Human Capital and Performance of Water and Sewerage Utilities, Kenya

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VIII, Issue VI, June 2021 | ISSN 2321–2705

Human Capital and Performance of Water and Sewerage Utilities, Kenya

Emanuel Owako¹, Charles Nyangara, PhD²*
¹Maseno University, Kenya
²Senior Lecturer PhD, Maseno University, Department of Business Administration, Kenya

Corresponding author*

ABSTRACT
Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company has consistently struggled to achieve its envisioned accepted performance against business plan target of 80% set by the Water Sector Regulatory Board standards despite having unlimited access to government subsidies, donor grants, commercial loans and enabling policy environment. This study sought to establish the influence of human capital on performance of KIWASCO. The study adopted a correlation research design with a sample size of 68 respondents selected through Stratified random sampling from a target population of 83 managers while data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data, involving means and standard deviation and correlation and regression analysis. The study established a significant influence of human capital (p<0.001) on organizational performance at 5% level of significance. It was concluded that human capital had a significant influence on organizational performance. The study concluded that human capital had positive significant influence on organizational performance and recommends that the WASH sector reforms should prioritize building creative and innovative human capital at the helm of the companies. Future research should explore the mechanisms of building human capital in similar companies and trends across business periods within similar regulatory context.

Keywords: Human Capital, Performance of Water and Sewerage Companies

Introduction

Access to water and sanitation for most urban and rural poor remains a challenge in developing countries (United Nations, 2020) and is expected to worsen with a global demand projection for fresh water exceeding supply by 40% in 2030 (UN, 2017). A 2014 survey of the world’s 500 largest cities estimates that one in every four households is in a situation of water stress (UNICEF, 2015). Improved access to water and sanitation is fundamental to the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) of healthy living and poverty eradication (UNICEF, 2015).
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 43% of the urban population had access to piped water by 1990, but this had dropped to 33% by 2015 due to rapid urbanization and population growth compared to water utilities expansion (Heymans et al., 2016). Though the National Water Services Strategy 2007-2015 had a target of 80% for water services in the urban setting, only 15% urban water utilities in Kenya met the set target with the rest performing poorly despite the countless interventions (World Bank, 2016). However, the government has again affirmed commitment to Sustainable Development goal (SDG 6), with a national target of 80% coverage by 2020 and universal access coverage by 2030 (World Bank, 2016). This has been through water sector reforms in 2002 to ensure that water provision is reliable, financially sustainable and safe water services (World Bank, 2016). While past interventions incidentally did help improve governing environments and utility management,

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