EFFECTS OF ACTOR’S INTEREST ON SERVICE DELIVERY IN STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES IN THE ENERGY

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INTRODUCTION
Globally, government and private institutions greatly acknowledge the centrality of service delivery in attaining competitive advantage, dynamic market, with the increasing societal needs and complexity of collective problems (Kekez et al., 2019).This has led to immense innovations and incorporations of strategies so that businesses can stay relevant, productive and effective.On the other hand, end-user consumers are the corner stone of any organization (Alemseged & Hailay, 2019).Offering the best services is the core component in decision making of both private and public entities.The main goal of government bureaucracy is to provide essential services to the citizens by implementing tailored programs and policies (Ukeji et al., 2019).
Globally, government institutions are mandated not only to provide services but also be accountable in delivering services to the end-user consumers both effectively and efficiently (Alemseged & Hailay, 2019).In Ukraine for instance, the inefficiency in government bureaucracy has been characterized by high levels of corruption, manipulated business interests, depressed economy and a lack of interest in the government, in general (Fedosov & Paientko, 2017).Further, Fedosov and Paientko (2017), report that the decisions made by the Ukrainian government were aimed at fulfilling selfish interests of the minority at the expense of the majority.Fedosov and Paientko (2017) assert that the public has limited access to services and resources, a situation that has triggered dissatisfactions in service delivery.
The World Bank recognizes the role of government bureaucracy in the development of a nation through economic growth and ultimately through effective service delivery.World Bank fully supports governments in reforming their bureaucracies, which would transform the government capacity to serve its people and at the same time ensures sustainability of the government institutions (World Bank, 2018).Government bureaucracy aspects include loyalty to fixed rules, specialism of functions of impartiality and pyramid of authority (Islam, 2016).Gaitho (2017) asserts that for the betterment in service delivery, organizations must have high levels of accountability, quality leaderships and ensure ethics are maintained.How leaders treat their employees through motivation, supervision and delegation of duties would affect their job satisfaction and consequently affect the quality of service delivered (Kolil et al., 2019).Kolil et al. (2019) further asserts that exercise of power by the leaders in the SOEs, determines service delivery quality.Hence, the achievement of the enterprise in provision of services is dependent on leadership skills, leadership commitment, power use and motivation of employees.Akinwale and Kuye (2020) further stated that, dysfunctional structures of bureaucracy are due to self-serving attitude of persons in several public offices and handles of leadership which saturate the entire socio-political environment.Regrettably, leadership is driven more by bonuses, job security and incentives rather than performing their jobs with enhanced creativity, innovation so as to be productive (Ahmed, 2016).Poor leadership, centred on selfishness hinders service delivery due to poor selection of employees based on nepotism, favouritism and not based on technical competence (Safina, 2015).
The government is not only entitled to deliver services for the expressed needs but also the felt needs of its citizens.David (2016) posits that ineffective communication between the enterprise and the stakeholders on their perspective and opinions creates communication gaps between the parties which leads to poor service delivery.Bureaucracy has numerous roles in influencing the environment of citizens.Thus crucial decisions that influence and impacts local life within a community have to be made in the form of obligation in public service provision (Puolokainen & Jaansoo, 2018).The provision of quality and efficient service delivery can be challenging in state enterprises by identifying the underlying collective action to existing problems of service delivery, which would considerably enhance commitment in designing of effective interventions (Tembo, 2015).Scott and Gilson (2017) (Abdullah & Markandya, 2012;Were, 2016) .Engaging all Actors in the matter eases future challenges that may arise and helps in ownership of the projects (Were, 2016).This is however, expected to change with provisions of Energy Act (2019), which eases the process and cost of connectivity.Excessive bureaucracy is evidenced in payment of bribes to facilitate the process to acquire electricity, wastage of time and long queues.For instance, the employees of KPLC have been termed rude, incompetent and absentees with one having to pay for bribes to facilitate acquiring electricity thus unable to deliver high quality services to the citizens (Munoru, 2015).Despite the work instructions, already in place rules and regulations, the employees still engage in unethical practices which hinder service delivery.
In the past, the state enterprises has faced constitutional and structural reforms with the aim of enhancing efficiency of operation on market principles reducing the financial burden on the public and improve delivery of services to the public as part of the wider reforms in the public service (Mwongozo, 2015).KPLC adopted an action plan that sought to upgrade the quality of services offered and address the complaints by the public by setting up clinic to address end-user consumer's complaints that would facilitate the improvement of service delivery (KPLC, 2018).Despite the measures, cases of dissatisfactions in service delivery are still high.

