the powers of the Engineers Registration Board to include approval and accreditation of engineering degree programs in public and private universities or other tertiary institutions like university colleges. The objective of the law is to enhance the quality of engineering education in Kenya using an accreditation process. The Universities Act 2012 also makes it mandatory for universities to obtain institutional accreditation from the Commission for University Education. Thus, it is expected that quality of engineering education will continue to improve in the future. ‘there are very few industry firms that provide structured on-the job training for new ICT graduates’ Although electrical engineering degree programs admit some of the top high school students in Kenya, the lack of facilities and the high student to faculty ratios has had a negative impact on quality of graduates according to a study by IBM Corporate Social Corps consultants (Haruta et.al., 2011). The main weakness was identified as the lack of hands-on experience obtained through laboratory exercises and student projects. Moreover, the curriculum at the leading universities had not been regularly reviewed to introduce, for example, courses in network engineering and general education subjects like communications. The lack of structured internship and graduate training programs by local industry has also reduced the pool of well-trained engineering graduates. Com puter Science and I nform ation System s Education All the 21 public universities and 14 chartered private universities offer computer science, information systems or IT degree programs. The four year degree programs have technical and business components and prepare graduates who develop, deploy and administer organizational information systems and networks. However, there is general lack of PhD holders in these programs, raising concerns about the quality of graduates. Unlike the engineering degree programs, there is no law or professional body that provides professional accreditation of computer science or information systems degree programs. This means that the quality of computer science, information systems or IT graduates depends only on the internal quality assurance mechanisms of an individual university. In addition, the ICT curriculum is in need of urgent review to include general education courses (communi- ..44 .................................................................................................................Towards ...............a...Digital .............Kenya ............ cations, economics and development studies, and foreign languages) as well as new specialized courses (e.g., network engineering, software engineering and testing, and mobile computing). The lack of modern laboratories for teaching means the students have had limited exposure to modern equipment and development platforms. Further, the ICT faculty do not have industry experience and are not active researchers due to limited funding, very high teaching loads and lack of active doctoral degree programs. Due to rapid increase in the number of universities, there is inadequate number of doctoral-level and high-quality ICT faculty. Further, there are limited industry-university linkages in terms of attachments and joint projects. In addition, there are very few industry firms that provide structured on-the job training for new ICT graduates. Most graduates are left to develop themselves, for example by studying and sitting for the various industry certification programs. Finally, the public lacks the ICT literacy skills to use and exploit ICT resources. ‘There is no approved structured ICT professional training program in Kenya. I CT Professional Developm ent in K enya Globally, ICT has been shown to have impacts on economic and social development, and one of the indicators that has gained global recognition is the Network Readiness Index (NRI), that includes skills as a critical pillar for nations to exploit ICT for development. According to the Global Information Report (2013), the skills pillar gauges the ability of a society to make effective use of ICT. Existence of basic educational skills is captured by the quality of the educational system, the level of adult literacy, and the rate of secondary education enrollment. The Kenyan ICT industry view of fresh ICT graduates is that of low quality, not only in terms of technical content but also in terms of communications, analytical and critical thinking skills. This has meant that post-graduate ICT professional training by ICT industry takes longer than necessary. Consequently, there is a limited pool of high-end ICT professionals in Kenya and this has forced companies to import the high-end ICT professionals from India or Europe for project implementation at very high cost (Haruta et.al., 2011). 45 Towards a Digital Kenya ..............................................................................................................................................................