Before you vote : the truth about technical training

Nahashon Ng’ang’a, student at Nyeri Polytechnic, operates a machine to fabricate part of an engine at the institution’s laboratory on March 5, 2016. PHOTO | NICHOLAS KOMU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

"From 41 TVET (Technical Vocational Education and Training) institutions in the country in 2013, the government has built 152 new technical training institutions with the ultimate aim of building at least one TVET per constituency. This has seen the training opportunities in TVETs increase to 145,405 and the number is growing as they get equipped. Thirty two TVETs are already equipped with the rest currently ongoing,” - President’s Delivery Unit.


Did the Jubilee government add 152 new technical training institutions from 41 in 2013?

To find out, Nation Newsplex consulted published government statistics and sought comment from the Department of Technical Vocational Education and Training in the Ministry of Education.

Technical training institutions are only one category of TVET institutions, the others being vocational training centres (formerly youth polytechnics) and national polytechnics.

The Economic Survey 2017 says technical training institutes increased by 13 from 49 in 2013 to 62 in 2016, which is far below the 152 claimed, even if not including 2017 figures to date.

According to Mr Bashir Mursal, the Director, Technical and Vocational Education and Training in the Ministry of Education, the government plans to build a technical training institution in each of Kenya’s 290 constituencies.

Mr Mursal told Newsplex that 45 already existed in 2013 and another 90 have been built since then. “From 45 in 2013 to 135 today,” he said, adding that only 87 contracts were yet to be given out. That would leave 68 under construction.

Given that only 90 technical training institutes have been completed since 2013, the claim on the President’s Delivery Unit portal that the government has built 152 technical training institutions cannot be true.