Micro and Macro Environments and Implementation of Public Private Partnership Infrastructure Development in Kenya

Abstract

Public Private Partnership (PPP) is a long term agreement between public and private sector where risks and rewards are shared in developing a public facility. Private sector play a monumental role in bridging public finance deficit on capital projects. In Kenya, the government has created necessary environment for private sector participation in the country’s infrastructure development to spur economic growth. Despite the enactment of requisite laws and political support of PPPs, the number of PPPs projects initiated remain relatively low. Therefore, the study sought to establish the effect of micro and macro environment on implementation of Public Private Partnership infrastructure developments in Kenya. The study focused on the effect of Legal Framework, Political Environment and Staff Capacity on implementation of Public Private Partnership on infrastructure developments in Kenya. The study employed cross-sectional descriptive survey research design. The population of the study involved the sixty-three PPP projects being implemented in Kenya across different sectors. One project was used in pretesting of research instruments, therefore, sixty-two projects was actual population used in the study. The study adopted systematic sampling technique where the first nth element was randomly selected. A sample size of 31 projects was selected from the sampling frame using sampling fraction. The questionnaire was administered to procurement officers charged with implementation of PPPs in the sampled organizations. To ensure validity of the data, research questionnairre was verified by experts made up of the research supervisors. The research instruments were pretested during pilot study. Qualitative data was analyzed through content analysis while the quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion and inferential statistics. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between dependent and independent variables. The study found that most of organizations were in the initial stages of implementation of PPPs. The study also found political environment and staff capacity had significant influence on implementation of PPPs in Kenya at 0.027 and 0.010 p-values respectively. The results of the study will inform policy makers to put in place necessary structures to spur uptake of Public Private Partnership in infrastructure development in Kenya.