Nairobi, Feb. 15 -- During the country's biggest building programme since independence, the building dividend to Kenyans is minimal.

Yet, at root, sits a single unsolved issue. Kenya has too few plumbers, electricians, painters, steel fitters, tile layers, joiners, masons and welders, and we cannot organise ourselves to train them.

Youngsters from low-income homes triple their incomes when they start bricklaying. Make it as a top-grade electrician, and they can move into the country's top three per cent of earners.

That ends the poverty for their families and creates many more jobs and incomes from their spending capacity.

Yet, builders are finding it so hard to get skilled artisans they get delayed, quality is impaired, work needs to...