Objective of the Study
The objective of this study was to identify the effect of Actor's interest on service delivery in stateowned enterprises in the Energy sector in Kenya.

LITERATURE REVIEW Empirical Review
Actors' Interest and Service Delivery Actors' interest is concerned with ensuring a conducive environment where the Actors have control on the decisions and actions that influence their provision of services and their livelihoods at large (Motieri & Minja, 2019).Actors' interest involves engaging all the Actors or people involved in a particular project both local and international to get their views, perspectives and attitudes towards a particular matter.The expected result is to have an informed decision-making process, easy flow of information and partnerships (Motieri & Minja, 2019).Actors' interest can be expressed through engaging Actors in the process of decisionmaking, availing a survey feedback system where the consumers can relay their concerns.These concerns then are attended to promptly and the improvement in communication process informs the provisions of services if there was delay due to technical issues (Motieri & Minja, 2019).In order to achieve the satisfactory levels in service delivery, it is key to address the needs and suggestions of the key beneficiaries and all the other personnel that facilitate the provision of services (Muli, 2014).Addressing the challenges, say the consumers experience in acquiring the services, would result to better delivery of services since the institutions are acting from knowledge in meeting the expressed needs (Muli, 2014).
In South Africa for instance, there was a public outrage over the state of provision of services offered by the government agencies in regards to water, electricity, and sanitation (Lolwana, 2016).This saw mass destruction of property and loss of life due to the violent protests.The citizens criticized the government for being bureaucratic, slow, ineffective, and inefficient on how they responded during the delivery of services.Following the protests, the government introduced customer satisfaction surveys to improve on its public services (Zubane, 2011).Despite the surveys, a study by Lolwana (2016) showed that the protests were increasing and even becoming more violent over the delivery of services.Further, another study by Matebesi (2017) indicated that the increased protest over the delivery of services is a reflection of failed engagement of the clients in their perspectives of the ideal service delivery.The consumers and citizens are hardly engaged in processes of making decisions thus their concerns and interests are not reflected in delivery of services (Beyers, 2016).Strengthening the aspects that bring and engage all Actors at different capacities for a better delivery of service which is knowledge based, was dire.The engagement of all Actors allows for the transfer of knowledge and for lobbying and advocacy processes (Civera, De Colle & Casalegno, 2019).Involvement of all Actors can be cumbersome due to the prolonged decisionmaking process (Fox, 2014).Its importance though, surpasses the risks it poses.It articulates the desired goals of each Actor and brings oneness and ownership towards achieving the desired objectives.Creating a forum where the Actors provide a pool of information, addresses the challenges associated with service delivery on real time thus becomes effective (Stoker, 2006).
A study by Masiya, David and Mazenda (2019) sought to provide empirical insights on how effective public participation impact service delivery in South Africa.The research which was qualitative in nature involved 12 focus groups.The study confirmed that citizen participation influenced service delivery through limited engagement as a result of poor communication and poor responses to service delivery demands.The study recommended that the Municipal Council needs to fortify relationships between all the actors of Cape Town Municipal Council in order to enhance service delivery at every phase.Nevertheless, the study did not evaluate the promptness of those communication channels and decision-making processes effectiveness.Structural equation modelling and factor analysis was adopted by the study for analysis which the current study considers to modify and improve it.The current study adopted multiple linear regression analysis.The study further adopted a descriptive survey method which the current study considers inadequate, thus adopting a descriptive, cross-sectional and explanatory design.
A research by Wijaya ( 2019) was carried out on the evaluation of Actors' interaction in Indonesia WASH programme.The research utilized meta-evaluation approach and a sample size of 8 participants from the key Actors in Indonesia-Netherlands' WASH programme.The study established that the Dutch NGO's have gained the trust and cooperation of all Actors both at a national and a local level.This was made possible by continuous sharing of information and lessons learnt during the implementation of the project.The study further established that, there was an active forum to discuss issues affecting WASH by involving all the sectors and the Actors.This involvement contributed to the success of the program.The study was on an NGO set up which operates differently from a government institution thus this study would bridge the gap.
Ohemeng, Obuobisa and Amoako-Asiedu (2020) concluded that employee engagement in terms of vigour as compared to absorption and dedication was significant and positively influence state-owned enterprise task performance in the power sector in Ghana.
In a study in Ghana, Ohemeng, Obuobisa and Amoako-Asiedu (2020) surveyed the impact of employee engagement on task performance among SOEs in the power sector.SOEs were purposively selected and cross-sectionally surveyed their employees, where regression analysis provided the connection between engagement and performance of task by employees.The survey concluded that essentially employee engagement on the basis of vigour as compared to absorption and dedication was significant and positively influence state-owned enterprise task performance in the power sector in Ghana.Contrastingly, Ohemeng, Obuobisa and Amoako-Asiedu (2020) study narrowly focused on engagement of employees, overshadowing participation of employees in decision-making and communication mediums.Additionally, the target population was fairly representative as it excluding some key actors as suppliers and industry regulatory agency.This study addressed the manifested research gap by extending the target population to not only involve employees in the selected SOEs (KPLC and REREC), but include suppliers, the employees from the regulator (EPRA), and end-user consumers.Motieri and Minja (2019) carried out a study on employees' participation and delivery of services in Nairobi water Sewerage Company.They utilized a descriptive research design for executing the research methodology, and selected a sample of 148 employees.The results of the study confirmed that employees' participation on had a significant positive effect on service delivery.The study further revealed a strong positive association between aspects of employee participation such as allowing direct participation of employees, involving them in setting work plan, delegation of work duties, encourage individual goal setting of the employee and involving them in decision-making process, contributed positively to anticipated outcomes of making decisions.The current study found out the influence of actors' participation, involvement in decision-making processes and promptness of communication channels in SOEs, diverging from the water sector to energy sector.Further, the study adopted correlational analysis which does not provide insights into the direction of causation among the surveyed phenomena and as such adopted multiple linear regression analysis to resolve this research dilema.
In another study, Barongo (2018) investigated the factors influencing service delivery in SOEs -A case of Rural Electrification Authority (REA) (currently REREC).The study investigated how communication affected service delivery in SOEs.The target population was 97 suppliers and 13 customer service staff in REA.Barongo used a descriptive research design as a basis for executing the research strategy.The findings indicated that communication was significant in influencing quality of services delivered by REA to the Actors.Therefore, the study concluded that, the use of more than one communication channel to educate, inform and persuade the end-user consumers was a necessity and that the management should emphasize on the use of vertical, upward and horizontal communication channels for prompt communication to upper level managers concerning activities and performance in the SOE as well as enhancing individual participation during the provision of quality service via the use of face-toface communication to relay ambiguous or difficult messages, or when receiver and sender differ in opinion.However, Barongo's (2018) study did not cover the broader aspect of Actors to include the regulator's (EPRA) and end-user consumers' inputs which this study intends to bridge the gap.

