Abstract:
Kenya Port Authority is still facing myriad challenges such as infrastructural
development, high logistical costs and unskilled workforce affecting its service
delivery. It was in this regard that the researcher sought to establish determinants of
service delivery at the Port of Mombasa. This study was guided by the following
specific objectives; to examine the effect of information, determine the effect of
infrastructure, and to assess the influence of custom clearance process on service
delivery at the Port of Mombasa. The study was built on human capital theory, Servqual
model and queuing theory as pillars of this study. The research study adopted a
explanatory research design. Target population was 1200 consisting of clearing and
forwarding agents, shipping agents, transporters and warehousing firms. A closed
ended structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 137 sampled
respondents. A pilot study was conducted to ascertain the reliability and validity of the
instruments. The quality and consistency of the study was further assessed using
Cronbach’s alpha. Data presentation in form frequency counts, percentages, means,
standard deviations, regression and correlation was presented in form of tables. It was
detetermined that r 2 =0.625 which implied that infrastructure development, customs
service clearance, information systemms and staff competency can explained 62.5% of
service delivery at KPA. The P- value of 0.000 (Less than 0.05) implies that the
model of was significant at the 95% confidence level. The study found out that
information system significantly contributes to the improvement of service delivery
(β 1 =0.259; P=0.000). It was also determined that improvement in infrastructure
development would lead to an improvement in service delivery ((β 2 =0.400; P=0.003).
Further the study determined that an improvement in custom clearance process would
lead to an improvement of service delivery ((β 3 =0.361; P.=0.000). Finally the study
found out that an improvement of staff competence would significantly lead to an
improvement of service delivery at the port of Mombasa (β 4 =0.372; P=0.027). The
researcher concluded that there is need to evaluate other determinants which contribute
to successful service delivery at Kenya Ports Authority. The study also concluded that
infrastructure development plays a significant role and was the most important factor
that ought to be considered by organization at Mombasa port in order to enhance service
delivery. This was followed by staff competency then information system while
customs clearance was the least. The study recommends that organization should
continue investing more in infrastructure development to enhance efficiency, through
automation to minimize human conduct so as to avoid bureaucratic procedures that
hampers and slows down clearance processes. The study further recommends training
of personnel to improve on efficiency in service delivery at the port.