Abstract

Over the past few decades, world population growth, economic development and rapid urbanization have caused environmental degradation and social problems. The concept of sustainable development has emerged as an approach to dealing with these issues.
Collaborative governance is seen by many scholars as a means of implementing the goals of sustainable development and of integrating diverse interests and perspectives in contemporary society. This study examines the relationship between sustainable
development and collaborative governance in urban planning in Kenya. The research is guided by three main objectives which are: To examine how promotion of institutional capacity influences sustainable development in urban planning in Kenya, to investigate
how stakeholder involvement influences sustainable development in urban planning in Kenya and to explore how collaborative leadership of stakeholders influence sustainable development in urban planning in Kenya. The target population of this study was county government stakeholders and officials from the national government in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu counties. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample. The researcher collected data using open ended and closed ended questions in order to assess collaborative governance for sustainable development in urban planning in Kenya. The questionnaire was designed to collect qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data was derived from the closed-ended questions in the questionnaire. Analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) as it is comprehensive and offers extensive data handling capacity. From the findings of the study the continuous success of collaborative governance depended on the extent of institutional capacity of stakeholders: high institutional capacity encouraged stakeholders to build up trust, to recognise regional issues, to establish a long-term vision through collective ways of thinking, and to enable future issues to be tackled more effectively. The study confirmed that inclusive stakeholder involvement in a governance system enhanced legitimacy and stability related to the outcomes of urban planning. The study also found out that collaborative leadership, based on the recognition of mutual interdependence between stakeholders, played an important role in establishing, protecting and encouraging a governance system