Abstract:
The Kenya's Vision 2030 has made it clear that Kenya should be industrialised
by the year 2030. Simply put, the country has a highly developed tertiary and
quaternary sector of industries. It is also important to note that development in a
country is also based on human resource development index. The manufacturing
sector in Kenya dates back to the end of World War II. Most manufacturing firms are
family-owned and operated. In addition, the bulk of Kenya’s manufactured goods
(95 percent) are basic products such as food, beverages, building materials and basic
chemicals. Only 5 percent of manufactured items, such as pharmaceuticals, are in
skill-intensive activities. This implies that the manufacturing that Kenya wants to
attain is sophisticated manufacturing. The Vision proposes intensified application of
science, technology and innovation to raise productivity and efficiency levels across
the three pillars. It recognises the critical role played by research and development
(R&D) in accelerating economic development. More resources will be devoted to
scientific research, technical capabilities of the workforce, and in raising the quality
of teaching mathematics, science and technology in schools, polytechnics and
universities. Kenya intends to create a globally competitive and adaptive human
resource base to meet the requirements of a rapidly industrialising economy. This
will be done through life-long training and education. Training of human resource
in Kenya is as old as the education system in Kenya. However there are striking
disparities in the nationality of key engineers in major manufacturing industries
and also the owners of the industry. The time factor should also be considered as
it takes a long time to develop human resource. Therefore Kenya needs to know
why Kenyan engineers are not employed as key manufacturing engineers, why our
cottage industry is not developing to major industries, what to train, who we need to
develop, how to develop the required human resource in the given time frame. This
is because the human resource should be tailor made if Vision 2030 is to be attained.
These are issues this paper will discuss.