Stakeholder Theory
The stakeholder's theory was posited by Edward Freeman in 1984.The theory suggested that stakeholders were all persons who were influenced in one way or another by the organizational environment.Freeman laid emphasis on bringing together relationships between an organization, its employees, the clients, the investors and every person with a stake in the organization (Freeman, 2010).Simply, an organization was obligated to create value for all the stakeholders, and not just the shareholders, by looking into their overall needs of improved service delivery (Kinyua, 2016).
Stakeholders in state owned enterprises include the consumers, the government, the investors and the employees.Thus, the stakeholders can either be internal or external (Chege, 2019).The stakeholders are key determinants of service provision and delivery.This therefore requires a cross examination on all the stakeholders to identify their level of power, their perspectives on matters concerning service delivery and their input on the same.The success of an organization in service delivery was pinned on understanding the needs of the stakeholders and incorporating their ideas in policy formulation in achieving effectiveness and efficiency.
Nevertheless, the theory posed a challenge especially in the stakeholder's involvement on all clients of an organization since it didn't place a measure on whether the level of stakeholders' involvement was passive or active.Large companies especially KPLC have a wide range of stakeholders who are many.Therefore, it would take time and money to engage all of them.To make better and informed decisions in the state-owned enterprises, it was fundamental to include all the Actors in all stages for the effectiveness of service delivery (Omweri, 2018).However, there was need to establish democracy and legitimacy in identifying the persons (Kornberger et al., 2017).This was to ensure that all the needs of the clients were well represented and were not biased on the representation of the privileged few.Freemans view on stakeholders' involvement was essential in this study in highlighting Actors' interest in the Energy sector.Therefore, stakeholder theory interrogated the influence of Actor's interest on service delivery in the SOEs in the energy sector in Kenya.

