Sometimes I get the impression that most people don't understand what IT means and what cyber space offers. Otherwise how do you explain the very costly 'digital shift' we are having?

Distribution systems to work with market information systems are not so difficult to design and implement. Don't be surprised to see one soon.

The flexibility and 'security' offered by cloud computing is most desirable - to me at least.

Generally, IT will yield excellent harvests.

I don't understand when some people keep saying Kenya is lacking in IT/ICT skills. Seriously? What skills are being referred to in this case? Have these people heard of mpesa, ushahidi or even pesa-pal? Ama these innovations don't require skills?

What Kenya doesn't have is resources to harness the abundant skills available, and incubation centres to spur creativity; not a lack of skills. Next time kindly educate us on what specific skill is lacking, and not just rantings of lack of skill. You cannot have companies like Nokia fund a research centre for developers in Kenya "where skills are lacking". Kindly check how many research centres they have worldwide. It will indicate to you where they rank us in terms of availability of skills. Let me help you; there are only 10 http://research.nokia.com/locations.

How about IBM setting up its research labs and African headquarters in Kenya? This not mentioning other heavyweights like Google, Huawei etc that have set up reginal offices right here in Kenya.I could go on and on, but one thing is clear, Kenya is slowly but clearly taking lead in frica as far as ICT is concerned.

As a parting shot, if only what Bitange Ndemo is working on can take off, South African ICT industry will look like child's play when compared to Kenya.

Skills are lacking otherwise hubs wouldn't be necessary. The problem I was stating is a problem we've all heard before,people have the necessary papers but can't translate them to output at work and that goes beyond IT/ICT. Even Juliana Rotich one of the founders is pushing for more people to learn and acquire skills(there is a international talk she was in last year).

Skills that are lacking:Assembly programming,In depth operating system knowledge,Multimedia(graphics,images,video,audio),Hacking and Security(Cryptography),Programming languages,Smartphone programming,Social Media utilization,HTML5,User Experience Designers,DATA SCIENTIST!!!!!

Considering what you are saying about Kenya beating South Africa we are quite far because I believe the majority of people go the networking route.

@ChessMaster you are spot on!

Anybody who has interviewed IT prospects knows the annoying refrain that 'Networking' has become. You can add 'pHp' as the most ubiquitous 'programming language' you hear of.

ponder these:
1. Anyone reading this who need both hands to count the A+ Oracle DBAs you know?
2. How about Unix OS skills and experience?
3. How many IT training institutions in Kenya spew out market-ready application programmers?
4. Can we list down the 'original, made in Kenya' IT end products that make commercial sense - that is, satisfying a need profitably?

etc etc.

The IT integration projects in corporate Kenya is littered with 9ijas, Indians, Zimbabweans and most recently East Europeans. So much for hubs, Nokias and IBMs.

The IT body in Kenya need a lot more than hubs and 'tunaomba selikali'. Top amongst being; good IT curriculum with an optimum mix of technology and business skills (finance, economics), Global best and next practices and peer reviewed developments, Lesson 101 on internet (such an amazing resource/ platform that we misuse).

Having a facebook account, transferring money by Mpesa and having a yahoo account does not pass as IT skills.

Neither is building a simple website, developing an 'mobile App' that only makes sense to you or having a desk at an incubation room.

for example........?

the skills are available, maybe just not at the volume and price the googles and microsoft and the other tech giants require

ati unlocking a phone is a Cryptography skill

i did not expressly show Cryptography just linked it to the general subject ..but heehehehe i do not want a dickfest of how lonng your schlong is at discerning Cryptography boss tusiende apo

Not all IT related outsourcing is specialized (think IT support) and those that are don't need decades to develop eg application development (we don't have to go into manufacturing chipsets), also entry barrier to this industry is not high compared to let say manufacturing. I believe Kenya will become a major player in the outsourcing industry if current efforts by MoIC succeed. Bitange seem to have the vision right and I am hopeful about the future.

@ChessMaster, i'm surprised that you don't realize that anything Mzungu sells in Kenya. The same guys with the same skillset will definitely be on a higher jobgrade than you are. A case in time is the KDN issue where locals were kicked out in favour of "expatriates". The company is almost being sold as we speak. Read the papers.

Macharia (founder of Seven Seas Technologies)was aired on NTV some time back. He says getting contracts in Kenya is so prohibitive that it favours foreign companies. The guy is actually implementing solutions in Nigeria, and yet struggles to get contracts in the country. And when a contract is awarded to a foreign firm, he ends up losing his employees to the same firm to implement or gets approached to implement for a fraction of the contract amount.

This is the sad story of affairs