Strategic Procurement Practices and Procurement Performance of City Counties in Kenya.
Authors: Isaack Hawa Hadijah , Namusonge Eric 
Published: February 2025

Strategic procurement has been seen to form a bedrock on which institutions’ functionality sits. Good strategic procurement practice has been attributed to positive results of procurement performance. Strategic procurement is important mainly because it enables an organization to clearly define the purpose of the procurement department in the organization. Procurement in the county governments in Kenya is guided by the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act of 2015 and its revised edition of 2016. However, in the financial year 2021/2022, Report of the Auditor-General highlighted a myriad of procurement challenges in major county governments in Kenya. City counties in Kenya faces a myriad of procurement challenges such as lack of inventory records, and payments processed without any reference to local service orders (LSOs), bills of quantities documents, project files, contractor’s invoices, completion certificates from technical departments and inspection and acceptance committee reports. The objective of the study was to establish the influence of strategic procurement practices on procurement performance of City Counties in Kenya. The study was guided by Resource-Based View (RBV) Theory, Stewardship Theory, Institutional Theory and Technology Acceptance Theory (TAM). This study adopted correlational research design. The study targeted 56 procurement officers from Nairobi City County, Mombasa City County, Kisumu City County and Nakuru City County. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data. The collected data was coded and entered into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and version 27 and Python software for quantitative analysis. The data collected was subjected to various diagnostic tests to ensure adherence to the assumptions of regression analysis, thus providing an accurate and reliable prediction of the relationship among the variables. The study elucidated that strategic procurement practices, specifically strategic sourcing, e-procurement, and contract and supplier management, notably enhance procurement performance in city counties. Strategic sourcing was shown to lower costs and improve supplier relations. E-procurement streamlined processes and enhanced transparency, though challenges like resistance to change were noted. Effective contract and supplier management was crucial, directly influencing performance by ensuring supplier compliance and fostering robust relationships. Recommendations include adopting comprehensive sourcing strategies, integrating e-procurement, and maintaining stringent supplier management to improve procurement outcomes. These results and recommendations would be of great benefit to the management and employees in the counties by providing them with insights into procurement practices. The study provides useful, relevant and up to date information on the best procurement practices, limitations and challenges to industry professionals, institutions and suppliers in the procurement practices. The future researchers will also benefit in that they will be able to increase their understanding of the pertinent issues concerning strategic procurement practices.