METHODOLOGY
The study embraced pragmatism research paradigm to facilitate collection and analysis of empirical data using mixed methods that reflected the reality of the state of service delivery from different perspectives in relation to leadership hierarchy, actors' interest, policy compliance and political environment with working environment tested as a moderating variable in state-owned enterprises under study.The study utilized both descriptive and explanatory research designs.
Precisely, on survey was confined to operational personnel, junior level managers and senior level managers working in the head offices of KPLC, REREC and EPRA.Furthermore, suppliers and enduser consumers of KPLC and REREC served at the head offices of KPLC and REREC also constituted part of the population of the study.The study surveyed senior managers who reported to the chief executive officer as they discharged their duties in the various functional units and were there sufficiently knowledgeable and conversant with relevant practices relating to government bureaucracy, working environment and service delivery in the respective state owned enterprises.An aggregation of subjects comprising the population of this study was 7,558 distributed in the manner depicted in the tabulated data.The sampling frame for this study constituted a list of 7,558 subjects comprising of senior management, junior management, operation personnel of the two state owned enterprises and EPRA, and suppliers and end-users of KPLC and REREC.The sample size of 380 was determined by using Yamane (1967) formula for computation of sample size.Survey constituted of primary data that was essentially gathered using a semi-structured questionnaires.The questionnaire was structured into two broad sections for general and specific information.The general information section comprised of five questions that sought information relating to characteristics of the respondents involved in this study.The specific information section was intended to elicit information and responses on the observable aspects of the research variables necessary for responding the research objectives of this study.
The collected data was carefully examined for completeness, quality, and consistency.These data were coded and transcribed thus providing for computerised consistency checks and cleaning of data.Descriptive statistics including frequency and percentage distribution, sample mean and sample standard deviation were generated to aid in developing a concise summary of the defining observable features of the surveyed sample.The summary measures of the observed sample were presented in figures and tables.This summary measures were instrumental for carrying out further statistical analysis and testing of the hypothesized relationships between the research variables.
Multiple linear regression model was adopted for this study.Service delivery as a response variable was the continuous variable for which quantitative data was gathered using 5 point Likert rating scale.The use of multiple linear regression model essentially facilitated testing of the research hypotheses and making plausible conclusion within the purview of the observed data.The effect of leadership hierarchy, actors' interest, policy compliance and political environment on service delivery in state owned corporations in the energy sector was statistically analysed using multiple linear regression as shown in equation 1. Y= β 0 + β 1 AI + ℇ……………………………………..……..... 1 Where, Y= Service delivered Β 0 to β 1 = Regression coefficients AI= Actors' interest ℇ = Error term

