Leaving No One Behind: Prospects for User-Owned Urban Water Utilities in Kenya

Achieving universal access to basic services and safe affordable water sanitation all by 2030, as targeted in Sustainable Development Goals 1 6, is of utmost importance improving people’s well-being. In Kenya, this means fulfilling a significant gap. This study analyzed the viability user-owned urban utilities there from managers’ perspectives. It found that high performance few licensed private utilities, ownership control, small size, robust public participation, regulatory policies favor their performance. Yet, costliness production limits most sidelined low-income areas. The article recommends (i) diversifying service models, (ii) establishing revolving fund finance major capital investments, (iii) making full cost recovery key policy objective, (iv) mobilizing financing local users, including earners, (v) setting pricing structures imply cross-subsidizing between rich poor.