The objective of the study was to establish the influence of market orientation on the performance of private security firms in Kenya. Despite the significant value of private security firms to the Kenyan economy, the market orientation construct has not been studied in the context of private security industry in Kenya. Many studies have been done on market orientation and firm performance with the findings indicating that market orientation has a positive and significant effect on firm performance. However, other studies by have reported findings of a negative effect of market orientation on firm performance while others have found market orientation having an insignificant impact on firm performance. The inconsistency of research findings among authors was an indication that the available research evidence on the link between market orientation and performance of business organizations is inconclusive. Therefore there was need for this study to be conducted. The data was collected from key informants in the private security firms and they were either the marketing manager of the Chief Executive Officer of the firms. The Resource- Advantage theory and the Resource Based Theory were used to provide theoretical perspectives to the study. The study targeted 39 firms that were members of the Kenya Security Industry Association (KSIA) in a census study that was cross-sectional in nature and 37 firms participated in the study and this translated to a 95% response rate. Data was collected from the respondents using a semi-structured questionnaire whose measurement scales met all the requirements of reliability and validity tests. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to gain a good understanding of the respondent and firm characteristics and simple linear regression was used to establish the relationship between market orientation and performance. Results of the regression analysis indicated that market orientation had a positive and significant effect on both nonfinancial and financial performance of the private security firms. The study recommended that managers of private security firms and firms in other industries should view market orientation as a resource that can enhance the firms’ ability to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. It also recommended that management of firms should invest their time in developing a market orientation culture among all employees of their firms because this will enhance the interfunctional co-ordination that is required when developing and implementing strategies. A longitudinal study was suggested since the industry structure has been significantly affected by the strong government regulation through the Private Security Regulatory Authority.