Actors' Interests
In this study, actors' interests was operationalized as actors' participation, decision making process, and communication channels.These indicators were measured using relevant activities and aspects that are associated with operational practices of state owned enterprises in the energy sector.
Analysis of measures of central tendency and measures of variation for these activities and aspects was carried out and the results presented in table 1.The results displayed in Table 1 on aspects of actors' participation shows that availability of platform for actor's participation in the advisory board had the smallest sample mean of 2.71 and a corresponding sample standard deviation of 1.26.On the other extreme, actors' engagement and service delivery had the greatest sample mean of 3.01 and a corresponding sample standard deviation of 1.20.Even though the variability of responses for some of the observed aspects was moderate, it is evident that the aggregate variability of response was low with a coefficient of variation of 0.33 associated with the aggregate sample mean of 2.86 and sample standard deviation of 0.95 for actors' participation.These summary measures of observations gathered imply that the activities and aspects that were construed as actors' participation were moderately manifested in the operational practices of the surveyed state owned enterprises in the energy sector.
As regards decision making, it was evident that the lowest sample mean of 2.55 was associated with the aspect of involvement of actors' in decision making with a corresponding sample standard deviation of 1.10.On the contrary, the greatest sample mean of 3.34 was associated with the aspect of value of decision making in service delivery with a sample standard deviation of 1.21.The general behavior of responses on the surveyed aspects confirmed that the set of activities construed as decision making were practiced in state owned enterprises albeit moderately.These observations is corroborated by the aggregate sample mean and sample standard deviation of 2.92 and 0.91 respectively.
Further, the findings in table 1 revealed that the sample mean ranged between 2.93 for provision of information to actors' on service offered in different offices and 3.45 for channels of communication are clear to actors.Similarly, the sample standard deviation ranged from 0.68 to 1.09 a clear demonstration of low variability of responses associated with communication channel.Considering the observations on actor's participation, decision making and communication channel as indicators of actors' interest, the aggregate sample mean, sample standard deviation and coefficient of variation were 2.93, 0.87 and 0.30 implying that all the surveyed aspects were moderately practiced in state owned enterprises in the energy sector.
Standard deviation of 3.32 and 1.14 respectively was associated with information and communication technology.The statistical behavior of the data set gathered confirmed that practices construed as information and communication technology were moderately evident in the surveyed state owned enterprises in the energy sector.
In addition, analysis of the set of aspects espoused for measuring organizational culture revealed that the largest sample mean response was 3.24 for the aspect on Sharing of information amongst actors is encouraged in the organization.On the converse, the smallest observed mean response was 2.91 for the aspect that actors work together to solve problems in the organization.In general, the summary behavior of the data set gathered on organizational culture approximated to a value of 3.00 on the rating scale used for this empirical inquiry.Corresponding values of sample standard deviation were generally low as they ranged between 1.06 and 1.26 implying that there was low variability of participant responses on the set of aspects measured.The aggregated values of working environment at 3.17 and 1.14 for sample mean and standard deviation respectively demonstrated that the variability of responses was narrow and as such the sample measures observed could be used in estimation of measures for the population of this study.

Service Delivery
Service delivery was hypothesized as the outcome variable in this study.The indicators that were adopted to measure service delivery included efficiency, effectiveness, turnaround time, and quality of service.The summary measures of central tendency and dispersion for the set of data gathered on service delivery in state owned enterprises in the energy sector are presented in Table 2.The results displayed in Table 2 revealed that the sample mean response for the observations made that regarding service delivery ranged between 2.42 for the aspect of organization's documents are free of errors and 3.42 for the aspect that operating hours of the organization are convenient to actors.On the former aspect, the corresponding standard deviation is relatively high at 1.21 implying that the responses gathered on this aspect were not close together on the measurement scale used.The general behavior of the sample mean response of the data set gathered implies that the practices typified by the activities and aspect measured are moderately manifested in the surveyed state owned enterprises in the energy sector.
It is evident that operational hours are convenient to actors, there is thoroughness in service performance, there is safety during service performance, service performance meet the expectation of actors, and keen interest is manifested in executing the promised services.It was also noted that there are moderate delays in performance of services, and institutional documents are moderately free of errors.The aggregated sample mean response for all aspect of service delivery observed in this study was 3.03 and the corresponding standard deviation was 0.94.These overall behavior of observations gathered implies that the attendant aggregate variability is low and thus the summary measures of the sample are suitable for making generalization to the population of study.

Linear Regression for Direct Relationship Actor's Interest on Service Delivery in State-Owned Enterprises
With regards the second hypothesis, the researcher postulated that there is no association between Actor's Interest and service delivery in state owned enterprise in the energy sector in Kenya.The researcher conducted simple linear regression analysis as a basis for testing the second hypothesis.Actor's Interest was regressed on service delivery in SOEs.The resulting statistical output is shown in Table 3 below.

