Mmboga, Esialila Metrin2025-02-112025-02-112024-09https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/29561A Research Project Submitted to the School of Law, Arts, and Social Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Arts in Leadership and Governance of Kenyatta University, September 2024. Supervisor Heather E. KipchumbaCommercialization is a concept that has been embraced in modern society to improve the economy and promote equality in the provision of goods and services. Therefore, various goods and services that would otherwise be offered by the government can now be offered by private investors, the goal being to achieve growth and development of counties and ultimately, Countries. However, there are instances to which commercialization or rather the mechanisms used in commercializing goods and services, have no or little impact to growth and development in terms of access of provision of those goods and services, and or coverage of supply versus demand by the so-called private service providers or investors. Chapter 1 provides for the background of the study, highlighting the need for commercialization of water and further states the need to have private service providers regulated by the government. It further sets out the problem that the research intends to cure. That despite having commercialization mechanism i.e., laws in place, procurement practices outlined, and private service providers regulated, there continues to be inadequate water supply coverage especially in low-income households in Nairobi. The study will address these issues that commercialization of water has brought to the fore. There also exist informal water suppliers who ought to be incorporated in the system in one way or another. Therefore, the objectives of this research were to analyze procurement practices, the level of standardization machinery, the extent of equalization and access of water, through commercialization of water and private service delivery in Nairobi City County. This was achieved through collection and analysis of both primary and secondary data. Both the Quantitative and Qualitative methodologies of data collection and analysis were used in this research. The collection of data was through key informant interviews and questionnaires. Secondary data was obtained from library research materials, internet search and document analysis. The Quantitative and Quantitative data collected was analyzed and reported in a table and narrative reports respectively. Pilot study was conducted prior to embarking on the actual research, to test on the validity and reliability of the research instruments, which outcome proved sufficient to undertake the actual research. Descriptive research design was preferred to maximize on data reliability. Descriptive and content analysis techniques were also used. The research was premised upon Stewardship theory of corporate governance. Stewardship theory has a holistic approach. It favors corporate goals as opposed to individualistic aims. The corporate institution that was the subject of the study is the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation which is tasked via Statute to ensure availability of water across the Nation. The researcher also utilized simple random sampling in selecting participants from Nairobi residents/population. This sampling method increased the probability for anyone to participate in the research without preempting the selection process. The researcher also endeavored to adhere to ethical inclinations such as, privacy and confidentiality principles, ensuring express consent is obtained from the participants, required approvals and permissions were sought from the school (Kenyatta University) and NACOSTI (National Council of Science, Technology, and Innovation) and the Nairobi County Government prior to performing the research.enThesis