Corporate Reputation Management and Service Delivery in Kenyan State Corporations: Public Trust, Strategic Communication and Strong Institutions (SDG 16)

State corporations in Kenya combine public ownership, statutory mandates and commercial functions, so service delays, weak accountability and unresolved complaints can erode public trust even when mandates are met, a concern central to Sustainable Development Goal 16 on effective, accountable and strong institutions. This study examines how corporate reputation management and service delivery relate in Kenyan state corporations, with public trust and strategic communication as the mechanisms linking institutional conduct to stakeholder evaluation. The study employs a structured narrative review of 32 articles, handbook chapters and theoretical sources on reputation, trust, communication, service quality, governance and state-owned enterprises, screened for relevance, contribution, transparency and public-sector applicability. The results show that 25 of the 32 sources (78%) were published from 2020 onwards but only five from 2024, and that dominant-theme coding places eight sources under communication, seven under reputation, six each under service delivery and governance, and five under trust. The evidence base includes a meta-analysis of 17 studies, 24 samples and 163 correlations on expectations, performance and citizen satisfaction; panel data on 45 Kenyan state-owned enterprises over 2015–2018 on governance and capital-budget realisation; and a stratified sample of 341 respondents on electronic consultation and service-delivery processes. The findings of this study suggest that transparent, consistent communication is linked to stronger legitimacy and trust, that satisfaction depends on performance relative to expectations, and that none of the six propositions has been tested directly in Kenyan state corporations, because no reviewed source integrates reputation, trust, communication and service delivery in one framework.