Table 3: Simple Linear regression for Second Hypothesis
The results in table 3 comprises of the model summary, Analysis of Variance and regression coefficients.The statistics for model summary demonstrate that the coefficient of determination (R-Squared) is 0.6825.The implication of the coefficient of determination is that Actor's Interest accounts for 68.25 percent of variation of service delivery in the surveyed state-owned enterprises in the energy sector.The remaining 31.75 percent of variance in service delivery is ascribed to unexplored causes.
In determining whether to reject the null hypothesis in favour of the alternative hypothesis, ANOVA was conducted, where the F-statistic and the associated were used.From The eventual regression, is as presented in equation 2 below.
The equation above imply that, for a unit increase in Actor's Interest, there will be an associated increment in service delivery in SOEs in the Energy sector by 72.5%, given other factors are held constant.
The conclusion made in this study is consistent with the observations made by Motieri and Minja (2019) that actors' interests are crucial for ensuring a conducive environment where the actors have control on the decisions and actions that influence provision of services in enterprises.Even though involvement of all actors can be cumbersome due to the prolonged decision-making process (Fox, 2014), attainment of this all-encompassing engagement allows for the transfer of knowledge and bolster advocacy processes within an enterprise (Civera, De Colle & Casalegno, 2019).Likewise, Ohemeng, Obuobisa and Amoako-Asiedu (2020) concluded that employee engagement positively influence enterprise outcomes.
The findings validates the argument of stakeholders theory that enterprises are obligated to create value for all the stakeholders, and not just the shareholders, by prioritising their overall need for improved delivery of services (Kinyua, 2016).As key determinants of service provision and delivery, cross examination of all the stakeholders is necessary to understand their level of power and perspectives on matters concerning service delivery.Primarily, the conclusion of this study confirms the proposition of stakeholders' theory that success of an organization in service delivery is predicated on understanding the needs of the stakeholders and incorporating their ideas in policy formulation in achieving effectiveness and efficiency (Freeman, 2010).

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The thesis generally intended to investigate the effect of government bureaucracy on service delivery in state owned enterprises within the energy sector in Kenya.Given the composite nature of chosen explanatory variable, the general objective was further unpacked into specific objectives on the basis of dimensions actors' interest as deriving from critical review of pertinent literature.The research methodology used in this investigation was grounded on the pragmatism paradigm that facilitated the use of semi-structure questionnaire.Descriptive and explanatory research designs were used as a blueprint for making observations and analyzing data.Linear regression analysis was used as an empirical model as a basis for carrying statistical analysis.Random sampling was used for purposes of selecting a representative sample from the target population.The researcher postulated that actors' interest had an effect on service delivery in state owned enterprise within the energy sector in Kenya.Output of statistical analysis verified that actors' interest positively effects service delivery.
The coefficient for actors' interest was found to be statistically significant.In view of this, the conclusion of the research was that actors' interest has a direct effect on delivery of services in state corporations in the energy sector in Kenya.
These findings had valuable implications for policy and practice in state corporations in the energy sector.Policy guidelines to strengthen activities that create enabling environment, enhance communication of the strategic intent, and enhance alignment of service delivery with actors' interests.Senior management in different functional areas should be open and receptive to suggestions, contributions, complaints of actors, and should been seen to exercise fairness on all actors.
Actors should not only be involved in decision making but rather there should be consensus building, and deliberate effort should be made to align decisions with consensual perspectives of actors.Aspect of quality and quantity of information moving across the different activity centres in state owned enterprises needs to be a matter of concern to senior management in order to strengthen practices on actors' interests.Specifically, actors' should be more involved in formulation of rules and regulation as this would significantly minimise biases, delays and corruption in service delivery.Moreover, such involvement would promote responsiveness of state owned enterprises to actors concerns.Given that work instructions are known to promote service delivery, human management division should ensure that such instructions should be formalized, clearly identify the service points, and sufficiently address institutional tasks and divers concerns of work.
depict that creating an enabling environment, where the stakeholders are involved in problem solving through shared decision making, strengthens the delivery of services.State-owned enterprise (SOEs) or State Corporation is an institution established under section 3 of State Corporation Acts Cap 446, with the government controlling majority of the shares, established mainly to improve service delivery to the public.Board of directors oversee the operations of the SOEs with general supervision of Ministries.The President appoints the board of directors and the Cabinet Secretaries for the Ministries.

Table ,
and the associated , leads the study to reject the null hypothesis that there is no association between Actor's Interest and service delivery in state owned enterprise in the energy sector in Kenya, in favour of the alternative hypothesis.The decision therefore is that, there was significant association between Actor' Interest and service delivery in state owned enterprise in the energy sector in Kenya.Further, the influence of Actor's Interest on service delivery of SOEs in the Energy sector was quantified as represented by the regression coefficients developed.Actor's Interest had a significant direct influence on service delivery of SOEs in the Energy sector in Kenya ( ).