Any investor intent on venturing into Kenya usually has a checklist, which invariably includes relevant technical skills available in the country, an enabler that allows investors to hit the ground running.
My focus here is on extractives sectors (mining, oil and gas), which for various reasons slowed down significantly over the past six years. We have recently seen strong indications of a mining sector on a revival path, and this calls for adequate mining technical skills.
Before the two sectors slowed down, significant groundwork had been done to establish extractives skills through programmes that partnered with UK’s DFID, Germany’s GIZ, and the World Bank. The same support enabled mining legal, regulatory, and institutional frameworks to be successfully implemented. It was at this time that two universities set up what were meant to be centres of excellence for extractives sectors.
There was The School of Mines and Engineering at Taita Taveta University, and Extractives Industry Centre at Strathmore University, which was to focus more on extractives governance. Older universities have continued to produce geological science graduates.
However, much of the focus was in developing the groundwork for diploma-level extractives technical skills, an effort that coincided with a then ongoing programme by the Jubilee government to significantly expand TVET institutions across the country and setting up of TVET regulatory and certification systems, all of which were done.
In respect of mining, there is need to revive co-operations with development partners in resourcing mining technical skills capacity development, by focusing on selected TVET colleges across the mining corners of Kenya.
Also needed is specific mining training curriculum development, and a programme for training of trainers. As much as possible, established mining companies like Devki and Magadi Soda can be roped in to participate in skills development and internship programmes for the wider good of the sector.
Regarding oil and gas, some oil drilling skills were developed during the exploration stage of Turkana oil resources, but more skills will be required for the next stage of resource development.
However, my considered opinion is that crude oil exports by pipeline are unlikely to ever happen when one critically analyses global energy transition dynamics. This makes local crude oil refining a serious contender for Turkana crude oil commercialisation, probably in partnership with more flexible investors from the East.
Should this happen, we shall need to develop refining skills, aware that the skills we had when the Mombasa refinery stopped operations in 2013 may not be readily available.
