You are listening to Kibra News Network.
Microsoft leaving Waiyaki Way is a warning about Kenya’s tech jobs, not a verdict.
Opinion. This is the view of Kibra News Network, not a news report. Write to us at news@kibranewsnetwork.co.ke if you disagree; we publish good replies.
On Monday 12 October, staff at Microsoft's Africa Development Centre on Waiyaki Way were told that most of the centre is being wound down. About 400 engineering jobs are at risk. Reports say fewer than 10 roles may remain. Microsoft has not given a closure date and says it will keep operating in Kenya.
The centre was announced in May 2019 with a planned USD 100 million investment and a target of 500 engineers in Nairobi and Lagos by 2023. The Lagos centre closed in May 2024. Nairobi moved into its Waiyaki Way offices in March 2022 with more than 450 staff. Three and a half years later, it is going too.
What the Silicon Savannah story got wrong
For years the story of Kenya's tech sector has been told through the logos that arrived. Each big name was proof that Nairobi had made it. The problem with a story built on logos is that logos leave. A global company opens an engineering centre for its own reasons and closes it for its own reasons, and neither has much to do with Kenya.
What does not leave is the 400 people. They were hired because they could build software for a company's global products, and that is still true on Tuesday. The asset was never the office. It was the engineers, and they are still here.
"Reaffirmed commitment" is not a plan
ICT Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo says Microsoft has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to Kenya and that a joint plan is being worked on. Good. Then publish it. The questions are simple. What stays in Nairobi? What happens to the Microsoft Africa Research Institute and the Garage? What happens to the USD 1 billion investment announced with G42 in May 2024? Is any of it tied to jobs in this country?
The Government can also do something practical this month. Four hundred experienced engineers coming onto the market at once is a chance for every Kenyan company and startup that has struggled to hire. A hiring drive that puts them in front of local employers costs little and keeps the skills in the country.
What it means in Kibra
Many young people in Kibra are learning to code in community labs and online, with Waiyaki Way as the dream at the end of it. The lesson of this week is not that the dream is dead. It is that skills travel and employers come and go. The engineers leaving Dunhill Towers will find work, here or remotely, because of what they can do, not where they sat. That is the part of the story worth teaching.
Read the reporting this editorial is based on: Microsoft is winding down its Nairobi engineering centre.
That was a Kibra News Network report, read by an A I voice.
Opinion. This is the view of Kibra News Network, not a news report. Write to us at news@kibranewsnetwork.co.ke if you disagree; we publish good replies.
On Monday 12 October, staff at Microsoft’s Africa Development Centre on Waiyaki Way were told that most of the centre is being wound down. About 400 engineering jobs are at risk. Reports say fewer than 10 roles may remain. Microsoft has not given a closure date and says it will keep operating in Kenya.
The centre was announced in May 2019 with a planned USD 100 million investment and a target of 500 engineers in Nairobi and Lagos by 2023. The Lagos centre closed in May 2024. Nairobi moved into its Waiyaki Way offices in March 2022 with more than 450 staff. Three and a half years later, it is going too.
What the Silicon Savannah story got wrong
For years the story of Kenya’s tech sector has been told through the logos that arrived. Each big name was proof that Nairobi had made it. The problem with a story built on logos is that logos leave. A global company opens an engineering centre for its own reasons and closes it for its own reasons, and neither has much to do with Kenya.
What does not leave is the 400 people. They were hired because they could build software for a company’s global products, and that is still true on Tuesday. The asset was never the office. It was the engineers, and they are still here.
“Reaffirmed commitment” is not a plan
ICT Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo says Microsoft has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to Kenya and that a joint plan is being worked on. Good. Then publish it. The questions are simple. What stays in Nairobi? What happens to the Microsoft Africa Research Institute and the Garage? What happens to the USD 1 billion investment announced with G42 in May 2024? Is any of it tied to jobs in this country?
The Government can also do something practical this month. Four hundred experienced engineers coming onto the market at once is a chance for every Kenyan company and startup that has struggled to hire. A hiring drive that puts them in front of local employers costs little and keeps the skills in the country.
What it means in Kibra
Many young people in Kibra are learning to code in community labs and online, with Waiyaki Way as the dream at the end of it. The lesson of this week is not that the dream is dead. It is that skills travel and employers come and go. The engineers leaving Dunhill Towers will find work, here or remotely, because of what they can do, not where they sat. That is the part of the story worth teaching.
KNN Newsroom is the staff byline for stories written, rewritten and edited at the Kibra News Network desk. Where a story credits an outside outlet, the original source is linked at the foot of the piece.
