Kivindo, Sabbena Nthenya2026-03-122026-03-122025-11https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/32720A Thesis Submitted to the School of Business, Economics and Tourism in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration (Strategic Management) of Kenyatta University. November, 2025 Supervisors Stephen M. A. Muathe Anne MuchemiPublic universities are critical to the economic growth of Kenya, contributing significantly by supplying the skilled workforce necessary to achieve the goals outlined in Vision 2030. These institutions play a vital role in supporting the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals by facilitating knowledge creation and spearheading research that lead to new discoveries. Despite their critical importance, public universities in Kenya face several performance challenges, including declining student enrollment, delayed completion rates, missing marks, financial difficulties, lack of new program development, subpar academic performance, and a general decline in the quality of education. In response to these challenges, public universities have adopted restructuring strategies aimed at enhancing their performance. Therefore, this research sought to find out the effect of restructuring strategies on the performance of selected public universities in Kenya. Specifically, the study focused on establishing the effect of operations redesign restructuring, downsizing restructuring and governance reform restructuring on performance of selected public universities in Kenya. Additionally, the research explored the mediating role of organizational agility and the moderating role of the regulatory framework in the relationship between restructuring strategies and performance of selected public universities. The study was underpinned by several theoretical frameworks, including the Balanced Score-card Model, Dynamic Capabilities Theory, Institutional Theory, and Contingency Theory. A positivist research philosophy and explanatory research design was adopted. The study targeted a population of 998 management personnel across selected from 22 public universities in Kenya, with unit of observation as Vice-Chancellors, Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Registrars, Chief Finance Officers; and Deans, Directors and Department Chairs. Data was gathered using a semi-structured questionnaire to a sample of 392 participants, selected through multi-stage sampling technique. A pilot study was undertaken that assisted in testing validity and reliability of the study instrument. Content, construct and face validity was ensured while reliability was tested using Cronbach alpha with a cutoff point of 0.7 was considered. Multiple linear regression model was used to test the study hypotheses where 95% level of significance was applied in testing the Hypotheses. Descriptive and inferential statistics analyzed quantitative data while content analysis analyzed qualitative data by utilizing shared themes being reported in form of narrative. Diagnostics tests such as normality, linearity, multicollinearity and homoskedasticity were carried out which are essential in validating the assumptions of the regression model. The analysis revealed that restructuring strategies; operations redesign and downsizing significantly enhanced performance in the selected public universities. Conversely, governance reform negatively impacted performance in the selected public universities. The study further identified organizational agility as a partial mediator in the relationship between restructuring strategies and performance of selected public universities, as the regulatory framework played a significant moderating role. Based on these findings, the study recommends that university management should focus on strengthening operations redesign and downsizing strategies to boost performance in the selected public universities, while carefully reconsidering the approach to governance reform restructuring to mitigate its adverse effectsenThesis