The ICT Authority has opened applications for Cohort XI of the Presidential Digital Talent Programme, targeting 400 recent graduates for a 12-month internship spanning:
- Network and Digital Infrastructure,
- Software Development and AI,
- Information Security,
- Data Analytics, and
- Multimedia and Digital Marketing.
Applicants have until midnight on September 7, 2026, and must be Kenyan citizens aged 21 to 29 with First or Upper Second-Class Honours from the last two years, unemployed, and never previously enrolled in a government internship.
On paper, the programme addresses a real gap. Kenyan universities graduate far more ICT talent than the formal job market can absorb, and DigiTalent gives young professionals structured exposure to both public and private sector environments, paired mentorship, and a chance to build a portfolio before they compete for scarce entry-level roles.
Since its 2014 launch under President Uhuru Kenyatta, the programme has run through multiple cohorts and put more than 2,100 interns through public and private placements, with many alumni going on to formal jobs or entrepreneurship.
Cohort XI’s inclusion of AI alongside traditional software development also signals an attempt to keep the curriculum current with where the industry is heading.
The programme’s own record complicates its promise. A 2025 labour case surfaced figures showing that of roughly 25,000 beneficiaries, just 1,964 ever moved into permanent, pensionable government roles, a number petitioners in that case pointed to as evidence the internship had become a holding pattern rather than a stepping stone.
Kenya still has no law setting standards for internship stipends or conditions, so what a cohort actually experiences on the ground depends largely on which institution it lands in.
There is also a structural mismatch. KIPPRA’s own review of youth employment schemes notes that government internship slots number in the low thousands each year, against a graduate unemployment pool several multiples larger, meaning DigiTalent and similar programmes can only ever absorb a fraction of applicants regardless of how well they are run.
The intended impact is to build a globally competitive ICT and leadership talent pipeline that improves public service delivery while giving graduates workplace experience they cannot obtain elsewhere.
That objective is credible, and the demand for it is obvious in application numbers for every cohort.
