ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a theoretical perspective on urban governance and how the "urban" is understood and defined therein. This is followed by an illustration of the delivery and governance off the central urban service sectors in the City County of Nairobi: housing, water and sewerage, public transport, and safety and security. The chapter then discusses how different actors are engaged in service delivery and how the current situation prompts the transcendence of conventional urban governance. Transport is a critical public service that cannot totally be left to the dictates of the market without effective coordination by urban governors. The chapter discusses the various urban governance models that have both strengths and weaknesses, and each urban entity has to construct an urban governance framework in sync with its context. It ends with concluding remarks, noting the challenge of defining the "urban", nuanced urban governance models, and how governance has become a subject area of development studies.
