Public participation is a concept enshrined in the Kenyan constitution, 2010 with an intention to devolve powers to the common citizens and increase transparency and accountability hence may play a role towards public procurement sustainability. However, the relationship between public participation through risk management and sustainable procurement management has not yet been established despite many community-based infrastructure projects facing a lot of supply disruptions, health and safety issues as well as poor supplier selection in county governments in Kenya. The study, therefore, intended to assess the influence of public participation through risk management for sustainable procurement management in devolved systems of government in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive study design. The target population was 1146 while 348 respondents were sampled through a stratified sampling method from Makueni, Machakos, and Kitui Counties. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data, descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze collected data while the F-test was used to test the hypothesis of the study. SPSS aided in data analysis. Key findings of the study indicate a positive and linear relationship between public participation (risk management) and sustainable procurement management.  A recommendation is therefore made to both national Government and county governments to stipulate and implement policies that would improve public participation so as to improve sustainable procurement management in devolved systems of government. The study proposes that another public participation framework stipulates (Procurement planning, contract administration, monitoring, and evaluation) as well as other counties be investigated in order to have a holistic picture of the phenomena and the entire country.

Effective Supply chain management practices dictate fair and balanced treatment of all critical players in any organization's supply chain for better performance. Each of the players has their interests though occasionally some are shared; this scenario puts the position of the procurement professionals at cross roads with buyers and suppliers as they implement their employers' objectives within a regulated environment. The paper explores the dilemma created by variant stakeholder interests in the procurement system and proposes a consultative and trade off approach for procurement professional so as to achieve desired goals. The researchers surveyed all 74 procurement professional who attended the first KISM procurement research forum held at New Stanley hotel in Nairobi in June 2014, opinions were sorted using semi structured questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS. The study focused mostly on public sector procurement practioners since the stakeholders are similar as stipulated by the existing legal framework, private regulations mostly vary from organization to another depending on governance and positioning of procurement. Majority of the procurement professionals cited balancing of variant stakeholder interests as their biggest challenge.

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