of administrative relations, fiscal relations, political relations and economic relations on service delivery in counties in Kenya; and to establish the moderating effect of public participation on the relationship between intergovernmental relations and service delivery. The study was limited to the 47 county governments in Kenya. Results revealed that all the inter-governmental relations had a positive and significant relationship with service delivery of county governments in Kenya, with public participation having a positive and significant moderating effect. It was concluded that IGR had the potential of positively influencing service delivery and thus recommended that national and county governments should adopt a multi-dimensional approach in implementing IGR for service delivery.