4.0 Foundations The foundations are the critical actions that need to be undertaken in order to lay a basis of Kenya transitioning to a Knowledge Society and positioning the country as a regional ICT hub by developing quality ICT infrastructure, developing integrated and secure information infrastructure and developing critical mass of high-end ICT human capital. The following three foundations have been developed from the situational analysis. a) ICT human capital and workforce development. The development of quality ICT human resources is a pre-requisite to the development of a viable ICT sector. It ensures that ICT development, implementation and exploitation are an integral and sustainable component of development. ‘The foundations are the critical actions that need to be undertaken in order to lay a basis of Kenya transitioning to a Knowledge Society’ b) Integrated ICT infrastructure. ICT infrastructure is a key foundation necessary for the successful implementation of other foundations and pillars. It seeks to provide the integrated infrastructure backbone required to enable cost effective delivery of ICT products and services to Kenyans, businesses and other stakeholders. c) Integrated information infrastructure. The remit of this foundation is the provision of more and better information from the public sector. The objective is to ensure that there is maximum access to information held by public authorities to all Kenyans and that public information is readily available through consolidated portals in an affordable and secure way. This will in turn improve the quality of eGovernment services and enable the country to transition to a knowledge-based society. Under each of the three foundations, the following four areas are discussed. a) Setting the context, including challenges b) Key drivers c) Desired outcomes by 2017, with targets d) Objectives, strategies and flagship projects ..42 .................................................................................................................Towards ...............a...Digital .............Kenya ............ 4.1 ICT Human Capital and Workforce Development 4.1.1 Setting the Context Several studies by KICTB (Julisha, 2011 and Haruta et al., 2011) have shown that Kenya does not have sufficient local high end skills, resulting in the local industry importing such skills. High-end skills set are found in ICT professionals such as ICT projects managers, network engineers, network administrators, system administrators, application developers, and information system analysts who manage complex system design, development, and integration. All the 21 chartered public universities and 14 private universities in Kenya offer at least one ICT degree program, which can be classified as follows: a) Electrical Engineering degree programs and their equivalents (e.g., computer engineering, electronic engineering or telecommunications engineering). b) Computer Science or equivalent degree programs (e.g. Computer science, Applied computer science, Mathematics and computer science). c) Information Systems and Information Technology degree programs (e.g. Information systems, Information technology and Computer technology). ‘studies by KICTB (Julisha, 2011 and Haruta et al., 2011) have shown that Kenya does not have sufficient local high end skills’ Graduates of any of the above degree programs can be developed to high- end ICT professionals for the ICT industry in Kenya. It is highend ICT professionals that design, deploy and maintain complex information systems and network infrastructures envisaged in this Master Plan. Electrical and Telecom m unications Engineering Education As of November 2013, 10 public universities in Kenya were offering electrical engineering degree programs (Kashorda, 2013). The quality of engineering education in Kenya is regulated by the Engineers Act 2011 that came into effect on September 14, 2012. The Engineers Act 2011 enhanced 43 Towards a Digital Kenya ..............................................................................................................................................................