Statistics show that the African brain drain has accelerated rapidly in recent years with the departure of high level academics and senior management personnel to Europe and the United States. The main attraction of course has been the pursuit of higher salaries and standards of living.

Anti-immigration policies in the west have been the bottleneck controlling this seepage. I know some consider this a bad thing, but in my opinion, this has been Africa's saving grace. It is now worrying that the US and EU are considering new policies that will do the following:

• Attract skilled labor
• Boost job creation
• Control illegal immigration

Countries like Germany are at record unemployment rates (10%), with almost 5 million people out of work. Ironically, there is a shortage of skilled labor and homegrown solutions to this problem are failing, forcing them and other EU countries to result to other means - specifically reassessing immigration policies. Immigration can of course provide them with badly needed skills, boost productivity, and raise living standards overall.

Unfortunately these policies will do nothing to alleviate Africa's dire state of poverty - but leave us worse off. More African scientists and engineers work in the United States than in all of Africa - leaving the entire African continent of 600 million people with just 20,000 engineers and scientists.

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“Kenya has a growing shortage of qualified telecommunication engineers.

Safaricom chief executive officer Michael Joseph said yesterday that the mobile phone operator has been forced to hire additional engineers from the United Kingdom and other parts of the world. Last year, they recruited 59 engineers and 71 others will be recruited this year.”

If you’re involved in Engineering, Telecommunications and Information Technology abroad and are interested in working in Kenya, you can send your resume/CV to kenyansabroad@safaricom.co.ke.

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