GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES AND REVENUE COLLECTION

Revenue collection is fundamental to the financial sustainability and service delivery of county governments. Despite Kenya’s devolution framework, many counties continue to experience significant disparities in revenue performance, underscoring governance challenges that limit optimal fiscal outcomes. Guided by agency theory and supported by public choice theory and institutional theory, this study examines the effect of governance structures—fiscal autonomy, transparency, accountability, and human resource capacity—on revenue collection across Kenya’s 47 county governments. A descriptive research design was applied, integrating both primary and secondary data. Primary data were gathered through structured questionnaires administered to county revenue officers, while secondary data on annual revenue collection and population size were obtained from official county financial reports. Using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple regression, the study found that governance structures collectively explain 93.3% of the variation in revenue collection (R² = 0.933). Accountability emerged as the most influential factor (β = 0.675, p = 0.000), followed by human resource capacity (β = 0.428, p = 0.001), fiscal autonomy (β = 0.393, p = 0.005), and transparency (β = 0.278, p = 0.018). Population size showed no significant effect (β = 0.005, p = 0.917), indicating that demographic factors are less critical than governance mechanisms in determining revenue outcomes. These findings demonstrate that strong governance structures—particularly accountability frameworks, skilled personnel, and robust fiscal independence—are key to enhancing revenue collection among county governments.